Previous Research Grants Awarded

During its 24 year history, the National Vitiligo Foundation has awarded nearly 1.5 million dollars in research grants to 21 different investigators at 18 academic institutes. These research projects have focused on the cause of the selective pigment cell (melanocyte) destruction by the immune system, on the impact of environmental toxins in triggering vitiligo, and on the genetic defects underlying the disease. In addition, several clinical studies and investigations of laboratory models for studying vitiligo have been supported by the NVF. Of significance, several of the recipients of NVF grants have gone on to develop research programs that have subsequently obtained larger grant funds from the National Institutes of Health to further examine the cause, treatment, and ultimate cure of vitiligo.

Together, all of these research studies have shed considerable light on what is causing vitiligo and on where to focus to treat the disease. However, because vitiligo is a complex disorder, additional work remains to be done to build upon and weave together these fundamental learnings so that a cure can be developed.

You can make a difference in enabling this additional work to move forwards. Please consider making a contribution to the NVF so that the Foundation can continue to provide grants to scientists dedicated to curing vitiligo.

Below are all grants awarded by the NVF.  Items in the table are linked to progress reports when available (run your cursor down the Title of Project column to find linked reports).
 

Year	Recipient	Institute	Title of Project	Funding
1989	James Nordlund	Univ. of Cincinnati	A Program Project to Find the Cause(s) for Vitiligo	$90,000
1989	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	Responsiveness of Melanocytes from Vitiligo Patients to Cytotoxic Lymphocytes	$30,000
1989	Aaron Lerner	Yale Univ.	The Study of Pigment Cells in Culture from Patients with Vitiligo	$25,000
1991	Joseph Morelli	Univ. of Colorado	Factors Influencing Melanocyte Migration: Control of Repigmentation in Vitiligo	$30,000
1991	James Nordlund	Univ. of Cincinnati	A Proposal for the Isolation of the Gene Causing Depigmentation in Mice	$30,000
1991	Aaron Lerner	Yale Univ.	Transplantation of Human Pigment Cells in Vitiligo	$30,000
1992	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	T Lymphocytes and Killer Cells in Patients with Vitiligo	$30,000
1992	James Nordlund	Univ. of Cincinnati	Cell Defect in Melanocytes Cultured from Patients with Vitiligo	$100,000
1993	J-C Bystryn	New York Univ.	Identification of Melanocyte Antigens in Vitiligo	$30,350
1993	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	Antigens on the Surface of Vitiligo Melanocytes	$29,280
1993	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Serum Autoantibodies in the Avian Model for Vitiligo	$13,000
1994	Anthony Gaspari	Univ. of Rochester	Autoimmunity to Melanocytes in Patients with Vitiligo	$30,000
1994	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	Natural Killer Cells and Lymphokines in Melanocyte Destruction	$29,932
1994	Aaron Lerner	Yale Univ.	The Role of the Chemical Nitric Oxide as a Factor in the Cause of Vitiligo	$30,000
1994	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Analysis of the Melanocyte Destruction in a Mouse Model for Vitiligo	$7,500
1995	Aaron Lerner	Yale Univ.	Studies on the Etiology and Treatment of Vitiligo	$30,000
1995	J-C Bystryn	New York Univ.	Cytolytic T Cells to Melanocytes in Vitiligo	$30,075
1995	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Investigation of Melanocyte Cytotoxicity to Phenolic Compounds in Vitiligo	$12,000
1995	Maria Hordinsky	Univ. of Minnesota	Nerves, Neuropeptides, and Repigmentation in Vitiligo	$13,350
1995	Sylvia Smith	Univ. of Georgia	Study of Retinoids in Vitiligo Mice	$30,000
1995	Arthur Kahn	Cedars-Sinai LA	Analysis of Epithelial Grafts on Patients with Idiopathic Vitiligo	$22,000
1995	Joseph Morelli	Univ. of Colorado	Mechanisms of Growth Factor-Induced Melanocyte Migration in Vitiligo	$30,000
1995	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	In Vitro Activation of Lymphocytes Involved in Vitiligo	$24,847
1996	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Role of Phenolic Cytotoxicity in Premature Death of Vitiligo Melanocytes	$18,175
1996	Noel MacLaren	Univ. of Florida	Immunohistochemical Study of Skin from Vitiligo Patients	$29,588
1996	Rebat Halder	Howard Univ.	In Vitro Identification and Activation of Lymphocytes Specific for Melanocytes	$14,450
1997	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Analysis of the Death of Melanocytes Cultured from Patients with Vitiligo	$20,863
1997	Noel MacLaren	Univ. of New Orleans	The Autoantigens of Vitiligo, an Autoimmune Disease	$29,230
1998	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Analysis of Mechanism Responsible for Melanocyte Cytotoxicity	$21,692
1998	Wayne McCormick	Univ. of Florida	Genetics of Vitiligo Susceptibility in Humans and the Smyth Chicken	$30,000
1998	Curla Walters	Howard Univ.	Role of T Cells in the Autoimmune Response in Vitiligo Patients	$28,900
1999	Anthony Gaspari	Univ. of Rochester	Impact of Melanocyte Autoantigen Presentation in Vitiligo	$30,000
1999	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Analysis of Tissue Derived from Patients with Vitiligo	$26,266
1999	Wayne McCormack	Univ. of Florida	Genetics of Vitiligo Susceptibility	$30,000
2000	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Studies on Melanocytes Cultured from Vitiligo Patients	$24,485
2000	Caroline Le Poole	Loyola Univ.	Autoimmune Reactivity in Vitiligo	$22,500
2000	Dennis West	Northwest Univ.	A Clinical Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Topical Pseudocatalase	$60,000
2000	Wayne McCormack	Univ. of Florida	Differential Gene Expression in Vitiligo Melanocytes	$30,000
2001	Andrzej Slominski	Univ. of Tennessee	Melatonin Hypothesis of Vitiligo	$30,000
2001	Gisela Erf	Univ. of Arkansas	Herpesvirus Connection in Smyth Line Chicken	$30,000
2001	Wayne McCormack	Univ. of Florida	The Role of LMP7 and Antigen Processing in Vitiligo Susceptibility	$30,000
2001	Robert Tackey	Howard Univ.	Skin Homing Cytotoxic T Cells in Vitiligo Patients	$29,800
2001	Caroline Le Poole	Loyola Univ.	Autoimmune Reactivity in Vitiligo Patients	$22,500
2001	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Analysis of Apoptosis in Melanocytes of Vitiligo Patients	$12,000
2002	Animesh Sinha	Cornell Univ.	Gene Expression Profiling in Vitiligo by Microarray	$30,000
2002	Caroline Le Poole	Loyola Univ.	The Stress Response in Vitiligo	$30,000
2002	Richard Spritz	Univ. of Colorado	Mapping of Vitiligo Susceptibility Genes	$30,000
2003	Raymond Boissy	Univ. of Cincinnati	Investigation of Antioxidant Pathway Dysfunction in Vitiligo Melanocytes	$30,000
2003	Caroline Le Poole	Loyola Univ.	Stress Proteins in Autoimmune Depigmentation	$30,000
2007	R. Sarangarajan	Univ. of Mass.	Role of Glutamyltranspeptidase in Occupational Vitiligo	$15,000
2007	Hee-Young Park	Boston Univ.	Born Morphogenetic Protein-4: Its Implication in Vitiligo	$15,000
			TOTAL:	$1,477,783