We have a historic opportunity to inject over $1 billion into accelerating the development of treatments for the brain and nervous system over the next five years. All we need is a letter from you.

The National Neurotechnology Initiative Act was introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R.1483) and the Senate (S.586) on March 12, 2009. The NNTI is a $200M/year initiative designed to foster new discoveries and accelerate the development of new and safer treatments for the one in three Americans living with a brain-related illness, injury or disease. Championing the NNTI are Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representatives Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI 1st) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL 18th) who have called upon Congress to act quickly on this important legislation.

For more detail on the NNTI Act, please see:

• Brief summary of NNTI Act, reasons for developing the legislation
  
• Congressional press release on NNTI Act Introduction

This legislation will accelerate the development of treatments for Alzheimer's disease, autism, addiction, ALS, anxiety, depressive disorders, epilepsy, hearing loss, migraine, multiple sclerosis, obesity, pain, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, age-related macular degeneration, sensory disorders, sleep disorders, spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury and many orphan diseases of the brain and nervous system.

Follow these five steps:

1. Download two draft letters (one to send to each of your Senators, one to your Representative). We have developed sample letters written from the perspective of a neuroscience researcher, company executive, doctor and patient advocate.

Choose the category which best reflects your perspective and download the appropriate Senate letter and Representative letter. If none of those categories apply, we recommend you start with the patient advocacy letters as a template and edit to communicate your own personal experience with brain-related illness, injury or disease.

Senate letters: neuroscience researcher, company executive, doctor, patient.
Representative letters: neuroscience researcher, company executive, doctor, patient.

2. Get the address of your Representative and Senator on Capitol Hill. Click here for congressional directory. Here you can type in your Zip Code to access a list of your Congressional representatives.

3. Edit your letters (the more personalized the better), Either copy onto or print on YOUR letterhead, sign it.

4. Fax your letters to your Representative and one to each of your Senators. Also, please fax a copy of letters to Zack Lynch, Executive Director at NIO at (fax: 415-358-5888).

Because we are trying to get an accurate sense of the groundswell of support for this initiative, we would appreciate it if send us an email at zack@neurotechindustry.org letting us know who you sent letters to so we can keep track of responses or you can fax your letters to Zack Lynch, Executive Director at NIO at (fax: 415-358-5888).

A quantifiable number of the total volume of support will greatly improve our efforts during meetings with key Congressional representatives as this bill goes forward.

5. Help spread the word by suggesting two colleagues do the same.