Research

Research Grant Program

NORD’s Research Grant Program provides seed money in small grants to academic scientists studying new treatments or diagnostics for rare diseases. The clinical researchers supported by NORD’s research grants provide preliminary data indicating that a treatment (drug, device, or medical food) may be safe and effective when used for a larger number of patients. Researchers can then use the preliminary data to apply for larger multi-year government grants or to attract a commercial sponsor who will manufacture an orphan product and get it approved for marketing by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Rare disease research funding opportunities being made available through NORD.

Rare disease research funding opportunities being made available through NORD Member-Organizations.

Read NORD's Research Program Policy to learn how NORD helps individuals, families, groups, or organizations sponsor research.

NORD Awards Research Grants

Heather McDermid, PhD
University of Alberta, Canada
“Understanding Cat Eye Syndrome by the Development of a Mouse Model”

Robert M. Tanguay, DSc
Université Laval, Canada
“Gene Expression and Liver Cancer in Herditary Tyrosinemia”

Ronald G. Haller, MD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
“Mitochondrial Aconitase: a Measure of Oxidative Stress in Kearns Sayre Syndrome.”

Mary Ann Knovich, MD
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
“Rapid determination of ADAMTS13 Activity and Inhibitiors in Patients with Suspected Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura”

Christopher Moskaluk, MD, PhD
University of Virginia
“Prediction of Chemotherapy Response in Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma by Gene Expression Profiling”

Punett Opal, MD, PhD
Northwestern University
“Molecular Basis of SCA 1”

Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD
Children's Hospital of Boston
“Genome Wide Linkage Analysis of Moyamoya Syndrome Using High Density Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Genotyping Arrays”

Sarah Ying, MD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
“A Novel Clinical and Research Tool for the Diffusion-Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation of Coherent White Matter Tracts in the Brainstem and Cerebellum”