Access and Manipulation of Brain Cell Subtypes Implicated in Aging and AD/ADRD (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Not allowed)

Funding Opportunity RFA-AG-25-024 from the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) invites applications proposing innovative strategies to target and manipulate brain cell subtypes that are altered in aging, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and AD-Related Dementias (ADRDs). ADRDs include frontotemporal disorders (FTD), Lewy body dementia (LBD), vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), and multiple etiology dementias (MED). Specifically, the goal of the NOFO is to encourage the development and utilization of sophisticated tools that pair breakthroughs in adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid engineering with enhancer element identification to (1) optimize precise targeting of disease-relevant cell subtypes in aged and degenerating mammalian brains and (2) monitor and/or manipulate these cells in vivo to address mechanistic hypotheses related to brain aging and AD/ADRD in animals models. To achieve this goal, the NOFO utilizes the R61/R33 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award activity code. The R61 phase provides up to 2 years of support for pilot activities to demonstrate proof-of-principle. The R33 phase provides up to 3 years of support for implementation activities including hypothesis testing.