Message from Dr. Susan B. Shurin

November 10, 2010

Dear Colleagues:

The NIH is launching a new program specifically targeted to the development of therapeutics for rare and neglected diseases.  The Congressionally mandated program, titled Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND), is designed to bridge the gap that often exists between a basic research discovery and the testing of new drugs in humans.

TRND is intended to stimulate research collaborations between intramural NIH drug development scientists and research partners such as academic laboratories, non-profit organizations, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies working on rare and neglected illnesses.  It will offer research partners that have promising leads or disease/target knowledge access to the expertise and resources they need to develop their leads or targets to a point where private companies would be interested in getting the products to market.

The due date for the first cycle of TRND applications is December 6, 2010.  All applications to the program must be submitted online at https://proposalcentral.altum.com/default.asp?GMID=80

The TRND “flyer”, which provides a brief overview of the program, may be found at: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/files/TRND_flyer_2010.pdf.  For more detailed information about the program, please see http://trnd.nih.gov.

Best regards,
Susan B. Shurin, M.D.

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