US Department of Defense National Prion Research Program (NPRP, CDMRP)

Key facts

• Congress set up the NPRP and the Department of Defense sponsored it; the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command administered it through the CDMRP.
• Congress first allocated USD 50 million and later reduced the amount to USD 42.5 million.
• The CDMRP funding history lists National Prion with a FY2002 appropriation of USD 42.5 million and shows 136 applications received and 38 funded.
• The program is on the CDMRP archived programs page under prion diseases, with the same USD 42.5 million FY02 figure and 38 awards.
• The legal priority for the first phase was to rapidly develop a diagnostic test to detect prion disease.
• DoD asked the Institute of Medicine for independent advice; an 11-member committee was formed in June 2002 and DoD issued its call for proposals in August 2002.
• Awards were screened by outside scientific peer review, then by a programmatic integration panel of DoD and civilian experts.
• The IOM recommended priority for diagnostics that would be a large leap, with at least a 1,000-fold gain in sensitivity over existing tests, plus basic research on prion structure, replication and pathogenesis.
• The IOM also recommended infrastructure: investigator training, containment and animal facilities, shared reference materials, FDA-held reference panels, and tracking CJD and vCJD among DoD and VA patients. It judged the extra vCJD risk to the US military from European deployment to be small.
• According to a CDMRP press release excerpt, the 38 awards were 5 training awards and 33 research awards, 17 focused on ante-mortem diagnostics or disease markers and 10 on basic questions, with work starting in 2003.
• A search excerpt of the final report gives a different split: 4 career transition, 17 idea, 16 investigator-initiated and 1 prion techniques fellowship award. The two descriptions are unreconciled.
• A CDMRP forum page excerpt says Congress gave no follow-up appropriation after FY02, and that about USD 4 million of other funding supported one institutionally based research project, seven SBIR awards and two STTR awards.
• An FY05 earmark under the NPRP line went to McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, for "Early Host Responses to Prion Infection and Development of an In Vitro Bioassay"; the record lists USD 1,462 thousand while the conference report text cites USD 1.5 million.

Timeline

1. 200102 Congress creates the program; the IOM chapter says 2001 and its summary says 2002.
2. 2002FY02 appropriation of USD 42.5 million; 38 awards funded.
3. 2002IOM study contract begins (1 May 2002; runs to 30 September 2003).
4. 2002IOM committee formed.
5. 2002DoD issues the call for proposals.
6. 2003Award recipients start research.
7. 2005FY05 earmark under the NPRP line to McLaughlin Research Institute.
8. 2005Investigator forum described on the CDMRP page.
9. 2026CDMRP funding table, updated 21 October 2026, still shows National Prion only for FY02.