The LAM Foundation Grant Program
The LAM Foundation’s 2026 Research Priorities
The LAM Foundation welcomes all innovative proposals with scientific or clinical merit and the potential for breakthrough or provocative findings. All topics will be considered, although priority areas include:
Discovering New Treatments for LAM:
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- Identification of new therapeutic agents or repurposing of existing agents with strong potential to benefit patients with LAM in the near term, alone, or in combination with mTOR inhibitors (sirolimus or everolimus)
- Investigating new therapeutic targets
- Sex as a biological variable in LAM disease
Patient Quality of Life:
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- Projects with the potential to significantly improve quality of life for individuals with LAM disease
The LAM Foundation’s 2026 In-Cycle Funding Mechanisms
Pilot-Feasibility Research Awards
Projects may request up to $50,000 for one year of support.
This pilot award provides funds to encourage the development and testing of new hypotheses and/or new methods in research areas relevant to LAM. The proposed work must be hypothesis generating or hypothesis testing, reflecting innovative approaches to important questions in LAM research or development of novel methods, and providing sufficient preliminary data to justify the Foundation’s support. Results from Pilot and Feasibility Grants should have the potential to lead to the submission of applications for funding from other agencies (e.g., NIH). The award is not intended to support the continuation of programs initiated under other granting mechanisms.
Clinical Research Awards
Projects may request up to $50,000 for one year of support.
This clinical pilot award generates hypothesis-driven, clinically focused patient-centered research that could improve our understanding of novel therapeutic areas of interest, test interventions, or develop clinical research methodologies. The grant is designed to enable research that has the potential to improve an unmet clinical need relevant to the care of LAM patients. A successful application must be feasible within one year and should have a high probability of generating tangible results, such as larger clinical trials, new approaches to or methods to analyze clinical trials, or new data that could be utilized in a natural history database.
Patient Quality of Life Awards
Projects may request up to $25,000 for one year of support.
This award supports studies designed to deliver meaningful improvements in patient quality of life. Proposed research may use qualitative or quantitative approaches, but must demonstrate scientific rigor, clearly justify an unmet need, and articulate both immediate and anticipated real-world outcomes. Inclusion of the patient voice in proposal development is essential.
Application Details
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- Please click here for The LAM Foundation’s 2026 grant timeline.
- Please click here for The LAM Foundation’s 2026 Request for Applications.
- The LAM Foundation process begins with a required Letter of Intent (LOI). High-scoring LOIs will be invited to submit full proposals.
- Only one LOI may be submitted by the same research laboratory or research group.
- ProposalCentral must be used for all steps of the LOI and proposal process.
- Applicants must create a profile and be logged in to ProposalCentral to access The LAM Foundation’s LOI Form. Click the following links for ProposalCentral’s own assistance:
- Step-by-step tutorial to aid applicants in navigating the online grant system
- How to Create an Application
- Applicants must create a profile and be logged in to ProposalCentral to access The LAM Foundation’s LOI Form. Click the following links for ProposalCentral’s own assistance:
- Technical issues regarding ProposalCentral and the online application process should be directed to their customer support during normal business hours:
8:30 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern Time (Monday through Friday)
By phone (toll-free): 800 875 2562 (Toll-free U.S. and Canada)
or +1 703 964 5840 (Direct Dial International)
By e-mail: pcsupport@altum.com
For additional information or questions, contact Jenn Vinton, Grant Coordinator, at research@thelamfoundation.org
Prior Year Award Recipients
2025
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- Roya Babaei Jadidi, PharmD, PhD – University of Nottingham
Pilot Feasibility Award
Targeting IL-6 Signaling to Restore Alveolar Regeneration in Lymphangioleiomyomatosis - Ildikó Krencz, MD, PhD – Semmelweis University
Pilot-Feasibility Award
Cellular Plasticity and Microenvironmental Remodeling in LAM: A Digital
Spatial Proteomics Approach - I. Caroline Le Poole, PhD – Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Pilot-Feasibility Award
Rapamycin-resistant CAR T-cells for LAM - Khaled Tighanimine, PhD – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Pilot-Feasibility Award
