Award Data

Landfills and waterways are inundated with tons of nondegradable plastics derived from petrochemicals. An unusual polysaccharide has been identified that can be extruded as a biodegradable plastic. Unique properties allow it to replace certain petroleum-based plastics at the same price as other bioplastics. To gain quick acceptance, details of the process developed during the Phase I project will ...

Perchlorate is a widely used component of solid fuel, missile and rocket propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. It has been shown to reduce iodide uptake into the thyroid gland. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found perchlorate contamination in 18 states and believes contamination may exist in as many as 39 states. In early January 2005, the National Academy of Science ...

Lead in household paint and dust is a serious health hazard, as low-level lead exposure can result in a number of adverse health effects, especially in children. Onsite and real-time detection and quantification of lead in paint/dust are very important to homeowners and certified lead-based paint removal professionals. Toward this end, both field-portable equipment (such as X-ray fluorescenc ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to conceive and maintain a pregnancy is a desire most couples expect to fulfill in their lifetime. However, infertility affects between eight and fifteen percent of the American population. One of the most common causes of female infertility is anovulation, or the inability to stimulate and release an egg from the ovary. Although there are a number ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic, neuropathic pain is one of the most important unmet medical needs in the United States, affecting tens to hundreds of millions of people nationwide at some time during their lives. Novel therapeutic approaches are desperately needed. The brain peptides neurotensin (NT) and its fully active derivative NT[8- 13] have been shown to exhibit considerable, l ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this project our goal is to develop and commercialize a very low cost microarray chip fabrication technology to reduce the cost by as much as a factor of ten and enable the use of microarrays by groups who can not afford the current generation of microarrays. Our technology combines the standard acid labile DMT protection group containing nucleophosphoramidi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This SBIR Phase I project will develop methods, software and instructional materials for the accurate detection and description of cancer clusters and hotspots. Present state-of-the-art often relies on methods that were defined over a decade ago, do not accurately describe cluster morphology (e.g. shape, excess risk, and boundaries) and that are known to miscla ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many Americans suffer from ocular diseases which require application of topical therapeutic agents. These diseases range from bacterial conjunctivitis to intraocular inflammation. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eye) affects nearly 30 million people. Glaucoma affects 2 to 3 million Americans. Topical treatments exist but their ability to deliver drugs to the ey ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Assays are being developed in efforts to reduce the number of animals required for research. In particular, cell based systems that can evaluate a variety of compounds and/or screen single compounds with many cell types would provide the most advantageous platforms. These types of assay systems would be applicable to drug discovery, toxicology testing and envir ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Transplantation of islets of Langerhans for the clinical treatment of Type I diabetes has had a resurgence of interest due to results obtained using the "Edmonton protocol". However, at this time, procurement of donor pancreases for islet isolation and transplantation is in its infancy. Most pancreases at more remote donor sites are not procured due to justifie ...