Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Novel drugs that improve overall survival with decreased morbidity are critical in the war on cancer. Acenta Discovery Inc. has partnered with the Toretsky Lab of the Lombardi Cancer Center to create and preclinically evaluate novel inhibitors of the protein Akt. An Akt inhibitor would have tremendous value in improving the lives of patients with many types ...

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): The investigators have developed a plasmid vector that expresses the normal human alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) gene in human respiratory epithelium when delivered as a plasmid-cationic liposome complex. In subjects with inherited AAT deficiency, they showed that liposome mediated transfer of the normal AAT gene to the nasal respiratory epi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Molecular interactions are central to the understanding of basic biology and cellular function, are paramount to all molecular assays (research and in vitro diagnostics), are essential in biomarker discovery and critical toward evaluating therapeutics. However, the tools available to quantify these interactions have limitations, in so far as they either rely up ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death in the United States with approximately 72,000 people dying from drug overdose in 2017. Many of these fatalities occurred in individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD), which is one of the greatest public health issues confronting the United States today. Digital Recovery Support Services (DRSs) that include peer support, psychoeducatio ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of most cardiovascular disease and considerable evidence supports the role of hypercholesterolemia as a risk factor for this disease. In preliminary work, we found that tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), at a dose lower than approved for human use, was effective in reducing plasma levels of both total cholesterol and tri ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Orthopaedic Surgical Site Infections (SSIs), including Prosthetic Joint Infections (PJIs), are an extremely costly health care problem, illustrated by the 70,000- 114,000 average total cost per case to treat more than20,000 hip and knee replacement infections in the US each year. When a prosthetic joint becomes infected following arthroplasty, organisms form ...

A remarkable and unexpected interaction effect between high frequency ultrasound energy and bioelectrically excitable tissue will be employed to the development of a line of advanced microstimulators for medical neurogenic applications An excised nerve preparation as well as hippocampal tissue slices of the rat brain will be used as physiologic models for further study of the ultrasound interactio ...

A cerebral aneurysm is an abnormal enlargement or pouch that forms from a weakened vessel segment in the brain Often going unnoticed and untreated an aneurysm can cause a sudden and catastrophic hemorrhage or stroke Approximately of patients die from an aneurysm rupture even before receiving medical attention and of patients die despite medical treatment Patients that survive typical ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Problem Lower gastrointestinal bleeding is a significant medical problem in the United States accounting for more than hospital admissions and tens of billions of dollars of healthcare spending annually It is common for bleeding from a single site to stop and restart multiple times The three modalities now used to diagnose and locate gastrointestina ...

PROJECT SUMMARYMicroprocessor-controlled ankles have been shown to substantially improve mobility and stability in individuals with lower limb amputation, but these devices are typically only available to higher mobility users due to a lack of scientific evidence to justify insurance reimbursement. As such, many of the individuals with lower limb amputation that have the greatest need for advanced ...