IDF Research Grant Program opens for 2023 applications

The IDF Research Grant Program is now open for applications through February 28, 2023. The program aims to support patient-oriented research projects that have a specified benefit for improving the treatment, health, disease management, or diagnosis of people with primary immunodeficiencies (PI). Awards range from $25,000 - $50,000 over one year and will be announced in April 2023.

IDF has supported 24 research grants totaling more than $800,000 since the grant program began in 2016. Notable grant outcomes include:

1. The discovery of a new type of PI caused by variants in TLR8, resulting from a 2018 grant awarded to Dr. Megan A. Cooper at Washington University School of Medicine.
2. An understanding of how variants in interferon receptor genes lead to severe viral infections, setting the stage for the discovery that the type 1 interferon pathway is a critical antiviral response to COVID-19. This work was done by Dr. Qian Zhang at Rockefeller University with support from a 2020 grant.
3. Progress toward the development of CRISPR-based gene editing strategies to treat RAG-1 deficiency severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). Both grants were awarded in 2020, to Dr. Pietro Genovese at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Dr. Michelle Hermiston at the University of California, San Francisco, respectively.

Last year, four grants were awarded to understand the link between the gut microbiome and inflammation in common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), develop a better measure of immune dysregulation in PI, identify genetic variants responsible for PI by measuring gene activity, and define factors that correlate with temporary versus chronic low T cell counts in infants.

For more on the grant program and to apply, visit the IDF Research Grant Program page.

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