Overview
The Translational Research Acceleration Program (TRAP) awards will accelerate the movement of preclinical research toward an Investigational New Drug filing and into clinical trials to provide a robust and diverse pipeline of potential therapies to fight inherited retinal degenerations (IRD) and dry age-related macular degeneration.
The Research Priority Areas
(1) Novel Medical Therapies – approaches that use chemistry, biology, and bioengineering to formulate new therapies that mitigate inherited retinal degenerations and dry age-related macular degenerations;
(2) Genetic Technologies – the manipulation and modification of human gene expression to alter the biological properties of living cells/tissues with the goal of providing therapeutic solutions;
(3) Regenerative Medicine – the development, regeneration, and employment of human cells, tissues, and cellular/tissue-based products for the restoration of retinal function and vision
Note: Research and technologies that fall outside of the scope of these areas may be considered with adequate preliminary data and justification.
Eligibility
Principal Investigators must hold a research leadership position within their organization and must be able to independently conduct research with the full support of their leadership. U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, within or outside of the United States, are welcome to apply.
Applying
All prospective award recipients must first submit a Letter of Intent (Due July 22, 2021), and once reviewed by the Foundation, top scoring applicants will be invited to submit a full application (Due October 30, 2021). Please download and review the Letter of Intent and application guidelines before submitting any documents to the Foundation.
A Proposer’s Day was held on July 7, 2021, to review the program and answer questions. Below is a recording of the session from 2020.
If interested in applying, questions may be directed to the Director of the Preclinical Translational Research Program at grants@FightingBlindness.org.
TRAP Viral Vector Induced Ocular Inflammation Program Project Award
This funding opportunity is slotted for a TRAP Program Project Award (PPA). Retinal viral-vector therapy has the potential to cause ocular inflammation and may reduce the treatment’s effectiveness. To mitigate the impacts of adverse immune reactions and ocular inflammation, this PPA is designed to support collaborative, multi-disciplinary, research studies that engage investigators with different expertise and resources to reduce or prevent ocular inflammation caused by viral-vector treatment. The PPA is intended to enable studies that are too large or complex for a single investigator to undertake in a reasonable amount of time and to address immunological gaps in our current knowledge or therapeutic options when treating retinal disease. The PPA must be unified around a single, well-articulated hypothesis and a clearly defined deliverable(s), relevant to the mission of the Foundation. The teams supported by a PPA must be tightly integrated and sharply focused, freely share data and creative ideas, and each must be essential to the common goal.
