Hugo W. Moser Research Institute At Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute At Kennedy Krieger, Inc. is a nonprofit medical research organization based in Baltimore, Maryland, that conducts federally funded neuroscience and pediatric research as a prime grant recipient (60% of recent awards) and as a sub-recipient on collaborative grants (40% of recent awards). The Institute does not compete for federal contracts; its entire federal footprint is grant-based work funded primarily through the National Institutes of Health.

The Hugo W. Moser Research Institute operates as a research division of Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc., a larger nonprofit healthcare and research organization. The Institute's core mission centers on translational and clinical research in neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders, with particular strength in advanced neuroimaging (MRI and spectroscopy), autism spectrum disorders, leukodystrophies, rare neurological conditions, and pediatric brain injury and rehabilitation. Recent representative prime grants include a $445.5 thousand NINDS project grant on drug repurposing for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (awarded June 2026, extending through May 2028), an $818.5 thousand NIDCD project grant on language development trajectories in autistic toddlers using high-density diffuse optical tomography neuroimaging (awarded February 2026, extending through January 2031), a $343.75 thousand NINDS project grant developing the Precision Rehabilitation Center Resource Core with tools and AI-enabled clinical assessments for neurological rehabilitation (awarded September 2025, extending through August 2030), and a $258.3 thousand NINDS cooperative agreement establishing the Batten Disease Clinical Research Consortium Career Enhancement Core with sub-awards to thirteen major academic medical centers including Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas Southwestern, and Boston Children's Hospital (awarded September 2025, extending through August 2030).

Customer concentration is heavily skewed toward NIH institutes. The top five funding agencies account for 57% of recent awards and represent four distinct components of the National Institutes of Health: the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS, 72 awards), the broader NIH (69 awards), the National Institute on Aging (31 awards, $10 thousand combined potential value), the National Institute of Mental Health (29 awards), and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (28 awards). By potential value, the top five customers account for 97% of combined potential value, dominated by the National Human Genome Research Institute (5 awards, $180 thousand) and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (12 awards, $75 thousand). Recent activity has grown: from 17 awards in 2022 to 47 awards in 2024 to 65 awards in 2025. Twenty-three awards (combined potential value $25 thousand) reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months and face recompete.

The Institute's sub-recipient footprint is extensive and collaborative. Named prime grantees whose awards carry Hugo W. Moser sub-awards include Johns Hopkins University (dominant sub-prime partner across dozens of projects including work on Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, multiple sclerosis imaging, and pediatric brain tumor imaging), The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (Global Leukodystrophy Initiative Clinical Trials Network and related leukodystrophy research), The Washington University (Down syndrome early brain development longitudinal MRI studies), Drexel University (autism multi-cohort trajectory studies), and Baylor College of Medicine (osteogenesis imperfecta multicenter longitudinal studies). The Institute also sub-receives on awards from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) U01 TR002764 program on standardized neurobehavioral phenotyping in intellectual and developmental disabilities, serving as the site lead for rapid neurobehavioral assessment validation and outcome evaluation across multiple CTSA institutions.

The F.M. Kirby Research Center, a state-of-the-art preclinical and human research imaging facility housed within the Institute, serves as a shared resource for Hugo W. Moser and Johns Hopkins University investigators. The Center operates three 3.0 Tesla and one 7.0 Tesla human research-dedicated MRI scanners, an 11.7 Tesla preclinical animal MRI scanner (recently upgraded from 2011-era hardware), and advanced MR spectroscopy and imaging capabilities. The facility supports both human and animal model neuroimaging across autism, neurodegeneration, brain tumor, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and rare neurological disease research. Recent grants explicitly fund advanced MRI technique development, including chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging for Alzheimer's disease pH mapping, oxygen-enhanced MRI for tumor characterization, magnetic resonance spectroscopy of pediatric brain disorders, and quantitative susceptibility mapping for iron quantification in neurodegeneration. The Institute holds an NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) facility infrastructure award ($440 thousand, now Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as fiscal sponsor) to maintain and upgrade the Kirby Center's human and animal imaging platforms.

The Institute's recent award portfolio reflects specialization in neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders affecting pediatric and adult populations. Beyond leukodystrophies and adrenoleukodystrophy (signature focus areas), active research areas include autism spectrum disorder language development and motor learning, acute flaccid myelitis (enterovirus D68 motor neuron toxicity), Batten disease (neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis), Alzheimer's disease and age-related neurodegeneration, traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest outcomes in children, long COVID sequelae and post-acute fatigue mechanisms, sickle cell disease silent cerebral infarction and neurocognitive outcomes, and behavioral health interventions for military-connected youth. The Institute participates in the NeuroNEXT consortium (Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials), funded through NINDS, as a site supporting early-phase neurological clinical trials with infrastructure for rapid startup and pediatric population emphasis.

Hugo W. Moser operates with no federal contract work or set-aside posture; all federal funding flows through competitive and non-competitive NIH research grants under CFDA programs including 93.853 (NINDS Extramural Research in Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders), 93.173 (NIDCD Research in Deafness and Communication Disorders), 93.242 (NIMH Extramural Research), and related NIH institute programs. The organization does not appear to pursue federal contracts or compete in the federal procurement marketplace.