President Bush has signed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Act authorizing an additional $17 million dollars to the Neurofibromatosis Research Program. Last year the FY05 Appropriation Act provided $25 million for the DoD NFRP.

On December 28, the DoD Neurofibromatosis Program released a Program Announcement that they are accepting proposals for a new funding opportunity called the Investigator Initiated Research Award. Researchers, at the Assistant Professor level or above, can receive up to $1.4 million dollars for a term of four years to focus on Neurofibromatosis. The research will fund basic and clinical research relevant to NF and/or Schwannomatosis. Preliminary data is required. The principle investigator can also fund postdoctoral investigators by providing a mentored research experience for them in NF research, and thus, expand the number of trained investigators focused on NF. The deadline for electronic proposal submission is March 14, 2006. The proposals will be processed in a competitive two tiered review process that includes consumer reviewers from NF survivors or from families affected by NF. Details for submission of proposals are available at the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program website: http://cdmrp.army.mil. Details on participation as a Consumer Reviewer are available on website: http://cdmrp.army.mil/cwg/default.htm.

The CDMRP website has been posting short summaries of research accomplishments from the Neurofibromatosis Research Program. In 2005 titles of these summaries were:

Understanding NF2 Clinical Variability

Phase II Trials Underway for NF1 Treatment

Improving Ras-Targeted Treatment Approaches for NF1 Tumors

A New Model for Merlin Localization and Function