Migraine Research Initiative
The Association of Migraine Disorders is devoted to accelerating the most promising area of neuroscience research: migraine. AMD’s Migraine Research Initiative is led by AMD’s research committee consisting of brilliant, leading researchers who help identify knowledge gaps in migraine to influence future research projects. AMD provides funding for innovative research projects through its grant program. Finally, AMD strives to form an inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary network of migraine researchers and medical professionals through its resource hub and communication platform, the Migraine Science Collaborative.
Grant Program
We believe our grant programs create a consistent effort to support the early careers of researchers with an interest in migraine disease. Our nonprofit organization resembles the role of venture capital organizations that nurture start-up companies.
AMD has developed a comprehensive program that helps not only to fund specific research projects, but also to launch the careers of those willing to specialize in migraine research. We offer programs to introduce students into this area of neuroscience, through shadowing programs, travel grants, small introductory grants and then support more experienced researchers to explore new ideas with intermediate-sized grants, managed by the Migraine Research Foundation.
Our expectation is that the best of these ideas will be ready to apply to much larger grants, such as those offered by NIH. The most unique aspect of our program is our support of interdisciplinary migraine-related research at the Brown Institute for Brain Science and the funding of a post-doctoral fellowship in migraine research.
The Carney Institute for Brain Science Post Doctoral Research Position
First recipient: Tyler Clark Brown, PhD
Second recipient: Bruno Pradier, PhD
Incubator Grants
MRF is committed to discovering the causes, improving the treatments, and finding a cure, and AMD stimulates increased research in the area of migraine disorders.
We seek projects that will help sufferers by advancing our ability to understand and treat migraine. As a result, we offer seed-money grants for projects that are important, achievable, and innovative that will ultimately lead to better treatment and quality of life for sufferers of migraine and migraine disorders.
While we welcome all proposals relevant to basic or clinical migraine research, we are particularly interested in translational projects and those related to migraine variants, the relationship between concussions and migraines, post-traumatic headaches and migraine, hormonal effects on the nervous system, effects of nutrition on migraine, and other migraine variants, such as vestibular migraine and sinus migraine. Projects should take an original approach to the subject and have the potential to move the field forward in a significant way.
Please be advised that due to the large number of grant requests we receive, applications must follow the required format and conform to the guidelines to be considered.
Grants awarded to:
2016-17 Lyn Griffiths, Ph.D.
2017-18 Suzanne Bertisch, MD
Resident Research Grant
We are using CORE to administer our Resident Research Grants. You can follow this link to see more info and to apply for a grant.
Research Funded By AMD
2020
CORE Grant – $10,000
Project: Clinical Utility of Multifrequency VEMP in Vestibular Migraine Diagnosis
Principal Investigator: Janet Choi, USC
2019
MRF Grant – $48,000
Project: Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes in familial migraine with aura
Principal Investigator: Lyn Griffiths Ph.D., Queensland University of Technology
CORE Grant – $10,000
Project: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for the Treatment of Vestibular Migraine
Principal Investigator: Eric Formeister, UC SF
2017
MRF Grant – $50,000
Project: Shedding Light on Migraine: Exploring Novel Light Metrics as a Trigger of Migraine
Principal Investigator: Suzanne Bertisch, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to Brigham & Women’s Hospital
UPDATE: Completed in 2020 https://migraineresearchfoundation.org/researchers/suzanne-bertisch/
CORE Grant – $5,500
Project: Randomized clinical trial of nortriptyline in treatment of vestibular migraine
Principal Investigator: Hossein Mahboubi, UC Irvine
UPDATE: Research ended due to lack of participants
2016
MRF Grant – $50,000
Project: Microglial proliferation in women with menstrual migraines
Principal Investigator: Clas Linnman, Boston Children’s Hospital
2015
MRF Grant – $50,000
Project: microMIG: searching for new biomarkers in migraine using microRNA expression profile analysis
Principal Investigator: Patricia Vall, Pozo-Rosich, d’Hebron University Hospital
2014
Direct Grant – $190,000
Project: Patterns of Migraine Disease in Otolaryngology: A CHEER Network Study
Principal Investigator: David Witsell, MD, MHS, Duke University
MRF Grant – $50,000
Project: Gastroparesis in Monogenic Migraine Mouse Models
Principal Investigator: Robert Shapiro, UVM
MRF Grant – $50,000
Project: Use of Next Generation Sequencing Technology to Identify Novel Hemiplegic Migraine and Migraine Related Mutations.
