The Generative Brain

Funding gaps

Public sources show small, project-level grants for early prion research, mostly from disease foundations and public bodies. They rarely state grant sizes, so the total gap cannot be measured from open records.

This page is for funders deciding where an additional grant would add something. It describes what open records show. It does not rank projects or recommend a recipient. For how to give, see how to give; for deadlines, the grant calendar.

What does public funding of prion research look like?

Much early work is paid for by disease foundations. The CJD Foundation listed seven research grants for 2024. They cover gene therapy, a tear fluid diagnostic test, a brain-penetrant molecule that lowers prion protein, the origin of spontaneous prions in mouse models, patient-derived organoids, a dominant negative protein therapy and the microglial protein GPNMB. The foundation’s pages for these grants generally name the project and the researcher. The pages read for this brief did not state amounts.

One example is a 2024 grant to Qingzhong Kong to test an AAV vector that carries a PrP-cleaving enzyme in a mouse model of CJD. The page describes animal testing of efficacy, so the work is at the laboratory stage.

Where are the gaps?

Three are visible in open sources.

  • Stage. Several funded projects are at the mouse stage, and the foundation pages describe no human work for them. A 2025 foundation grant to Gate Bioscience tests whether a PrP-lowering compound extends survival in a mouse model, and the page reports an 80 percent fall in brain prion protein after a week of daily dosing in mice.
  • Continuity. A long primate study of chronic wasting disease prions, led from the University of Calgary, began inoculations in 2009 and took 18 years. Its senior author told CIDRAP the study was very complicated to fund, and that staff were spread across countries and moved between institutions. The article does not detail the shortfalls.
  • Transparency. Grant amounts are often not published, so the size of the total gap cannot be calculated from these pages.

Does company money reach prion disease?

Not necessarily. Gate Bioscience announced a 65 million dollar Series B in November 2025, led by Forbion with Eli Lilly joining, bringing total capital to 135 million dollars. The release says the money advances lead programs through IND-enabling studies and Phase 1 in inflammatory and neurological disease. It does not mention prion disease. The foundation grant above is the public link between the company and prion work.

What is unknown?

  • How much public and private money is spent on prion research in total, and in which countries.
  • Which funded projects have a financed route from the laboratory to a clinical trial.
  • Whether grant sizes at the foundation level match the cost of the next step for each project.

Open research questions that funding could address are listed on open questions. Funders should check any figure with the recipient or the grant page before relying on it.

Sources for this page