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Developmental Disabilities

 

After 21 years, the John Merck Scholars Program in the Biology of Developmental Disabilities has ended. The last awards were made in May 2011. While proud of the Scholars Program’s extraordinary record of support for talented young researchers in the neurological sciences, the Fund is shifting the Developmental Disabilities Program to support research that has the potential for a more immediate impact on people with developmental disabilities and their families.

The goal of the Developmental Disabilities Program during its last decade is to ensure that children with developmental disabilities and their families are benefiting from new research collaborations that bridge basic and clinical science, more rapidly translate findings into treatment settings, and promulgate the best clinical practices.

Starting in 2012, the Fund is launching the Developmental Disabilities Translational Research Program. It will award $1 million research grants over four years ($250,000 per year) to Principal Investigators at any career stage who have a deep commitment to developing treatments and improving outcomes for children with developmental disabilities, with a special focus on Down and Fragile X syndromes. Award criteria and application guidelines will be available by mid-February 2012 on the Fund’s website (http://www.jmfund.org/jm_scholars_program.php). 

A second initiative, the Research to Clinical Practice Program, will begin in 2013. Its objective will be the identification and dissemination of gold-standard diagnostic and treatment protocols for Down and Fragile X syndromes.  The program hopes to motivate scientists and clinicians to work together across disciplines. Dissemination will be implemented via several pathways, most notably through the member centers of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD). 

A Scientific Advisory Board consisting of distinguished experts in research and treatment of developmental disabilities is overseeing both programs.

 

 

 

Previous Program

The John Merck Scholars Program in the Biology of Developmental Disabilities in Children supported research into the underlying neurobiology of developmental disabilities and associated cognitive impairments from 1990 to 2011. Its goal was to gain insights that eventually might lead to breakthroughs in prevention and treatment.

See the list of John Merck Scholars

2011 Grants


John Merck Scholars Program in the Biology
of Developmental Disabilities in Children

Brandeis University

$10,000

To support research in synaptic plasticity underlying experience-dependent development by John Merck Scholar finalist Stephan Van Hooser.

California Institute of Technology

$75,000

To support research on dissecting the function of macaque prefrontal face patches by John Merck Scholar Doris Tsao.

Children's Hospital Boston

$75,000

To support research on the role of tuberous sclerosis proteins in axon development by John Merck Scholar Mustafa Sahin.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

$75,000

To support research into functional dissection of the central cholinergic system in cognition by John Merck Scholar Adam Kepecs.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

$75,000

To support research on neural circuits for multisensory decisionmaking by John Merck Scholar Anne Churchland.

Columbia University

$10,000

To support research on the effects of the chemical and social environments on reading impairment by John Merck Scholar finalist Kimberly Noble.

Emory University

$75,000

To support research on the development of magnitude reasoning, including normative and atypical trajectories, by John Merck Scholar Stella Lourenco.

Harvard Medical School

$75,000

To support research on the role of glia and the complement cascade in the refinement of developing neural circuits by John Merck Scholar Beth Stevens.

Harvard University

$75,000

To study functional analyses of a neural circuit regulating olfactory learning by John Merck Scholar Yun Zhang.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

$75,000

To support research into the exploratory behaviors of at-risk infants by John Merck Scholar Laura Schulz.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

$75,000

To support research on activity-dependent regulation of GABAergic synapses and neural circuit plasticity by John Merck Scholar Yingxi Lin.

Stanford University

$75,000

To support research on social attention and word learning in typical development and autism spectrum disorders by Michael Frank.

Stanford University

$10,000

To support research on elucidating protein synthesis defects in Fragile X Syndrome using new molecular tools by John Merck Scholar finalist Michael Lin.

University of California, San Diego

$10,000

To support research on genetic dissection of CNS wiring specificity in development and disease by John Merck Scholar finalist Andrew Huberman.

University of Massachusetts/Amherst

$75,000

To research how selective attention deficits contribute to language processing disorders by John Merck Scholar Lisa Sanders.

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See 2010 Grants

See 2009 Grants

See 2008 Grants

See 2007 Grants

See 2006 Grants

See 2005 Grants

See 2004 Grants

See 2003 Grants

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