Medical Research Program
- Workshop Date / Location: January 21-23, 2025 / Miami, FL
- Letter of Intent Deadline: Applications are now closed.
- Letter of Intent Notification Date: September 30, 2024
- Workshop Participation Grant Amount: $10,000 / invited participant
- Post-workshop Research Grant Amount: $500,000 direct costs over 2 years. No indirect costs allowed.
- Post-workshop Grant Notification Date: July 15, 2025
- Start of Post-workshop Grant Term: Fourth quarter 2025
Overview
The Rainwater Charitable Foundation (RCF), along with our partners CurePSP, Alzheimer’s Association, and the Aging Mind Foundation, hosted the second Tauopathy Challenge WorkshopTM that focused on addressing key gaps in our understanding of copathologies that are often present with the primary tauopathies.
The presence of copathologies complicates diagnosis and therapeutic development for primary tauopathies. The workshop aimed to advance research on how aggregate-forming proteins like tau propagate in the brain and how these pathological species derive from, instigate the formation of, or interact with other pathologies.
Process
Workshop participants were selected through a competitive Letter of Intent (LOI) process. Through this process, 12 participants were chosen by RCF to attend the workshop, each receiving a $10,000 grant to support their laboratory research. Travel and lodging expenses were also covered.
Following the meeting, workshop attendees had the opportunity to apply for research grants of up to $500,000 over two years. Up to four awards were funded, pending budget availability.
Letters of Intent
The LOI process identified novel ideas from researchers with diverse perspectives to address key gaps in understanding the mechanisms of copathology, with a focus on primary tauopathies such as Pick’s disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, argyrophilic grain disease, globular glial tauopathy, aging-related tau astrogliopathy, and frontotemporal dementias. Applications from researchers with expertise in other neurodegenerative diseases were strongly encouraged.
LOI applications are now closed.
Funding Partners
