U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command

September 30, 2003

For Immediate Release:

Department of Defense Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Research Program Announces Awards

The Department of Defense Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Research Program (TSCRP) was established in Fiscal Year 2002 (FY02) by Joint Appropriations Conference Committee Report No. 107-350, which provided $1M for tuberous sclerosis research. A Program Announcement was released in March of 2002, with proposals received by September 5, 2002. Following peer and programmatic reviews, institutions began receiving funds during the summer of 2003.

Award Recipients of TSCRP Idea Development Awards were:

David Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis, $374,002 for his research proposal entitled "Mouse Models of TSC-Related Epilepsy."

Elizabeth Henske, M.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center, $398,751 for her research proposal entitled "TSC1 And TSC2 Gene Homologs in Schizosaccharomyces Pombe."

Naoto Ito, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, $420,569 for his research proposal entitled "Functions of TSC in the Nervous System in Drosophila Melanogaster."

Congress appropriated $2 million to continue the TSCRP in FY03. Proposals were requested through a Program Announcement in March 2003 and proposals were received in August 2003. The two tiers of review will be completed by December 2003. FY03 award negotiations will begin in January 2004 and be completed by September 30, 2004.

The TSCRP program is administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

For more information about the TSCRP awards, technical and public abstracts about the research, previous TSCRP Program Announcements, and other CDMRP-sponsored programs and events, please visit the CDMRP web site (https://cdmrp.health.mil).

Point of Contact: Gail Whitehead, Public Affairs Coordinator, phone (301) 619-7783, gail.whitehead@amedd.army.mil