Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) Program

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s (Helmsley) Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) Program aims to support the discovery and development of new therapies to prevent or delay T1D and the identification and validation of biomarkers to predict disease initiation and progression.

Request for Proposals

To address this gap, the Helmsley T1D Program seeks to support studies that aim to evaluate or modulate the function of innate immune cells and pathways in T1D, with an emphasis on human disease during relatively early stages of disease (i.e., autoantibody positivity through early onset of clinical disease).

Of specific interest are research plans that include:

• Analyzing the type and function of innate cells (e.g. macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells) present in the pancreas and their interactions with other cells, tissue-resident or otherwise;
• Investigating mechanisms of T1D pathogenesis that involves innate immunity;
• Identifying or validating biomarkers of disease progression or response to treatment based on innate immune cells;
• Identifying or validating therapeutic innate immune cell targets; and
• Developing or validating preclinical or clinical therapies to prevent or delay T1D that target or use innate immune cell pathways.
• Proposed activities can include, but are not limited to:
• Generation or testing of hypotheses using human samples;
• Profiling or functional analysis of innate immune cells in pancreas samples and pancreas slices;
• Analysis of preexisting relevant data sets, either publicly available or generated by the applicant; and
• Preclinical or clinical activities that advance or build evidence for a specific therapeutic concept based on existing knowledge of the role of innate immunity in T1D.

Funding

The proposed funding term can be up to three years. Requested funding amounts can range based on activities:

• Laboratory-based studies may be supported with a total budget of up to $300,000 per year.
• Clinic-based studies may be supported with a total budget of up to $500,000 per year.
• If the proposed research plan cannot be launched within the funding opportunity’s boundaries, (e.g., an interventional trial requires a high number of subjects), applicants can reach out to Helmsley to discuss feasibility.

Eligibility

Any individual with a faculty-level (or equivalent) appointment at an institution performing medical research (including non-profit and for-profit corporations) with the skills, knowledge, and resources (individual and institutional) necessary to carry out the proposed research is invited to work with their organization to develop an application for support. Organizations who are invited to submit a Full Grant Proposal will be required to submit additional information regarding entity status at that stage. Grant awards will be subject to Helmsley’s grant agreement terms.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._