Exploiting mTORC1-mediated changes in lipid metabolism to identify novel LAM treatments
- Roya Babaei Jadidi, PharmD, PhD – University of Nottingham
2024
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- Claire Child, DPT, MPH – University of Washington
Clinical Research Award
Scaling Access to LAMFit: A Digital Fitness Program for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) - Arnold S. Kristof, MDCM – Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
Pilot-Feasibility Award
Proteostatic Regulation of Oncogenic G-protein Signaling in LAM - Francis X. McCormack, MD – University of Cincinnati Medical Center
Clinical Research Award
An Improved Method for Pleurodesis - Kaela Varberg, PhD – Children’s Mercy Hospital
Isabelle Thiffault, PhD – Children’s Mercy Hospital
Pilot-Feasibility Award
Application of Long Read Sequencing to Identify Genomic Underpinnings of Unsolved LAM - Yan Xu, PhD
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Established Investigator Award
LAM Cell Atlas V2: A Comprehensive Web Resource of Integrated LAM Single-Cell Omics Data
- Claire Child, DPT, MPH – University of Washington
2023
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- Kathryn Wikenheiser-Brokamp, MD, PhD, — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Established Investigator Award
Identifying Cell-Cell Signaling Driving Pulmonary LAM Pathogenesis Using Spatial Omics Strategies - Kanth Swaroop Vanka, PhD,— University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Career Development Award
The Unexplored Role of Lung Macrophages in LAM Disease Pathogenesis
- Kathryn Wikenheiser-Brokamp, MD, PhD, — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
2022
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- Carmen Priolo, MD, PhD — Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Established Investigator Award
Role of Lipid Homeostasis in LAM Progression - Chung-Wai Chow, MD, PhD, FRCPC — University of Toronto – University Health Network (UHN), Toronto, Canada
Pilot Award
Respiratory Oscillometry for Lung Function Monitoring in LAM - Sang-Oh Yoon, PhD — University of Illinois, Chicago
Pilot Award
Targeting Proteostasis Systems in LAM - Debbie Clements, PhD — University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
Seed Grant
Extracellular Matrix Drives Disease Progression and Rapamycin Insensitivity in LAM
- Carmen Priolo, MD, PhD — Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
2021
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- Minzhe Guo, PhD — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Francis X. McCormack Career Development Award
An Information Retrieval System for Multiomics Data Integration and LAM Biomarker Discovery - Issam Ben-Sahra, PhD — Northwestern University, Chicago
Established Investigator Award
The TSC-mTORC1 Network Controls Bicarbonate Uptake to Support Cell Growth - Yan Tang, PhD — Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
Established Investigator Award
Nanomedicine for Eliminating Rapamycin Tolerant Persister Cells - Rhonda Szczesniak, PhD — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Pilot Grant
Monitoring Risk of Rapid Lung Function Decline: The LAM Prediction (LAMP) Early Translation Study - Amy (Firth) Ryan, PhD — University of Iowa, Iowa City
Seed Grant
Interaction of Lymphatic Endothelial and LAM Cells Driving Lymphangioleiomyomatosis Pathogenesis - Yan Xu, PhD — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Out-of-Cycle Award
LAM Cell Atlas (LCA): An Intuitive Web Portal for Integrative Analysis and Visualization of LAM Single Cell Multiomics Data
- Minzhe Guo, PhD — Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Other Funding Mechanisms Relevant for LAM Investigators
NDRI
The Pilot Award Program is a new component of our NIH-supported U42 program, the Human Tissues and Organs for Research Resource (HTORR), and will support individuals who meet at least one of the following high-priority areas:
Early-stage investigators who are within 10 years of a terminal degree or completion of clinical residency.
Established investigators who are transitioning to use human biospecimens.
Additional details are available here.
TSC ALLIANCE
We invest in early-career researchers to drive innovative TSC research and to foster a diverse group of researchers dedicated to our shared mission. In 2025, we funded three awards to postdoctoral fellows and early-stage investigators. In 2026, we anticipate awarding three or four awards to postdoctoral fellows and early-stage investigators depending on merit, requested budgets, and funds available.
TUBEROUS SCLEROSIS COMPLEX RESEARCH PROGRAM (TSCRP)
The TSCRP supports innovative and high-impact research that promotes discoveries in TSC, from mechanistic insights to clinical application across all ages, by fostering new ideas and investigators for the benefit of Service members, their beneficiaries, and the American public.