Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Spinal cord injury (SCI) inflicts trauma to the cells and tissues of the central nervous system and causes a severe and debilitating condition in the individual. Following SCI, limited regeneration of injured neurons results in permanent disability characterized by some loss of sensation, paralysis and autonomic dysfunction. One reason that neurons fail to rege ...

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): Cloning of the hot and cold thermal receptors has advanced the understanding of the molecular basis of thermal sensation. Two important remaining questions to be addressed are the identification of additional thermal receptor genes and the elucidation of the mechanism(s) that enable the receptor proteins to alter gating properties in response to changes in temp ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Use of botanical products such as exogenous antioxidants has gained considerable momentum in the last few years in therapy of human degenerative diseases. Among these antioxidants, tumeric, neem, guggul, alpha-tocopherol, Beta-carotene, and ascorbic acid have been shown to have a special relevance in maintaining the redox e ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic renal dysfunction is a progressive, degenerative disorder that ultimately results in acute renal failure and requires dialysis as an intervention, and renal transplantation as the only potential cure. Initiating conditions of renal dysfunction include ischemia, diabetes, underlying cardiovascular disease, or renal toxicity associated with certain chemo ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Apoptotic cell loss triggered by ischemia-reperfusion plays a prominent role in delayed graft function and acute renal failure following kidney transplant. In experimental models of ischemia-reperfusion, treatment with scatter factor/hepatocyte growth factor reduced renal dysfunction and accelerated renal regeneration, in part by attenuating apoptotic cell deat ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hepatic fibrosis, a disease affecting tens of millions of patients worldwide, is the liver scarring response that occurs in response to chronic injury from viral hepatitis B or C, excessive alcohol use, and iron overload, and often leads to liver failure and death. Despite the availability of antiviral and other therapies, most are ineffective in treating the u ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Activation of cell death pathways leading to endothelial cell apoptosis and neointimal vascular smooth muscle cell hyperplasia is an initial trigger of the progression of atherosclerotic lesions. Because apoptosis is a highly regulated cellular process and mediates the development of atherosclerotic plaques, targeted inhibition of endothelial cell apoptosis is ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this proposal, we present a program to develop a low-cost, high-resolution, high-throughput maskless photoablation system for fabrication of microfluidic structures to be used in Biochip devices. In Phase I of this proposal, we will develop the equipment design, specifically focusing on the selection and incorporation of the spatial light modulator into the ...