Funding Cycle VIII – Letter of Intent Submission in April 2002

The Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTRF) is very pleased to announce that following its eighth cycle of grant review, twelve research grants have been awarded to scientists around the world. The grants allocated in this cycle total 2.1 million Swiss francs (CHF). The Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the ROTRF were once again very pleased with the high quality and innovation demonstrated in the applications received.

The ROTRF received 108 letters of intent from scientists around the world. Almost half of the applications came from the United States and Canada (46%), while 45% came from Europe, the major countries being the UK (13%), France (7%) and Germany (7%). Australia and Japan accounted for the remaining 9% of the applicants.

All the letters of intent were reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Committee for scientific quality and originality, and based on these reviews the Board of Trustees invited the 20 top-ranked applicants to prepare full paper submissions.

ROTRF grants were awarded to 12 applicants: five from the USA, two each from Canada and the UK, and one each from Italy, France and Australia.

The abstracts of the novel and promising research projects that received funding in this eighth cycle are presented on the following pages. The research topics focus mainly on the improvement of long-term graft survival, the prevention of chronic organ dysfunction, the induction of tolerance and the improvement of donor organ preservation.