Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a growing body of evidence that implicates the protein kinase Pim-1 as a major driver of prostate cancer progression, and perhaps response to chemotherapy. Pim-1 is overexpressed in early prostate intraepithelial neoplasia and metastatic prostate cancer, and its levels predict response to therapy. Pim-1-overexpressing mouse prostate stem cells demonstr ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Targeted Pb-212 therapy in preclinical animal tests has shown a cure in groups receiving the highest dose of this therapy. Scaling the dose that was most efficacious in animal studies to people would bring the human dose required from 50 to 100 mCi. This application will research an approach that would provide a generator system that would support these require ...

The utility of continuously tracking vehicles in a battlefield has been demonstrated during the Gulf War and other recent conflicts. However, the ability to achieve reliable continuous tracking in many environments will require the use of FOPEN radar andefficient use of sensor resources. In this effort we extend current research to include heterogeneous terrain and apply this model to simulations. ...

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract) Malaria is a disease which affects more than 300 million people each year and is fatal for 1.5 million. The overall objective of this STTR Phase I project is to produce a cGMP malaria vaccine consisting of the 42 kDa C-terminal polypeptide of P. falciparum merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP1.42) to be formulated with ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Injury is a well established risk factor in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) as supported by several large longitudinal population studies. Patients with meniscal and ACL injuries in particular are at risk for early OA. Chondroprotection of the joint surface is mediated by lubricin which forms an ordered nanofilm and provides anti-adhesion via steric rep ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop a sonar system that can be used as a mobility aid by the visually impaired. The system will consist of an ultrasonic acoustic source using a waveform that is designed to optimize target discrimination and a pair of miniature microphones that are mounted near the ears to create natural interaural level and timing difference ...

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract) Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent loss of motor function and control of function below the level of the injury. A significant portion of the loss is due to secondary factors rather than the initial trauma. These factors include increased extracellular concentrations of glutamate which ha ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cocaine abuse remains a grave concern for the American, and increasingly the world, population. As no current therapeutic agents are available to assist cocaine addicts in achieving and maintaining abstinence it is important that new pharmacotherapies be developed. One important question not usually addressed in the development ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiac valve replacement using prosthetic valves is indicated when progression of degenerative disease or bacterial infection of the native valve results in valvular dysfunction, thereby impacting on cardiac output. An estimated 50,000 prosthetic valves are implanted annually in the United States, with this number increasing due to an aging population and, to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Acid ceramidase (AC) has been implicated as a novel target for cancer therapy because of its pivotal role in regulating interconversion of three key bioactive lipids; ceramide (Cer), sphingosine (Sph) and Sphingosine-1-Phosphate (S1P). It is well known that Cer functions predominantly as a tumor suppressor lipid and mediator of apoptosis following chemo and rad ...