Cain Collaborative Pilot Grant

In 2023, the Gordon and Mary Cain Research Foundation Laboratories launched a new grant program to award $150,000 for one year to collaborative projects from Cain Labs faculty focused on developing therapies for individuals with epilepsy.

The primary goal of this program is to encourage new collaborations between Cain Labs investigators and others to engage in high-risk, high-reward projects related to developing new treatment modalities to reduce the neurological, cognitive, and/or psychological burden of epilepsy in children or adults. Basic research studies that advance mechanistic understanding and provide a direct line of sight to the development of such therapies will also be considered for this grant. The long-term objective of this pilot ‘seed’ grant is to support researchers in generating significant preliminary data to subsequently successfully obtain external funding from federal and private funding sources. 

Each team must comprise at least one Cain Laboratories investigator and at least one non-Cain investigator. Priority will be given to new collaborations. The applications will open in the Fall each year. The application packet consisting of the following documents (as a single PDF file) must be submitted to Cindy Power (Cynthia.power@bcm.edu):

  • Specific aims and project description (1 to 3 pages);
  • Lay summary of the proposed project's impact (one-half page);
  • Budget (1 page, similar to NIH format with personnel, supplies, services, animal costs, other);
  • Budget Justification (1 page);
  • NIH bio-sketches for all participating investigators.

For questions regarding this grant program, email or call Barbara Cochran at bcochran@bcm.edu or 832-824-8882.

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2023

​​​​Awardees: Drs. Mingshan Xue, Jianrong Tang and Matthew Caudill
Project: "A combinatorial therapy paradigm for treating developmental and epileptic encephalopathy."