Federal Grant Award Summary

Massachusetts General Hospital's Research Management Division received a $681,793 Project Grant award dated June 23, 2026, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865). The award supports research through March 31, 2031, focused on mapping the neuroarchitecture and connectivity development of the human cerebellum during the first year of postnatal life. The research leverages a cross-scale imaging framework combining in vivo infant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with ex vivo MRI and polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to reveal microscopic cerebellar structure and fiber pathways at high resolution.

The project addresses a significant clinical gap in understanding perinatal cerebellar injury, which occurs in up to 19% of prematurely born infants and correlates with developmental delays in motor, language, cognition, and social behaviors. The deliverables include construction of high-resolution structural and connectivity atlases of infant cerebellar development and improved characterization of cerebellar developmental trajectories and their relationship to functional outcomes. This research is expected to support the development of intervention strategies and targeted therapies to mitigate developmental delays in infants with cerebellar injuries and establish consensus standards for evaluating cerebellar development in clinical practice.