Award Data

Multi-modal (including spatial, spectral and polarimetric) photodetectors and focal plane arrays (FPA) can dramatically enhance the target detection, tracking and identification capability of a battle field sensing system. Most existing multi-spectral polarimetric sensing systems employ dispersive optics (gratings or prisms), or external polarizer technologies to obtain spectral and polarimetric c ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A high percentage of the ~ 500,000 children born prematurely each year in the US require intravenous feeding after birth because they do not tolerate oral feeding. This is accomplished with a total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solution, which is prepared from component solutions: small and large volume parenterals (SVPs and LVPs). Aluminum (Al) is a common contam ...

The human auditory system out-performs all current machine-based systems for analyzing and interpreting real world acoustic environments. Central to that human performance is the method of auditory scene analysis used by listeners and the mechanisms that allow creation of auditory objects. BioMimetic Systems has implemented real-time biomimetic algorithms in embedded hardware based on the ‘whatâ ...

Aerodyne Research, Inc. (ARI) and The University of Massachusetts at Amherst will collaborate to develop a novel technique for efficient mass spectrometric analysis of high molecular weight analytes such as proteins and polymers. Laser desorption and ionization with minimal analyte fragmentaton will be carried out on metal nanoparticle substrates in a particle beam sampled by Aerodyne’s proprie ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Cancer is the second leading cause of death after heart disease in the US Chemotherapy is a mainstay of treatment after surgical removal of tumors but the balance of clinical benefit versus disabling or life threatening side effects is often uncertain Genotyping of cancers to identify mutated oncogenes has enabled an era of targeted therapy Drugs targeting ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant This proposal seeks to develop a novel vaccine against Lyme disease by targeting Ixodes scapularis proteins critical for Borrelia burgdorferi transmission from the tick to mammalian host Earlier work has identified four tick proteins Salp TRE tHRF and TSLPI that facilitate different steps of spirochete transmission and immunity against these protein ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pancreatic islet transplantation is a viable approach for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, this therapeutic approach suffers from graft rejection. Dr. Shirwan, founder of ApoImmune, has developed a novel immunotherapeutic approach aimed at tolerance induction to alloantigens without chronic use of general immunosuppression. This approach, terme ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) and the Surgical Navigation and Robotics Laboratory (SNR) at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) propose to develop and test a Smart Template to guide transperineal targeted prostate biopsiesand subsequent therapy under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The project aims to solve the problem of poor diagnostic yield in prostate b ...

Mayflower Communications has partnered with the Boston University Hearing Research Center to propose novel techniques for speech enhancement in reverberant environment based on advanced auditory modeling of higher-level processing in the human auditory brain. Speech enhancement or noise suppression has been an area of active research for well over three decades. State-of-the-art single-microphone ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project proposes to build an integrated software-based system for enhancing the accuracy of tumor change detection. The intent of the system, called AutoRegister, which is to be deployed on a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner platform, is to automate the alignment of a patient's brain scan with that of a prior scan, such that subseque ...