FRAXA Fellowships Grant

FRAXA Fellowships aim to accelerate the discovery of effective treatments for Fragile X syndrome, offering $50,000 per year for up to two years. The foundation prioritizes research with a translational or preclinical focus, encouraging applications from global institutions. By addressing key bottlenecks in research, FRAXA fosters innovative strategies to validate and implement promising therapies, ultimately benefiting individuals affected by Fragile X and related conditions like autism and Alzheimer's.

We aim to bring practical treatment into current medical practice as quickly as possible; we prioritize projects that have a clear practical application and the results of which will be shared in a timely fashion.
We directly fund research grants and fellowships at top universities around the world. We partner with biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, large and small, to bridge the gap between research discoveries and actual treatments.
Treatments for Fragile X are likely to help people affected by autism, Alzheimer’s, and other brain disorders.
FRAXA Fellowships provide $50,000 per year for up to 2 years.
FRAXA's Strategy
FRAXA Research Foundation focuses on research which is likely to lead to new and improved treatments — and ultimately a cure — for Fragile X syndrome, with an emphasis on disease-modifying therapeutics based on understanding of Fragile X disease mechanisms. Every year we receive proposals from scientists worldwide seeking funding for the most cutting-edge Fragile X research.
Our goal has always been to accelerate the pace of research by eliminating “bottlenecks” in this long and complex process. Our funding priorities are determined by the state of the research and the nature of these bottlenecks, so we constantly re-examine these priorities as the field progresses.
In FRAXA’s early years, little was known about basic disease mechanisms, so we placed great emphasis on funding basic research to understand the pathophysiology of Fragile X. Research in the Fragile X field was initially the province of molecular biologists and geneticists, so bringing more neuroscientists into the research community was a high priority. These past efforts have been quite successful, generating detailed insights into the basic biology of Fragile X. Fragile X and the normal function of FMRP are both hot topics in neuroscience today. Thus, basic research into Fragile X disease mechanisms can no longer be considered a bottleneck and is now a lower priority for funding.
Other past bottlenecks, such as poor antibodies to FMRP and difficulties obtaining animal models, have been resolved by specific resource grants by FRAXA (some continuing to the present). This has enabled an explosion in translational research in Fragile X, leading to many promising therapeutic strategies in the works.
However, this also had the net effect of moving the bottleneck further down the road, to the preclinical validation stage of the development process. In response, FRAXA has developed new methods of validating promising drug treatment strategies in a standardized manner, with vastly greater efficiency. We are now less likely to fund academic labs for years on end to test one particular drug strategy — this approach, though appropriate in the past, is too inefficient today. With the bottleneck at the preclinical validation stage of development essentially resolved, the new bottleneck down the road is now clinical trials.

Eligibility

Priority is given to research with a translational or preclinical focus on Fragile X, which has potential to lead to improved treatment.Fellowships are initially funded for one year and are renewable for a second year, assuming successful progress and timely submission of a renewal application.Any university, hospital, or other non-profit lab in the world may apply. FRAXA funds research all over the world!Fellowships allow for a flexible use of funding; salary support for any personnel with graduate-level experience is permitted. Supply budgets are also allowed.Limit of one application per lab group.Non-transferable (only good for specified postdoc, PI, and institution).PIs must demonstrate adequate overall funding to pursue the project. Successful applicants for these grants will likely be working in established labs which have funding for supplies and any required animal handling costs.If the applicant proposes to work with a particular Fragile X model (mouse, drosophila, neural stem cells, etc.) s/he should demonstrate that this model system is already established in-house.