CZI Neurodegeneration Challenge Network

Cori Bargmann:  I’m excited to announce the CZI Neurodegeneration Challenge Network, an initiative to support bold ideas and new collaborations that will help us better understand the fundamental biology of neurodegenerative disorders.

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS are a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. While significant progress has been made to understand genetic risk factors for many of these disorders, the cellular and physiological processes that lead to disease are not fully understood.

We need a new approach — one that brings new people into the field, encourages communication between researchers studying different diseases, and supports interdisciplinary networks of scientists, physicians, engineers, and computational scientists. We believe that by encouraging collaboration between these groups, we will ultimately make faster progress in curing, preventing, or managing neurodegenerative diseases.

We are accepting applications for funding through two mechanisms — the CZI Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Awards for early career academic investigators, especially those who are new to the field of neurodegeneration, and the CZI Collaborative Science Awards for small group interdisciplinary collaborations.