Impact

While the impact of NPF-funded research on our community is immeasurable, it has shown an extraordinary return on investment (ROI). Since the 2017 award cycle, Bridge Grant awardees have gone on to receive three grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), for a total of $5.6 million. This reflects a 1,505% ROI. Since the 2009 award cycle, Discovery Grant awardees have authored 2,186 publications. These publications have been cited over 50,000 times, including 161 clinical trials, showing continued impact in the research field.

2020 Research Portfolio

Thanks to generous support from the NPF community, NPF funded $3.28 million in 2020 and – even with the challenges of closed labs and research institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic – $2.82 million in research fellowships and grants in 2021. In both years, research funding accounted for about one-third of all NPF expenses.

The first pillar of our current five-year strategic plan is to lead collaborative, transformational research in psoriatic disease. As part of this goal, NFP introduced two new grant mechanism in 2019: the Psoriasis Prevention Initiative (PPI) and the PsA Diagnostic Test Grant.

Psoriasis Prevention Initiative

The PPI aims to identify an intervention that will prevent the onset of psoriatic disease, disease relapse or relevant comorbidities, utilizing multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary teams. Three teams were awarded $250,000 for first year, proof-of-concept research. Following a competitive renewal process, Joel Gelfand, M.D., FAAD, professor of dermatology and epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and his team were awarded $1.5 million in subsequent funding. This is the largest single grant investment the 55-year history of NPF.

PsA Diagnostic Test Grant

This PsA Diagnostic Test Grant program aims to fund the development of a clinically applicable diagnostic test for psoriatic arthritis. This grant program funded six first-year proof-of-concept proposals that have the potential to achieve this goal within five years. Then followed a competitive renewal process between the six projects for up to three additional years of funding to confirm the initial findings followed by development and validation of a diagnostic test. This second phase of grant funding was awarded to Vinod Chandran MBBS, M.D., DM, Ph.D., University Health Network, University of Toronto and Jose Scher M.D., New York University School of Medicine.

More Than Skin Deep

In 2020, NPF established the new More Than Skin Deep: Mental Health Grant. In 2021 it has funded three investigators looking into different ways to treat and prevent mental health issues associated with psoriatic disease, including anxiety and depression.

Patient-Centered Research

In addition to Citizen Pscientist, where more than 7,000 patients share data, trends, and questions, NPF also conducts an Annual Survey. The 2021 Annual Survey received more than 1,200 completed responses from individuals with psoriasis and/or PsA. Data from the 2020 Annual Survey were presented at the 2021 Society for Investigative Dermatology Annual Meeting, the 2021 IPC Symposium at the Society for Investigative Dermatology, the 6th World Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Conference and the 2022 AAD Annual Meeting.  Annual Survey data also resulted in nine publications.