Principal Investigator: Lyn Griffiths Ph.D., Queensland University of Technology
Direct Grant – $50,000
Project: The Role of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors in Migraine
Principal Investigator: Maggie Waung, University of California San Francisco
Direct Grant – $50,000
Project: A prospective randomized cross-over trial of nortriptyline and topiramate in the initial treatment of vestibular migraine
Principal Investigator: Anthony Mikulec, MD, Saint Louis University
Migraine Science Collaborative
The Migraine Science Collaborative is a membership-based, targeted resource hub and communication platform. It was founded, and is supported, by the Association of Migraine Disorders.
Mission Statement
The Migraine Science Collaborative strives to form an inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary network of migraine researchers and medical professionals in an effort to increase and enhance research in the fields of migraine, cluster and headache disease.
GOALS
- Unite the migraine, cluster and headache scientific communities through a communication system
- Support the careers of young investigators through educational resources and a mentorship program
- Provide bidirectional exchange of guidance, ideas and questions within and between the researchers and medical care providers
- Encourage increased coordination of research between related or comorbid diseases
- Create a collaborative environment to help stimulate unique research projects
- Share funding opportunities, improve grantsmanship and prepare researchers for more successful research funding
- Attract non-migraine researchers to the migraine community
- Promote translational research
Meeting of the Minds
The Migraine Science Collaborative’s first Meeting of the Minds focused on Vestibular Migraine. Held, October 4, 2020, the meeting brought together almost 30 professionals with a common interest in vestibular migraine research. Attendees heard about recent research projects, broke into working groups and began discussions on identifying knowledge gaps and creating one or more collaborative research projects in three key areas – pathophysiology, diagnostic testing and therapeutic advances.
- Alaina Bassett, PhD, AuD
- Amy Poremba, PhD
- Mehdi Abouzari, PhD
- Anne Luebke, PhD
- Maurizio Versino
- Jeffery Kuhn, MD
- Amarylis Velez, PhD
- Natalia Marangoni, PhD
- Michael Teixido, MD
- Amir Kheradmand, MD
- Monica Mallampalli, PhD
- Ashley Zaleski-King, AuD
- James Buskirk, PT
- Matthew Crowson, MD
- Claire Ceriani, MD
- Jacki Rorabaugh, PhD
- Habib Rizk, MD
- Marco Mandala, MD, PhD
- Hamid Djalilian, MD
- Andrea Hinds, PhD
- Lori Ginoza, DPT
- Roberto Teggi, MD
- Michelle Inserra, MD
- Magdalena Nowaczewska, MD
- Joel Goebel, MD
- Uday Jodhpurkar
- Eric Liebler
- Scott Yuan, MD, PhD
- Shin Beh, MD
- Stephen Silberstein, MD
- Rick Godley, MD
Research Advisory Committee
KC Brennan, MD, PhD
University of Utah
Basic mechanisms of migraine and post-traumatic headache
Larry Charleston IV, MD, MSc
University of Michigan
Headache Disorders
Paul Durham, PhD
Missouri State University
Cellular and molecular mechanisms, epigenetics
Gregory Dussor, PhD
University of Texas at Dallas
Pathological mechanisms and therapeutic targets for migraine headache.
Deborah Friedman, MD, MPH, FAAN
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Headache disorders and intracranial pressure disorders
Georgia Hodes, PhD
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Sex differences in the peripheral and central immune system
Amanda Jaimeson, PhD
Brown University
Immunology
Felicia Jefferson, PhD
Fort Valley State University
Sleep science and minority research career development
Shivang Joshi, MD, MPH, RPh
DENT Neurologic Institute
Research Focus: Headache disorders
Deena Kuruvilla, MD
Yale School of Medicine
Research Focus: Headache disorders
Dan Levy, PhD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre & Harvard Medical School
Research Focus: Intracranial meninges and its trigeminal sensory innervation
Nasim Maleki, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Research Focus: Sex-related contributions to migraine disease
Angela O'Neal, MD
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Research Focus: Women's neurology
Jelena Pavlović, MD, PhD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Research Focus: Hormonal regulation of migraine
Amynah Pradhan, PhD
University of Illinois
Research Focus: Translationally significant animal models of headache
Carl Saab, MD
Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School & Rhode Island Hospital
Research Focus: Translational research in chronic pain
Stephen Silberstein, MD, FACP, FAAN, FAHS
Thomas Jefferson University
Research Focus: Headache disorders
Rashmi Halker Singh, MD FAHS FAAN
Mayo Clinic
Research Focus: Headache disorders and intracranial pressure disorders
William R. Renthal, MD, PhD
Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Research Focus: Human genetics related to migraine pathophysiology
Gretchen Tietjen, MD
University of Toledo
Research Focus: Migraine, stroke, early life stress, vascular biology
Make a secure online gift. You can make a one-time donation or establish a recurring monthly gift.
