The TSC Alliance is soliciting applications for seed funding for research using samples from the TSC Biosample Repository. We expect to fund three or four projects, each of which is 12 months or less in duration, for a maximum of $20,000 in total costs per project. Applications are due by August 13. Please see the full funding announcement for more details and application instructions.
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to enable and encourage researchers to utilize existing samples in the Biosample Repository for TSC research. The TSC Alliance expects this seed funding to test very specific hypotheses and/or to produce data leading to new ideas and preliminary data suitable for use in applications for larger funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Research Program at the Department of Defense, the TSC Alliance, The LAM Foundation, or other sources.
As of June 15, 2018, the TSC Biosample Repository contained:
- 168 buccal cell samples for DNA isolation
- 158 blood samples from which plasma and white blood cells have been isolated
- 7 tissue samples, frozen (6 also have a matched fixed, paraffin-embedded sample)
- 2 kidney
- 2 brain
- 2 soft tissue
- 1 liver
- 183 blood samples from TSC Clinical Research Consortium projects, some of which may be available via application to the projects’ Biosample Use Committee
Because biosamples are linked to data in the Natural History Database, applicants may request subsets of biosamples based on clinical phenotypes, age, sex, etc., to compare, for example, samples from individuals with TSC who developed angiomyolipomas at different ages or not at all. Additional data from the Natural History Database relevant to the project may be requested for each sample, as well. Please note the TSC Biosample Repository does not contain “unaffected control” samples from individuals without TSC.