CurePSP Student Fellowships support students and trainees conducting summer research projects focused on PSP or CBD. The goal of these programs is to encourage trainees to pursue research in this field in an effort to make PSP and CBD a long-term area of research interest and to further our understanding of these diseases.
Application instructions and full eligibility guidelines for the Urso Student Fellowship and the Jim Atwood Neuroscience Student Fellowship are available here. The program will begin accepting applications on October 1, and applications must be submitted through ProposalCentral by January 31, 2026, at 5pm ET.
The URSO Student Fellowship supports students conducting summer research projects focused on PSP, CBD, and related diseases. This program is supported by the Paul and Ruth Urso Memorial Research Fund. The goal of this fellowship program is to encourage students and trainees to pursue research in this field in the hope of making PSP or CBD a long-term area of research interest.. Projects may be in basic, translational, clinical or epidemiological aspects of PSP and CBD.
Program Eligibility
Undergraduate, graduate, and medical students are eligible – as well as medical residents and clinical fellows. Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible for this program. The research must be performed under the supervision of a faculty mentor with expertise in the field. Funds may be budgeted to cover the applicant’s stipend and research related expenses.
Application Instructions
Previously Funded Urso Grants
Mentor: John Crary
Exploring Glial Dysfunction and Genetic Pathways in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Mentor: Ignacio Mata
Exploring the genomic data of PSP-CBD patients from Argentina
Mentor: Truman Gamblin
Impact of Fatty Acid Induction on Formation of PSP and CBD Tau Aggregates
Mentor: Guy Schwartz
The Radiographic Overlap between Parkinsonian Syndromes and Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus: A Retrospective Chart Review
Mentor: Truman Gamblin
Cracking the phosphorylation code of tau filaments in PSP
Mentor: Tamar Gefen
Differential Vulnerability of White Matter in CBD versus PSP leading to Primary Progressive Aphasia
Mentor: Naomi Visanji
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: a disease specific mouse tauopathy model
Mentor: Stewart Clark
Investigation of the role of non-cholinergic PPTg neurons in a model of PSP
Mentor: Jonathan Lin
Testing Anti-Tau Properties of Integrated Stress Response Boosters In Vivo
Mentor: Rohan de Silva
Identifying conformational repertoires of tau that determine disease progression
Mentor: Marco Hefti
Understanding Astrocytic Tau Uptake in PSP
Mentor: Kevin Frank Bieniek
Exploring Increased Expression of DNA Damage Marker Expression in CBD and PSP
Mentor: Kathryn Bowles
Investigating ER-phagy in an iPSC-neuron model of tauopathy
Mentor: Tamar Geffen
Anatomic Selectivity of 4R FTLD-tau in Primary Progressive Aphasia
Mentor: Hrishikesh Kumar
Blood Biomarkers and Neuromorphometry in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Mentor: Zane Jaunmuktane
Identification of spatially resolved and cell type specific molecular signatures in diverse PSP phenotypes
Mentor: Paul Seidler
Small molecule inhibitor development for CBD and PSP tau by experimental-computational studies
The Jim Atwood Neuroscience Student Fellowship
The Jim Atwood Neuroscience Student Fellowship Endowment supports undergraduate students conducting summer research projects focused on PSP or CBD. The goal of this fellowship program is to encourage undergraduate students to pursue research in this field in an effort to make PSP and CBD a long-term area of research interest and to further our understanding of these diseases. In addition, their important work will aid in increasing the awareness of these rare neurodegenerative diseases with the end goal of a cure. Fellowship projects should have a neuroscience focus and may be in basic, translational, or clinical aspects of PSP or CBD.
Program Eligibility
Undergraduate students are eligible. The research must be performed under the supervision of a faculty mentor with expertise in the field. Funds may be budgeted to cover the applicant’s stipend and research related expenses.
Application Instructions
Currently Funded Atwood Grants
Mentor: Stewart Clark
Establishing a time course for the decrease in the Midbrain-to-Pons Ratio in hTau rats as a Potential Early Biomarker for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy-Richardson’s Syndrome
Mentor: Jonathan Pierce
Genetic Supressors of Freezing in Dopamine-deficient C. elegans: Potential Therapeutic Targets for PSP and CBD
Mentor: Joseph Rayman
Purification and Biophysical Screening of Proteins Implicated in PSP
Previously Funded Jim Atwood Neuroscience Student Fellowships
Mentor: Joseph Rayman
In Vitro Biophysical Screen for Inhibitors of Proteins Implicated in PSP
Mentor: Carolina Alquezar
Exploring the Impact of Tau Isoforms on Mitochondrial Function: Implications for 4R tauopathies such as PSP and CBD