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 ...

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 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A technique is proposed for the development of an intraoperative, 3-dimensional registration of C-arm fluoroscopic images with spatially-registered ultrasound visualization and implant guidance of radioactive implants and on-line implant assessment during the procedure for treatment of prostate cancer. With present techniques using transrectal ultrasound guidan ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The major goal of our proposed project is to advance the development of novel compounds for the treatment of amyloidosis and other protein aggregation diseases. Preliminary work demonstrated that two chalcones inhibited amyloid fibril formation, in vitro, and that further work is warranted. The amyloid diseases that arise from nonimmunoglobulin proteins includ ...

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): Manipulation of objects on a microscopic scale can be done conveniently with a device known as a laser or optical tweezers. While laser trapping was originally devised for trapping Rayleigh particles (i.e. particles much less than the wavelength of the incident light) it's ability to manipulate biological particles such as macromolecules, viruses, microtuble ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This small business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to define methodology to facilitate the growth of engineered cartilage tissue. Recent studies have demonstrated that the alginate recovered chondrocyte (ARC) method can be used to stimulate isolated adult articular chondrocytes in vitro to form viable cartilaginous tissue with good physiochemical ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Development of anemia is a major problem in chronic renal failure. Its prevention/early treatment with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) during pre-dialysis phase is important. Available iron is required for efficient action of rHuEpo; iron supplements are often needed; oral iron therapy is the preferred mode. Availability of oral iron varies widely in ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): BioTechPlex proposes to develop mammalian tracheal/bronchial airway epithelial cell line, CILSCREEN TM, specifically for high throughput screening. This is based on physiological functional assays. BioTechPlex has accomplished all the proposed Phase I objectives. A) Successfully developed techniques to culture and numerically expand airway epithelial cells whil ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): BioTechPlex proposes to develop a Transmembrane Water and Ion Measurement System (TWIMS) to measure miniscule water fluxes across biological membranes in conjunction with their electro-physiological properties. BioTechPlex has accomplished all the objectives proposed in Phase I. A) Developed a novel light source and associated optics for fluorescence photon ...