Clinical trialRSSMay 14
A biotech company called Latus Bio has raised $42 million in funding to support a clinical trial for Huntington's disease. This money will help them test a new treatment approach in patients with this genetic brain disorder. The funding shows that researchers are actively working on new ways to help people with Huntington's disease.
WHY IT MATTERSThis funding enables Latus Bio to move forward with testing their Huntington's disease treatment in patients, which could lead to new therapeutic options for people currently living with limited treatment choices.
GrantRSSMay 14
A company called Bridgebio is giving $100,000 to the Muscular Dystrophy Association to help improve how doctors care for patients with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD), a rare muscle disease. Two hospitals—Stanford Health Care and the University of Minnesota—will use this money to make it easier for LGMD patients to get coordinated care from multiple specialists in one place.
WHY IT MATTERSLGMD patients often struggle to find doctors who understand their condition and coordinate care across specialties; this funding directly supports programs at two major medical centers to make that coordination easier and more accessible.
ResearchRSSMay 12
Researchers in Spain are getting €247,000 in funding to build a 'heart-on-a-chip' — a tiny lab model that grows heart cells in a 3D structure. This tool will help scientists understand how Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy damage the heart. The project could lead to better treatments for these muscle-weakening diseases.
WHY IT MATTERSHeart problems are a major cause of death in DMD and BMD patients, so understanding how these diseases affect the heart could lead to therapies that extend and improve lives for people with these conditions.
GrantRSSMay 11
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai are receiving $9 million in funding to investigate whether exposure to pesticides and air pollution increases the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. This study is part of a larger collaborative research effort called the Aligning Science Across Parkinson's initiative. The goal is to understand environmental factors that may trigger or contribute to Parkinson's development.
WHY IT MATTERSIf this research confirms a link between pesticide exposure and Parkinson's risk, it could help patients and their doctors identify preventable environmental triggers and inform lifestyle or occupational safety decisions.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
The National Institutes of Health is funding a $900,000 research project starting in May 2026 to help rural communities in Imperial County, California get better access to healthy food. Many people in rural areas struggle to find affordable, nutritious food because supermarkets are far away and small local stores don't carry many healthy options. This project will work with existing small stores in the community to improve the food choices available to residents.
WHY IT MATTERSPatients with diet-sensitive rare diseases (such as metabolic disorders, celiac disease, or phenylketonuria) living in rural Imperial County may benefit from improved access to specialized healthy food options that are currently difficult to obtain in their area.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
Researchers are developing a new blood test that can detect tiny pieces of cancer DNA floating in the bloodstream to catch lung cancer early. Instead of invasive procedures like biopsies or CT scans, this simple blood test could help doctors find lung cancer sooner and monitor how well treatment is working. The National Institutes of Health is funding this $415,000 research project starting in 2026.
WHY IT MATTERSFor lung cancer patients, this blood-based test could enable earlier detection when treatment is most effective and reduce the need for invasive biopsies or repeated imaging scans.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
The National Institutes of Health is funding a three-week training course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory that teaches scientists how to study the fruit fly brain. The course will cover how genes control brain development, how brain cells connect to each other, and how these connections affect behavior. This training helps researchers learn cutting-edge techniques that could eventually lead to better understanding of human brain diseases.
WHY IT MATTERSThis grant funds educational training in fruit fly neurobiology research methods, which are foundational to understanding brain development and neurological disease mechanisms that may eventually benefit patients with neurological and psychiatric conditions.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
The National Institutes of Health is funding a conference bringing together researchers, doctors, and patients with RUNX1-FPD, a rare blood disorder where people have a high risk of developing blood cancers. The conference aims to help experts share what they know and work together to improve care and research for this condition.
WHY IT MATTERSThis conference creates a dedicated space for RUNX1-FPD patients and families to connect with leading researchers and clinicians studying their specific condition, which is critical since many people with this disorder face a 35-50% lifetime risk of developing blood cancer.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
The National Institutes of Health is funding a $727,000 project to help coordinate research on HIV care for teenagers in countries with limited healthcare resources. The project will manage the logistics, data, and communications for a network of researchers studying how to better prevent and treat HIV in young people. This is a support grant that helps organize the research rather than conduct new experiments.
WHY IT MATTERSThis funding strengthens the infrastructure for HIV research specifically focused on adolescents in resource-limited settings, which could lead to better prevention and treatment strategies tailored to young people's needs in underserved regions.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
The National Institutes of Health is funding a scientific conference in May 2026 focused on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), a rare cancer that starts in the back of the nose and throat. This cancer is particularly common in certain regions like Alaska and affects people in their 40s, much earlier than most other cancers. Researchers will gather to discuss how genetics, viruses, and other factors cause this disease and how to treat it better.
WHY IT MATTERSThis conference will bring together leading NPC researchers to advance understanding of why this cancer develops earlier in life and disproportionately affects certain populations, potentially leading to better screening and treatment options for affected patients.
GrantNIH REPORTERMay 11
Researchers are receiving funding to study how brain imaging scans taken while people are alive compare to what they find when examining brain tissue after death. This work focuses on Alzheimer's disease and related memory disorders, and aims to confirm whether the imaging scans are accurately detecting the brain changes that cause these diseases.
WHY IT MATTERSThis research will help doctors develop better brain imaging tests that can catch Alzheimer's disease and related dementias earlier, potentially before symptoms become severe.
GrantRSSMay 6
A company called Acurastem received $7.5 million in funding to help develop a new treatment called AS-241 for ALS (a disease that affects nerve cells that control muscles). Early lab studies show this treatment might be able to fix problems caused by a faulty protein called TDP-43. The company is now working to get this treatment ready to test in patients.
WHY IT MATTERSThis funding accelerates a potential new ALS treatment toward human trials, offering hope for patients with TDP-43-related ALS who currently have limited therapeutic options beyond supportive care.