Award Data

Major depressive disorder is a debilitating mood disorder that affects ~7% of US adults in their lifetime, costing the U.S. economy more than $200 billion a year. Drugs that increase monoaminergic signaling are the mainstay of depression therapy, but have a delayed onset of action and are only effective in about 50% of affected patients. Aberrant brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant This Small Business Innovation Research SBIR Phase I project aims to develop a microfluidic based nitric oxide NO sensor as an early sepsis risk assessment device Sepsis causes significant strain on the U S healthcare system consuming over $ billion annually due to extended hospital stays and significant morbidity and mortality Rapid diagnosis and in ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Over 25 million Americans have asthma, which places an economic burden on the U.S. of $81.9 billion. Airway mucus overproduction is a hallmark of asthma, and the quantity and tenacity of mucus are increased during airway exacerbations. Mucolytics degrade mucus, but do not reduce its production. Although corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory therapies indirectly decrease mucus ...

Pulmonary hypertensionPHis a disease affecting approximatelyof the general population that is characterized by abnormally elevated mean pulmonary artery pressuremPAPand pulmonary vascular resistancePVRIf left untreatedPH can ultimately lead to right heart failure and deathCurrent diagnostic approaches utilize invasive right heart catheterizationRHCto measure mPAP and PVREarly detection of PH leads ...

Abstract Emerging data indicate that those with pre-existing health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, are at significantly increased risk of contracting COVID-19, as are low income and persons of color. Research also suggests that food insecurity (lack of access to affordable, nutritionally valuable food) and poor dietary intake are likely contributors to health disparities ...

Multi drug resistantMDRbacterial infections represent a significant threat to public healthIt is estimated that the impact of antibiotic resistance will continue to grow resulting in a global economic burden of $trillion and causingmillion deaths annuallyMany of the therapeutics currently under development represent traditional antibiotic approaches or next generation antibiotics that will likely ...

Project SummaryInfectious disease is the third leading cause of death in the United Statesand hospital acquired infectionsHAIsin particular affectmillion patients annuallyThe most common type of HAI is pneumoniaoften caused by multi drug resistantMDRpathogens such as Staphylococcus aureusPseudomonas aeruginosaKlebsiella pneumoniaeEscherichia coliand Acinetobacter baumanniiRates of antibiotic resis ...

Abstract We propose to initiate preclinical development of a gene therapeutic targeted to Alzheimer's Disease. The World Health Organization's and Alzheimer's Disease International's report on Dementia (2012) recognizes that the global burden of AlzheimerDisease is forecast to worsen significantly with prevalence predicted to double every 20 years. Interventions that could prov ...

Spinal cord injurySCIfrequently produces severelife long bladder and bowel dysfunction that result in urinary and fecal incontinenceas well as sphincter dyssynergia that causes urinary retention and fecal impactionCurrent standard of care for incontinence consists of adult diaperswhile bladder and bowel voiding require multiple times daily catheterization of the bladder and regular digital extract ...

Project SummaryGenome wide functional genetics has been recently made possible by pooled library based CRISPR Casgene editing technologyBy randomly knocking out thousands of geneslarge scale screens can be conducted for functional geneticsdrug sensitivity and other phenotypesCurrently howeverthis forward genetic approach is largely relegated to live dead screens in mammalian cellsImproving the sop ...