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 ...

Surface water quality impacts associated with intensive, large-scale poultry production are significant and pervasive in many parts of the country. Production Specialties, Inc. has developed process technology for converting waste (poultry litter and manure) into commercial energy and chemical products. Although major technical problems have been successfully resolved, economic perfo ...

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 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): 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): Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common complication of diabetes and a leading cause of blindness in the world. Diabetic macular edema (DME) and retinal neovascularization (NV) are the two major pathological alternations leading to the vision loss in diabetic retinopathy. Angiogenesis and inflammation play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of DR. Inflammatory ce ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Vascular leakage or increased vascular permeability in the retina is a common abnormality of diabetic retinopathy and can result in diabetic macular edema (DME), a major cause of vision loss in diabetic patients. Currently, there is no effective drug therapy to treat DME, and DME affects millions of people in the US alone. Over-expression of vascular endothelia ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex chronic illness with no known medical cure. Its management depends heavily on the patient's daily efforts in lifestyle, behavior and self-care. Self-monitoring is key to effective self-management but is especially challenging in FM due to the impact of fatigue and cognitive symptoms. Based on a cognitive-behavioral approach, this ...