Alex Manfull Fund backs three PANS and PANDAS research grants

The Alex Manfull Fund has awarded new grants to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University at Buffalo and Harvard Medical School/Mass General Brigham to speed discovery in PANS and PANDAS. The projects focus on gut inflammation, brain tissue models and imaging markers that could improve diagnosis and treatment for young patients.

Why it matters: - PANS and PANDAS can follow common infections and trigger sudden, severe neuropsychiatric symptoms in children and teens. - The new grants are designed to push the field toward measurable biology, better diagnosis and more targeted treatment. - The work could help identify mechanisms that explain why some young people regress after infections or other stressors.

What happened: - The Alex Manfull Fund awarded new research grants to Dr. Herb Lachman of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dr. Sean Miller of the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Lauren Breithaupt of Harvard Medical School/Mass General Brigham. - The fund announced the grants on Oct. 7, 2026, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. - The projects target infection-associated neuroimmune disorders PANS and PANDAS.

The details: - Lachman’s study examines pathogenic variants in DUOX2, a gene tied to gut bacteria control, the intestinal barrier and immune communication. - The research will use human gut organoids carrying the rare DUOX2 variant found in affected patients. - The team will compare those organoids with normal controls, with and without immune cytokines, to test intestinal permeability. - An increase in permeability would support a pathway in which cytokines and bacterial immune stimulators cross the gut barrier and activate the gut/immune/brain axis. - The goal is to build evidence for larger NIH-funded studies and future treatments aimed at repairing the gut barrier and reducing inflammation. - Miller’s study will compare brain tissue from people who died with PANDAS and human brain organoids exposed to blood serum from PANDAS patients. - The project will look for changes in immune activity, brain cell communication and synaptic function. - The study is intended to be the first to use human cortical models infused with PANDAS patient sera and compared directly with human brain transcriptome data. - Breithaupt’s project builds on earlier TAMF-funded work that found changes in VEGFA and HGF in young people with PANS and PANDAS. - Her new study focuses on the choroid plexus, a vascular brain structure that helps form the barrier between the bloodstream and cerebrospinal fluid. - The choroid plexus has been linked to neuroinflammation in other neurological and psychiatric disorders, but it has not been studied in PANS or PANDAS. - Her team will analyze structural MRIs from 47 young people with PANS/PANDAS and healthy controls to measure the choroid plexus. - The researchers will look for differences that could point to inflammation-related changes. - The Alex Manfull Fund said the research supports its mission to improve understanding of the disorders and accelerate care. - Susan Manfull, the fund’s executive director, said the field is close to breakthroughs and that the need is urgent.

Between the lines: - The three grants reflect a shift toward biology-first research instead of symptom-only observation. - Each project attacks a different possible pathway: gut barrier dysfunction, immune activity in brain tissue and imaging markers of inflammation. - That breadth suggests the fund is trying to help define subtypes of disease rather than treat PANS and PANDAS as a single, uniform condition.

What's next: - Lachman’s team aims to produce early evidence that could support larger NIH-funded studies. - Miller’s work seeks biological targets that could guide future diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic testing. - Breithaupt’s MRI study aims to determine whether the choroid plexus can serve as a measurable marker of disease. - The fund said it will continue supporting research, clinician education and awareness efforts.

The bottom line: - The new grants are meant to move PANS and PANDAS research closer to concrete biomarkers, clearer mechanisms and better treatment options for young patients.