Greater LOS Angeles Veterans Research And Education Foundation

Greater Los Angeles Veterans Research And Education Foundation (GLAVREF) is a tax-exempt non-profit organization registered in SAM.gov since April 2020 and headquartered at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in Los Angeles, California. The foundation specializes in complex medical research with a particular emphasis on neuroscience, brain tissue biospecimen management, immunohistochemistry services, and clinical research initiatives focused on veterans' health. As a research entity affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs, GLAVREF leverages its position within the VA system to conduct sophisticated biomedical investigations and provide specialized laboratory and analytical services to federal research initiatives.

Through federal contract awards, GLAVREF has demonstrated substantial capabilities in neuroscience research infrastructure and biospecimen management. The organization received a major $17.67 million definitive contract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (awarded November 2025, performance through October 2030) to establish and operate the NIH Neurobiobank Brain and Tissue Repository at the VA Greater Los Angeles facility. This contract requires GLAVREF to acquire, process, store, curate, and distribute central nervous system and related tissue specimens from post-mortem donors with diverse neurological, psychiatric, and neurodevelopmental conditions, with a minimum acquisition target of 70 donors annually and capacity for up to 150 unique donors per year. Additionally, GLAVREF received a $220,000 purchase order contract from the Defense Health Agency (awarded July 2024, completion November 2026) for immunohistochemistry and analysis services involving research and reporting on immunohistochemical slide tissue scans of brain matter. The foundation also completed a $225,000 definitive contract with the Defense Health Agency (awarded July 2022, completion May 2024) for research on age and sex differences in chemical-induced seizures, neuroinflammation, and epileptogenesis. All contract awards were conducted under full and open competition with no set-aside designations.

Through federal grant awards, GLAVREF has emerged as a research institution with substantial expertise in oncology, neurology, and veterans' health research. As a prime grantee, the foundation received a National Cancer Institute project grant awarded March 2024 (completion February 2029) for research targeting circular RNA translation in glioblastoma, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer. GLAVREF also serves as a prime grantee on a Defense Health Agency cooperative agreement (awarded September 2021, completion September 2025) examining the impact of Gulf War inhalant pollutant and chemical exposures on upper sinonasal airway health in veterans. As a sub-awardee, GLAVREF has participated in multiple research initiatives coordinated by leading academic institutions including UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, University of California Irvine, Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research. These sub-grant roles have encompassed specimen procurement and processing for cancer research (liver cancer and non-small cell lung cancer specimens), clinical trial coordination and patient enrollment across multi-site VA facilities, CT perfusion imaging studies, neurological research using intracranial electrodes to study PTSD, and emotional memory research using deep brain stimulation. GLAVREF's grant portfolio demonstrates its capacity to manage complex multi-site research protocols, institutional review board coordination across multiple VA sites, clinical data management, biospecimen handling and quality assurance, and collaborative research spanning oncology, neurology, and psychiatric health conditions.