Award Data

Physical vulnerability, visual impairment, mobility limitations, and cognitive disorders can make selecting a safe & accessible walking route very challenging for many older adults. Familiar online mapping & wayfinding services can be helpful, but they do not answer important questions about the built environment that older & disabled adult face on a daily basis. What are the sidewalks like alon ...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) results in excess of 14,000 deaths and over $1 billion in excess healthcare costs annually. Early and reliable diagnosis is key for both improving treatment outcomes, and instituting precautions to prevent transmission. Antibiotic therapy can actually increase the odds of coming down with a hospital-acquired infection, especially when the cause is a bacterium ...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a common nosocomial pathogen that plagues patients because of it relatively high rate of recurrence. Although diagnosis for primary CDI is very sensitive, there are not tests to predict recurrence. Recent human clinical trials show monocolonal antibodies to toxin A & B are protective for recurrent disease and some natural history studies suggest generation ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to extend the development of a novel compound that can reprogram memory T lymphocytes to induce tolerance in allergic rhinitis (AR). AR is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States (US) and is estimated to affect more than 50 million people [1,2]. As a result, the annual US economic burden of AR exceeds 12 billio ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The current industry standard for predicting contact dermal sensitization is the murine Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA). A significant limitation of the LLNA is the frequency of false positives, as well as the occurrenceof false negatives. This limitation occurs as a result of the LLNA inability to always correctly distinguish between substances that are strongly ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite improvements in vaccine design, manufacture, and distribution, influenza A infection remains a significant public health concern. The February 2013 CDC Interim Adjusted Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness reported overall vaccine effectiveness of 56% and 67% against influenza A and B infections, respectively, with much reduced effect ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this proposal is to adapt a technology that we have developed for monitoring residual disease in leukemia patients to monitor residual autoimmune disease in Celiac Disease patients. Celiac disease hasa significant burden on quality of life, as it is one of the most frequent autoimmune diseases, with an estimated prevalence of approximately 1% ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Botulinum toxin is one of the six categories of pathogens that have been designated as Category A Select Agents by the Centers for Disease Control. The toxin, which is generally acknowledged to be the most potent biological poison known, enters the body and acts on peripheral cholinergic nerve endings to cause paralysis of transmission. In seriously poisoned pa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Transplant patients are quite susceptible to opportunistic viral infection resulting from immune suppression necessary for maintenance of their graft. In the case of renal transplant, 17,604 patients in 2011, a new graft means being taken off dialysis, improving quality of life and saving U.S. healthcare nearly 1 B annually. Therefore it is essential that the ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Lyme disease (LD) is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States. According to the recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention report, approximately 300,000 Lyme cases are diagnosed each year. If left untreated, the infection spreads to joints, the heart and the nervous system. In most cases, infections and associated symptoms are el ...