Funded Projects
The Foundation for Brain Science and Immunology supports groundbreaking research and projects that investigate immune-mediated neuroinflammation that contributes to psychiatric symptoms. Each funded initiative reflects our commitment to advancing scientific discovery, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and translating findings into improved diagnostics and treatments.
Explore the research and projects we’ve funded to date, all selected for their potential to drive meaningful progress in the field.
Funded Research and Projects
Biomarker Research
Principle Investigator: Jennifer Frankovich, MD
Institution Funding Year: 2025
Research Focus: This funding supports ongoing research in PANS, focusing on the identification and analysis of metabolic biomarkers and the statistical work needed to advance these efforts.
Investigating how Adaptive and Innate Immune Systems Contribute to Post-Infectious Sequelae in the Brain
Principle Investigator: Dr. Uğur Akcan, PhD
Institution: Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Funding Year: 2025
Research Focus: Investigating how the RXRA genetic risk factor alters immune responses to trigger post‑infectious neuroimmune mechanisms and behavioral changes, including obsessive‑compulsive symptoms in PANDAS/PANS.
Advance the Identification of Neural Biomarkers for PANS/PANDAS
Principle Investigator: Allison Vreeland, PhD
Institution:Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2025
Research Focus: Advancing the identification of neural biomarkers for PANS/PANDAS (and Sydenham Chorea) to help shift diagnosis from one of exclusion toward evidence‑based validation.
Autoimmune Mechanisms in PANDAS and PANS
Principle Investigator: Chandra Menendez, PhD
Institution: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Funding Year: 2025
Research Focus: Elucidating the autoimmune mechanisms and pathogenic immune responses (including Th1/Th17 pathways and B cell dysregulation) that drive basal ganglia encephalitis and neuropsychiatric sequelae in PANDAS and PANS.
PANS/PANDAS Clinical Assessment
Principle Investigator: Lauren Breithaupt, PhD
Institution: Harvard Medical School / Collaborative with Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2024
Research Focus: Developing and validating a structured clinical assessment tool for PANS and PANDAS to standardize diagnostic evaluation and characterize severity and core clinical features due to immune‑mediated neuroinflammatory triggers.
Bio-repository for Identifying Biomarkers in PANS
Principle Investigator: Jennifer Frankovich, MD
Institution: Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2021
Research Focus: Supporting the development of a biorepository of PANS patient samples and matched healthy controls to enable identification of blood and urine biomarkers associated with pediatric acute‑onset neuropsychiatric syndromes.
Identifying Pathophysiological Mechanisms and Subtypes of Neurologic Sequelae in PANDAS/PANS
Principle Investigator: Chandra Menendez, PhD
Institution: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Funding Year: 2025
Research Focus: Identifying pathophysiological mechanisms in PANDAS/PANS by distinguishing how autoantibodies targeting dopamine receptors influence neurologic signaling and neuropsychiatric disorder phenotypes.
Biomarker Identification for PANS/PANDAS
Principle Investigator: Madeleine W. Cunningham, PhD
Institution: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Funding Year: 2020
Research Focus: Identifying one or more biomarkers for PANS/PANDAS (and Sydenham Chorea) to improve diagnostic accuracy and enable confirmation of the disorder beyond diagnosis by exclusion.
Immune Cell Mechanisms in PANS
Principle Investigator: Elizabeth Mellins, MD
Institution: Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2019
Research Focus: Investigating a distinct circulating immune cell that traffics from blood to brain in PANS, which may reveal foundational mechanisms of immune‑mediated neuropsychiatric syndromes.
NSAID Evaluation in PANDAS
Principle Investigator: Kyle Williams, MD, PhD
Institution: Massachusetts General Hospital
Funding Year: 2019
Research Focus: Conducting the first controlled clinical study to rigorously evaluate the effect of a nonsteroidal anti‑inflammatory drug (NSAID) on symptom severity in children with PANDAS.
Cytokine and Blood‑Brain Barrier Analysis in PANS
Principle Investigator: Jennifer Frankovich, MD
Institution: Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2018
Research Focus: Supporting analysis of cytokines, vascular antigens, blood‑brain barrier disruption, and metabolic peptides to advance understanding of neuroimmune mechanisms in PANS‑associated symptomatology.
Genetic Markers and Immunophenotypes in PANS
Principle Investigator: Jennifer Frankovich, MD
Institution: Stanford University School of Medicine
Funding Year: 2016
Research Focus: Investigating genetic markers and immunophenotypes associated with Pediatric Acute‑onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) to improve understanding of immune‑mediated triggers and neuropsychiatric outcomes in affected children.
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