Award Data

Project Summary Skin is the first line of defense against the outside environment. When the skin barrier is breached by UV irradiation (UVR) or toxic chemicals, living cell layers including epidermal keratinocytes, melanocytes and dermal fibroblasts are subjected to DNA damage. If unrepaired, this damage can lead to photoaging and cutaneous carcinogenesis. In fact, skin cancer is by far the most c ...

Summary Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. with a 5-year survival rate of andlt;9%. The poor prognosis is partially due to resistance to standard of care treatments including gemcitabine (Gem) and Gem+nab-paclitaxel (n-PTX). The transcription factors HIF-1α and c-MYC are at the center of the mechanisms producing Gem and n-PTX resistance ...

Biolytx Pharmaceuticals Corp. is developing a peptide, BP001, derived from the human endogenous host defense protein CAP37, as a novel multi-target ophthalmic product for corneal infections and injuries. The standard-of-care for corneal infections is topical administration of antibiotics that may be accompanied by topical steroids, to limit the destructive effect of the resulting corneal inflammat ...

Abstract PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The recent groundbreaking experiment using a single neutralizing monoclonal antibody (nmAb) to reduce the death rate in Ebola virus (EBOV)-infected individuals highlights the importance of this class of drug in the treatment of infectious disease. In August 2019, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced that administration of mAb114 had reduced the death rate from 70% to appro ...

ABSTRACT Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. The number of people with primary open angle glaucoma is expected to exceed 100 million by 2040. The first-line therapy for glaucoma treatment is patient-administered hypotensive medication delivered topically via an eye drop. However, studies have consistently shown that patients rarely adhere to dosing recommendations ...

ABSTRACT Despite the overefficacy of diabetic retinopathyDRtreatmentit continues to be the leading cause of blindness in working age AmericansOvermillion adults in the US have diabetesOf thesewill develop DR andwill develop vision threatening DRVTDRCurrentlyless than half of all patients with diabetes receive the recommended annual dilated eye exam andof those diagnosed with VTDRonlyundergo timely ...

Myasthenia gravis is a severe neuromuscular disease primarily caused by complement activating autoantibodies directed towards the skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor. Present treatments are ineffectiveand uniformly have adverse effects, which negatively impact quality of life. Despite being a rare disease, myasthenia gravis is a costly one with a hospitalization expense of half a billion dollar ...

Diabetes affects more than 9% of Americans and costs over $300 billion in 2017 in USA. Medical therapies have limitations in treating diabetic patients with obesity due their common side effects of weight gain. Bariatric surgery has been proposed for treating diabetic patients with promising outcomes. In this project, we propose a novel method of intestinal electrical stimulation (IES) for treatin ...

Project Summary/Abstract Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major respiratory pathogen in human infants and elderly individuals. RSV infection is the principal cause of hospitalization of infants, and is a leading cause of infant mortality worldwide. In elderly adults, RSV infection accounts for 10-15,000 deaths annually in the US alone. Despite the high impact of RSV, there is presently no li ...

Excessive alcohol use is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. with young adults ages 18-29 showing the highest rates of hazardous alcohol use. Community colleges serve over 12 million students, comprising 45% of all U.S. college students. Community college students (CCS) show rates of heavy alcohol use similar to students at traditional four-year residential (FYR) colleges, but ...