Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI)
Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI) supports researchers testing novel or repurposed NF therapies and validating therapeutic targets to generate preliminary data and advance drug discovery.
Funder: Children's Tumor Foundation
Due Dates: January 4, 2027 (Applications open) | February 10, 2027, 4:00 p.m. EST (Full application) | July 1, 2027 (Award start)
Funding Amounts: $200,000 total for up to two years, inclusive of up to 10% indirect costs
Summary: Supports focused preclinical research on novel or repurposed NF therapies and validation of new therapeutic targets.
Key Information: Applicants need access to all required research resources and must openly share newly created models.
Description
The Children’s Tumor Foundation’s Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI) provides seed funding to accelerate drug discovery for neurofibromatosis and schwannomatosis, collectively known as NF. It supports novel therapies, repurposing of previously identified drugs alone or in combinations, and validation of new NF targets. Projects should be short and focused on generating the preliminary data needed to advance quickly to the next stage of drug discovery.
DDI supports preclinical testing of therapeutic compounds and approaches such as gene therapy, gene editing, mRNA therapies, antibody-drug conjugates, and CAR-T. Target-validation projects may investigate previously proposed or newly identified targets, including those discovered through mining public datasets. The program forms part of CTF’s Discovery Fund, which supports novel and fundamental NF investigations before they can attract larger government or industry funding.
