Sponsor or institution
Clinical trials and research at Princeton University
As of November 12, 2026, Find a Trial lists 238 NIH-funded research projects at this institution, with $146.5 million in listed awards. Every study is explained in plain English. Data from ClinicalTrials.gov and NIH RePORTER, updated November 12, 2026.
- 238NIH research projects
NIH-funded research (newest 40 of 238)
Early-stage science funded by the US National Institutes of Health. Most of these projects don't enroll patients, but they show what is being worked on.
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How neuropeptides could influence aging and Alzheimer’s risk
Researchers at Princeton are studying whether changing brain signaling chemicals called neuropeptides can extend healthy aging and reduce Alzheimer’s-related brain changes, with a focus on people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
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Sleep and aging brain resilience in a short-lived vertebrate model
A young-aged-friendly project explores how sleep quality affects brain health during aging, using a tiny, fast-lived fish model to understand Alzheimer’s-related changes.
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How hepatitis C adapts to other species to help develop vaccines
Researchers are making a mouse-friendly version of hepatitis C so scientists can better test vaccines and understand the virus for people living with or at risk of hepatitis C.
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Mapping how cells push and pull in living tissues
A science project at Princeton aims to map and control the forces between cells in 3D tissues to better understand cancer, development, and healing, with potential benefits for patients in the future.
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Understanding how brain signals give rise to thinking using brain-wide recordings
Researchers at Princeton are developing new brain theories and computer tools to understand how complex neural signals relate to thinking and behavior.
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Cancer metabolism revealed through mass spectrometry and isotope tracing
A scientist team at Princeton will study how cancer cells use nutrients by analyzing metabolites with advanced mass spectrometry and labeled tracers.
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Forward genetic screen to find genes that shape left-right body patterning
A zebrafish-based study will uncover genes that control how left-right body asymmetry is set up, which can impact congenital heart defects in people.
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Understanding how the immune system guides tissue regeneration in mammals
Researchers are studying how immune cells and stem cells team up to rebuild tissues after injury, potentially leading to fewer scars and better healing in mammals.
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Understanding how gene networks shape development in humans (via information flow in regulatory networks)
A study at Princeton will look at how gene networks control cell fate during development, using human-focused data and advanced imaging to map how signals move through regulatory networks.
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Cross-brain interactions shaping decision making in rats
A Princeton project will record many brain cells across dozens of regions in freely moving rats to understand how different brain areas coordinate during decision making.
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Learning how bacteria talk to each other and how cells organize themselves
Researchers at Princeton will study how bacteria communicate in real environments and how cell components arrange themselves, with goals that could improve understanding of infections and biofilms.
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A user-friendly machine-learning platform to reveal unknown metabolites in MS-based metabolomics
A Princeton-led project will create smart computer tools to identify unknown small molecules found in human samples using mass spectrometry, with potential benefits for health research.
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How flu virus RNA makes extra or missing pieces that can make infections worse
Researchers are working to understand how flu viruses' RNA copying machinery makes extra or missing RNA pieces that can lead to more severe seasonal or bird flu infections.
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Understanding how the brain processes everyday speech in autism
Researchers at Princeton are studying how the brain naturally processes language and face-to-face conversations in people with autism to uncover mechanisms that could improve communication.
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How the thalamus helps attention and what we see
This work looks at how a deep brain area called the pulvinar helps the brain focus attention and process visual information, with relevance for people with attention or autism-related challenges.
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From Genes to Molecules: Expanding the Chemical Space of Microbial and Microbiome Natural Products
Researchers are exploring hidden natural products produced by bacteria and the human microbiome to understand their structures, functions, and potential health benefits.
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Inside Condensates: How molecular structure shapes condensate material properties
A research project at Princeton will use computer models to understand how proteins and nucleic acids inside cell blobs called condensates influence health and disease.
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Advanced optical tools to map brain activity in memory and decision-making
Researchers at Princeton will develop and upgrade optical instruments to study how brain cells coordinate during working memory and decision tasks in animals.
