Our vision
A world where people maintain healthy, resilient brains throughout their lifetime because neurodegenerative disease can be prevented and cured.
Kestrel Neuroscience funds focused, collaborative research into the causes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and related neurodegenerative diseases.
Our mission
To discover the causes of FTD and related neurodegenerative diseases and accelerate treatments, prevention, and cures through collaborative science.
Find the causes
Identify the genetic and molecular causes of FTD and closely related disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Explain the biology
Work out the cellular mechanisms that drive neurodegeneration, so treatments can target the disease process itself.
Choose the targets
Discover, validate and prioritize new therapeutic targets, and move the strongest toward preclinical development.
Understanding FTD
The most common dementia in people under 60
Frontotemporal dementia damages the front and side regions of the brain. It changes personality, behavior, language and movement, often years before memory is affected, and it usually strikes in the middle of working and family life.
Typical age at onset. Many people are diagnosed while raising children and building careers.
People living with FTD in the U.S. Diagnosis often takes years, so the true number is likely higher.
Approved treatments that slow or stop the disease. Today's care manages symptoms only.
Figures as published by the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD).
Learn about FTD from AFTDWhere we focus
We fund the gap between discovery and investment
In dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases, promising ideas often stall after they leave the academic lab. Explaining a disease mechanism is one thing. Turning it into a validated target and an early therapeutic candidate takes funding that research grants rarely cover and venture investors aren't yet ready to provide. Kestrel works in that gap, so the strongest discoveries reach the point where companies and investors can carry them forward.
The translational funding gap
- Stage 1
Causes
Genes and molecules behind FTD
- Stage 2
Mechanisms
How cells break down
- Stage 3
Targets
Validated points to intervene
- Stage 4
Preclinical
Early therapeutic candidates
- Stage 5
Clinical trials
Testing in people
- Stage 6
Patients
Approved treatments
Collaborative science
Leading laboratories, working on one problem together
Kestrel Investigators share data, methods and early results across institutions, guided by independent Scientific and Venture Advisory Boards.
- Harvard Medical SchoolBoston
- Max Planck Institute of BiophysicsFrankfurt
- Memorial Sloan Kettering & Weill CornellNew York
- Washington University in St. LouisSt. Louis
- UT Southwestern Medical CenterDallas
Our model is deliberately small and connected. Rather than scattering single grants, Kestrel builds a standing group of investigators whose work fits together, so a finding in one lab can be tested in another within months.
Meet our investigatorsGet involved
Where to start
Fund the next discovery
Gifts support Kestrel Investigators directly. Give once, give monthly, or talk with us about a larger commitment.
Ways to give For researchersResearch programs
How Kestrel selects and supports investigators, and what we look for in collaborative research on neurodegenerative diseases.
Kestrel is not currently reviewing unsolicited proposals. Our research model AboutGovernance and financials
Our board, our leadership, and the documents that show how Kestrel is run and how gifts are used.
How we are governedDonate
Your gift goes to the science
Kestrel is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions fund research into the causes of FTD and related neurodegenerative diseases, and are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
To give by check, make it payable to Kestrel Neuroscience Inc. and mail it to PO Box 2545, Carrollton, GA 30112.