The vision of the FY12 Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Research Program (DMDRP) is to extend and improve the function, quality of life, and lifespan for all individuals diagnosed with DMD. As such, the DMDRP is seeking to fund research to accelerate the development and clinical testing of new therapeutics and increase our understanding of successes and failures in clinical trials. The DMDRP Investigator-Initiated Research Award (IIRA) supports studies that will make an important contribution toward understanding mechanisms of initiation or progression, and/or improving patient care for DMD. Research projects should focus on translational research that will accelerate the movement of promising ideas in DMD into clinical applications. The DMDRP IIRA does not support clinical trials, but it may support correlative studies that are associated with an existing clinical trial, and projects that develop endpoints for clinical trials. Research projects may also include preclinical studies in animal models, human subjects, and human anatomical substances.