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Neuroanatomy core for brain mapping and imaging tools
A research collaboration at Princeton is testing how memory and decision-making emerge from brain networks using advanced brain-imaging tools and standardized data pipelines.
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Behavior Automation for rodent decision making
A national research grant funds a center that uses automated, standardized rodent behavioral training to study how working memory guides decisions.
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Data science core to standardize and share neuroscience data and pipelines
A program to standardize how neuroscience data are collected and analyzed, and to share data, code, and pipelines openly for wider use.
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Administrative Core for a multi-project research program at a major university
A centralized administrative core helps a team of researchers collaborate smoothly and manage budgets, milestones, and meetings for a large multi-project program.
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Multiregion Brain Interactions in Decision Making
Researchers at Princeton are testing how multiple brain regions communicate during decision-making to understand the timing and content of information flow.
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Internal Brain States and How They Shape Decision-Making
This project will explore how rodents’ decisions change with different internal brain states and how specific brain areas influence those states.
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Geometry of brain representations and dynamics in memory and decisions
A study at Princeton will map how groups of brain cells encode memory and guide decisions in mice, using geometric and modeling approaches.
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Sources and Mechanisms of Sequential Brain Activity
A study at Princeton will look at how mouse brains use sequences of neural activity to help make decisions, and how timing and navigation influence those sequences.
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Understanding how neural circuits control working memory and decisions
A large NIH grant is exploring how brain circuits work together to support thinking and memory, with potential implications for Alzheimer’s-related conditions.
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Social categorization in adolescence and its impact on well-being
This project follows teens over time to understand how they categorize people and things around them and how these ideas relate to their mood and health.
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AI-powered platform to identify and discover new psychoactive substances
A data-driven AI platform helps labs quickly find known and unknown psychoactive substances to improve toxicology testing and public health responses.
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Individual differences in behavior driven by self-reinforcement of suboptimal strategies
A science project at Princeton aims to understand why people differ in behavior by looking at how small initial differences shape each person’s reward learning in a complex world.
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A new, single-cell approach to find non-traditional antibiotics
Researchers are testing an exciting single-cell method to discover antibiotics with new ways of stopping bacteria, aiming to help people with bacterial infections.
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Disseminating FlyWire: a whole-brain connectome resource for neuroscience researchers
A funded project to share FlyWire, a complete Drosophila brain map created with AI-assisted segmentation, so scientists worldwide can study brain circuits.
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Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing in Young Adulthood
A long-term study follows people born in large US cities around 1998-2000 to learn how family life affects wellbeing as they reach their late 20s, with ongoing surveys and biological samples collected over many years.
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Neuroimaging Core to support brain research at Princeton and Rutgers
A Neuroimaging Core helps researchers collect and analyze brain MRI data across sites to better understand how brain signals relate to mental health.
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Computational Modeling Core for Center-Wide Data Analysis
A center-wide computational modeling core will develop and provide data-analysis tools using latent cause models to understand learning and decision-making in mental illness, based on human and animal data.
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Behavioral Testing and Clinical Assessment Core improves how we study how people think and feel
This grant supports a central hub that makes human-subject research easier and more reliable for studying how people infer hidden causes in health and mental illness.
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Neural clues to how we form and unlearn associations
A research project at Princeton looks at how brain signals, especially in the amygdala, help us learn and unlearn associations, and whether orexin signals can influence that process.
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Latent-cause ideas behind fear in anxiety
A research team at Princeton is studying why some people relapse into fear after exposure therapy and how brain signals relate to these differences.
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Latent-cause inference in compulsivity and its impact on habits
A study at Princeton will explore how the brain’s reasoning about hidden causes influences compulsive behaviors like OCD and problematic drinking, with the goal of finding new ways to break rigid habits.
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Latent cause inference and how it shapes thinking, learning, and anxiety
A big NIH grant is exploring how people form hidden groups of past experiences and how this underlying process relates to anxiety and other mental health symptoms.
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