The Kenneth Rainin Foundation Announces 2011 Innovator Awards Program $100,000 Grants for Transformative IBD Research Projects

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Kenneth Rainin Foundation announced today its 2011 Innovator Awards Program for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The Program, now in its second year, is designed to accelerate the pace of discovery in IBD research.  Approximately four million people worldwide suffer from some form of IBD.  Although the disease can occur at any age, the peak onset is between the ages of 15 to 30.  Approximately 10% of the cases occur in children, which can cause delayed puberty and growth problems.

The Program is open to tenure track professors (or the equivalent) at all levels from any scientific discipline and from any non-profit research institutions worldwide.  Interdisciplinary collaboration is strongly encouraged.

Letters of Inquiry (LOI) will be accepted online January 15 - February 15, 2011.  The one-page LOI must include the basic idea and the central experiment.  A biosketch will also be required.  The Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board will determine which applicants will be invited to submit a full application.  Applicant selection will primarily be based on the project's close alignment with the Innovator Awards Program's criteria.  Full applications, which will consist of an expanded LOI (up to three pages), two pages of science and a budget, will be due by May 1st.

The Program's key components for funding consideration include innovation, collaboration, scientific merit and a high potential for success as well as projects that, due to their innovative nature, may not be eligible for funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other more traditional sources.  

About the Innovator Awards Program for IBD Research

The goal of the Innovator Awards Program is to encourage worldwide integrative cooperation across all disciplines to uncover the cause of the disease and create opportunities for novel approaches and alternative options for treatment in an effort to accomplish the Foundation's goal of no one suffering from IBD.

For more details, please visit www.KRFoundation.org.

About Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammatory conditions of the gastrointestinal tract.  The main forms of IBD are Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis. Symptoms include pain, bleeding and debilitation. Current therapeutic options for patients are largely limited to the use of anti-inflammatory steroids applied either systemically or locally for the treatment of the symptoms. Removal of the colon is the only cure at this time.

About the Foundation

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation (www.KRFoundation.org) is a private family foundation that funds inspiring and world-changing work.  We are dedicated to supporting effective early childhood literacy programs, enabling inspiration through the arts and creating opportunities for novel approaches and alternative treatment options for those with chronic disease.

The Scientific Advisory Board members are Averil Ma, M.D., Chair of the SAB and Kenneth Rainin Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Director, Colitis and Crohn's Disease Center, UCSF; Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D., David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine; Dan Littman, M.D., Ph.D., Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology and Professor of Pathology and Microbiology, Skirball Institute Program of Molecular Pathogenesis, NYU Langone Medical Center; and Claudio Fiocchi, M.D., The Clifford and Jane Anthony Chair for Digestive Disease Research and Education Professor of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Department of Pathobiology, Lerner Research Institute, and Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cleveland Clinic.

SOURCE The Kenneth Rainin Foundation