Funding resources for rare disease research.

Research is an expensive venture requiring multiple sources of funding for small projects that test new theories, large projects to make major advancements, training the next generation of researchers and facilitating meetings to share findings and support collaboration. For rare conditions, such as Batten disease, research funds can be difficult to find. To see how investigators supported their work in the past, we did a key word search of the Acknowledgement Section of peer-reviewed literature published in Batten disease in the last 6.5 years. Interestingly, we discovered 193 separate funding sources. The authors hope that, by showing where funds are available, we will enable Batten disease researchers to continue their pursuits and expand their studies; moving key findings from discovery to application phases. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: The Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses or Batten Disease.