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Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI) Awards provide seed funds for early stage preclinical drug screening to test candidate drug therapy approaches for NF1 NF2 or Schwannomatosis.

Awards Available:

• $15,000 for in vitro studies
• $30,000 for in vivo studies
• $50,000 for Advanced in vivo studies (applications by invitation only)
  
  2010 DDI Awards Application Deadlines:
  February 26, 2010
  August 31, 2010

2010 DDI Awardees

David Largaespada, Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Genetically Guided, Combinatorial, Targeted Therapy for MPNST
 
Rajesh Khanna, Ph.D., Indiana University
Screening and validation of peptide‐based disruptors of the neurofibromin and CRMP‐2 interaction as novel therapeutic tools for NF1
 

2009 DDI Awardees

Marco Giovannini, MD, Ph.D., House Ear Institute
Evaluating pan-ErbB inhibitor CNX-222 in NF2 xenografts
(with Avila Therapeutics)

Marianne James, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Testing mTOR inhibitors to target NF2 menigioma cell proliferation
 
Mark Philips, MD, New York University Langone Medical Center
Icmt inhibitors as candidate therapies for NF1 MPNSTs
 
Larry Sherman, Ph.D.
Therapeutic pain modulation in a mouse model of schwannomatosis
(with Pfizer and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals)
 
Margaret Wallace, Ph.D., University of Florida
PTC-299 assessment in NF1 plexiform neurofibromas
(with PTC Therapeutics)

Jonathan Chernoff, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center
Induced pluripotent stem cell therapy for treatment of NF1 plexiform neurofibroma

Marco Giovannini, MD., Ph.D., House Ear Institute
Hsp90 inhibitors for NF2 vestibular schwannoma (with NexGenix Pharmaceuticals)

Joseph Kissil. Ph.D., The Wistar Institute
New chemical entities to inhibit PAK in NF2 vestibular schwannoma

Andrea McClatchey, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
panErbB inhibitors as candidate treatments for NF2 associated tumors (with Avila Therapeutics)

2008 DDI Awardees

Oliver Hanemann, MD, Ph.D., University of Plymouth, United Kingdom
Testing Sorafenib and NVP-BEZ-235 in a human schwannoma in vitro model (two awards)

Florent Elefteriou, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Local nanoparticle delivery of Lovastatin to improve NF1 bone healing in Nf1 ob-/- mice

Joshua Rubin, MD, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine
Maximizing Efficacy While Minimizing Toxicity in the Treatment of Nf1 Optic Pathway Glioma: Novel combinatorial therapy with Rolipram and Temozolomide

Jonathan Chernoff, MD, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center
Synthetic lethal screen of FDA-approved drugs in NF2

Bernard Maria, MD, MBA, Medical University of South Carolina
Targeting Hyaluronan-CD44 interaction in MPNSTs

Bakhos A. Tannous, Ph.D. Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
In vivo screening for NF2 meningioma therapeutics

Margaret Wallace, Ph.D., University of Florida
Analysis of nonsense-suppressing compounds in NF1

David Wiemer, Ph.D., University of Iowa
Improving the activity and reducing the toxicity of synthetic schweinfurthins using a mouse model of NF1-associated malignancies

2007 DDI Awardees

Gary J. Brenner, MD, Ph.D. Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Screening of EGFR inhibitor/apoptotic drug combination in NF2 schwannoma xenograft mouse model

Emmanuelle Di Tomaso, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Targeting vessels and tumors in NF2 schwannomas

Cristina Fernandez-Valle, Ph.D. University of Central Florida
Do anti-ErbB2 drugs slow proliferation of MPNSTs in vitro?

Frances Hannan, Ph.D., New York Medical College
Pharmacological dissection of cognition in a fly NF1 model

Abraham Jacob, MD, Ohio State University
Preclinical testing of a novel AKT inhibitor OSU-03012 using an NF2 vestibular schwannoma xenograft model

Susan Lindquist, Ph.D., Whitehead Institute of Technology
Screening for Inhibitors of Heat Shock Transcription Factor 1: a Novel Therapeutic Target in NF1

Andrea McClatchey, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Screening of EGFR inhibitors in a transgenic NF2 tumorigenesis model

David Wiemer, Ph.D., University of Iowa
Screening the natural product schweinfurthin as a candidate therapeutic for NF1-associated malignancies using xenograft and transgenic mouse models

2006 DDI Awardees

Karen Cichowski, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Assessing the effects of Rapamycin on a mouse of MPNST development

Abhijit Guha, MD, FRCSC, FACS, University of Toronto, Canada
Rapamycin as sole or adjuvant therapy for human NF1-associated MPNST

Stefan Mundlos MD, Ph.D., Max Planck Institute, Germany
Lovastatin treatment of bone injury in the NF1flox; Prx1Cre mice

Nancy Ratner, Ph.D., Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Chemical Screen for NF-1 Specific Compounds

Joshua Rubin MD, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine
Preclinical evaluation of phosphodiesterase inhibition in a mouse model of NF1 optic pathway glioma