We want to make underfunded medical research projects more accessible and understandable in order to increase their funding opportunities. We will do this by finding medical research projects and publishing easily understandable descriptions of their research on our site, in both text and video form.
Patients are very disconnected from medical researchers. Seeing what research is being done can be very uplifting for patients. However, finding and understanding medical research is very difficult. Many small medical research labs cannot compete with large labs for funding. In 2011, the NIH could only fund 17% of new grant applicants, which left over 45,000 projects looking elsewhere for funding.
By connecting patients with medical research labs, we can efficiently solve each others' problems. Patients can learn about research and stay connected with medical researchers. This can be very empowering in a time of helplessness. Researchers can raise funds from the people who need answers the most. This gives small labs a way to conduct research without winning major grants.
Our primary long-term goal is to be able to raise enough money for research to become a viable funding option for research labs. Just because a lab is passed over by major grant institutions doesn't mean it shouldn't be able to look for answers. We could potentially affect the 45,000+ projects that don't get funding by the NIH, along with the hundreds of millions of Americans touched by an illness in some way.
