Award Data

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 ...

Eno River Labs, LLC, (ERL) proposes to develop an onsite testing kit for dioxins that uses fluorescently tagged ssDNA aptamers for selective binding and subsequent screening and quantitative analysis of dioxin in soil sample. Current dioxin field test kits are immunoassay based, which are insufficiently specific and sometimes unreliable. Reliable dioxin testing requires laboratory ...

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 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of clinically effective cancer vaccines requires reliable analytical methods to evaluate the immune response to vaccination. Immunoassays are among the most sensitive and specific analytical methods that have been used widely in cancer vaccine research, most commonly to monitor the release of cytokines from T-cells in response to vaccination. A ...

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): Summary/Abstract Diabetic foot ulcers are a significant health problem that imposes high costs on both patients and society (Boulton, Vileikyte et al. 2005). A large proportion of foot ulcers remain unresponsive to available conventional treatment and their associated complications and costs have prompted extensive research that has led to promising breakthroug ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There are over 6.3 million fractures each year in the United States of which approximately 700,000 are difficult to heal. The available treatment options for fractures that do not heal or are slow to heal are limited. Bone morphogenetic proteins are growth factors that stimulate new bone production and have received FDA approval for bone fracture repair and spi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Two recombinant human Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMP's), rhBMP-2 and rhBMP-7, are currently used in clinical applications to promote spinal fusion and fracture healing (Mont, Ragland et al. 2004). Over 6.3 million fractures occur each year in the United States alone (Praemer, Furner et al. 1999). Approximately 15% of fractures have delayed or impaired healing ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tendon injuries are quite common and the frequency of these injuries is expected to rise as the population ages, yet continues to remain active. Long periods of immobilization and rehabilitation are required because tendon healing is a relatively slow process. Innovations that can shorten this time period by improving healing rates and increasing the strength o ...

Potentially insufficient corn stock supplies make necessary the development of industrial yeast strains for converting alternative cellulosic materials for renewable fuel sources. This project investigates the feasibility and develops the capability of using Holographic Optical Trapping as an automated manipulation tool for yeast cells, to characterize and evaluate yeast strains.