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Neuroscience Research Resources

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Neuroscience Research Components at the NICHD

Funding for Neuroscience Research

Neuroscience Research Resources

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Through its various Divisions, Centers, and Branches, the NICHD supports and maintains a number of valuable research projects and networks that are useful to scientists and researchers. Some of these resources include:

Neuroscience Repository and Database Resources

In addition, the NICHD contributes to NIH resources related to the neurosciences.

BECON: The Bioengineering Consortium
BECON is the focus of bioengineering activities at the NIH. The Consortium consists of senior-level representatives from all of the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Divisions, plus representatives from other federal agencies concerned with biomedical research and development. The BECON site includes information about BECON symposia and bioengineering funding opportunities.


Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN)
The Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) is a geographically distributed virtual community of shared resources offering tremendous potential to advance the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

BISTI: The Bioengineering and Information Science Technology Initiative
The focus of biomedical computing activities at the NIH is the BISTI Consortium (BISTIC), which consists of senior-level representatives from each NIH Institute and Center, plus representatives from other federal agencies concerned with biocomputing. The BISTI site includes information about BISTI symposia and funding opportunities in bioinformatics.

International HapMap Project
The elucidation of the entire human genome has made possible this current effort to develop a haplotype map of the human genome. The haplotype map, or "HapMap," will be a tool that will allow researchers to find genes and genetic variations that affect health and disease.

Knockout Mouse Project (KOMP)
KOMP is a trans-NIH initiative that aims to generate a comprehensive and public resource comprised of mice containing a null mutation in every gene in the mouse genome.

Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC)
The MGC provides full-length, open reading frame clones for human and mouse genes, which are available for distribution to the scientific community.

Model Organisms for Biomedical Research
This Web site provides information about national and international activities and major resources that are being developed to facilitate biomedical research using animal models, such as Drosophila, zebrafish, Xenopus, mouse, and rat.

National Gene Vector Laboratories (NGVL)
The NGVL are composed of an interactive group of academic production and pharm/tox labs whose primary goal is to provide clinical grade vectors for phase I/II gene therapy clinical trials and to provide support for relevant pharmacology/toxicology data leading up to clinical gene transfer protocols.

NIH Deltagen and Lexicon Knockout Mice and Phenotypic Data Resource
The NIH has contracted with Deltagen Inc., and Lexicon Genetics Inc., to provide the agency and its scientific partners with access to 251 lines of knockout mice that have been extensively characterized.

Research Methods for Cognitive Rehabilitation
This collaborative effort of investigators at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute and the University of Pennsylvania seeks to synthesize and disseminate tools necessary to refine promising treatments for cognitive impairment, understand mechanisms of action, and gather preliminary data about the clinical impact to support larger efficacy trials.

Xenopus Gene Collection (XGC)
The XGC supports the production of cDNA libraries, clones, and sequences to provide a set of full-length, open reading frame sequences and cDNA clones of expressed genes for Xenopus. All resources are publicly available for the biomedical scientific community.

Zebrafish Gene Collection (ZGC)
The ZGC supports the production of cDNA libraries, clones, and sequences to provide a set of full-length, open reading frame sequences and cDNA clones of expressed genes for zebrafish. All resources are publicly available for the biomedical scientific community.

Neuroscience Informational Resources

Neuroscience researchers and other scientists may find the following informational resources helpful.

Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP)
CRISP provides a searchable database of federally funded biomedical research projects conducted at universities, hospitals, and other research institutions.

Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (ICCFAS)
The objectives of the ICCFAS are to exchange information and to coordinate federal strategies and programs in an effort to more effectively address FAS/ARND on a national level. The Committee promotes and facilitates the development of projects within member organizations and collaborative projects and cooperative programs between member agencies.

NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
The Blueprint is a framework to enhance cooperative activities among 15 NIH Institutes and Centers that support research on the nervous system. By pooling resources and expertise, the Blueprint can take advantage of economies of scale, confront challenges too large for any single Institute or Center, and develop research tools and infrastructure that will serve the entire neuroscience community.

NIH Roadmap
Developed with input from meetings with more than 300 nationally recognized leaders in academia, industry, government, and the public, the NIH Roadmap provides a framework of the priorities NIH as a whole must address in order to optimize its entire research portfolio. The NIH Roadmap identifies the most compelling opportunities in three main areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise.

Neuroscience@NIH
This inter-Institute effort seeks to convey, on an NIH-wide basis, research being conducted and supported in the neurosciences.