Award Data

Project Summary Surgery and acute post-operative pain are major contributors to persistent pain, chronic pain, and opioid dependence. Currently, there are no products on the market in the United States that can be used to monitor surgical nociception. Existing products use indicators that are susceptible to intraoperative influences such as blood loss, anesthetic drugs and antihypertensives. This ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The cysteine protease caspase-6 (Casp6) has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases for over fifteen years. In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Casp6 is colocalized with amyloid plaques and tau tangles in human brain, and both human and animal model data indicate that activated Casp6 contributes to neuronal inflammation, neurodegeneration, and cleavage of proteins to to ...

Project Summary / Abstract Nerve injuries arising from trauma, disease, or as a surgical necessity, lead most often to permanent loss of some or all functions mediated by the injured nerves. 50,000 peripheral nerve procedures are performed every year in the US, and 300,000 across Europe. After complete transection of a nerve, the optimal clinical procedure for nerve repair remains the surgical end ...

Despite prevalent use of anti-platelet and anti-lipid therapies, stroke remains the third major cause of death and is the leading cause of adult disability in the US with an estimated cost in the range of $34 billion annually. Approximately 20% of the annual 795,000 stroke patients die within one year and 15-30% are permanently disabled. Antiplatelet therapy is mainly used for primary prevention o ...

ABSTRACT Long-term survival rates for children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) currently exceed 90%. However, prolonged ALL chemotherapy, which lasts two to three years on average, is associated with significant fatigue and sleep disturbances in both children and their caregivers. In fact, patients and caregivers often identify excess fatigue and sleep disturbances as the most di ...

Abstract This fast-track STTR application proposes to enhance, validate, and scale Sepsis Watch, a deep learning sepsis detection and management system built using data from the Emergency Department (ED) Duke University Hospital (DUH). The proposal will extend and enhance Sepsis Watch to EDs, general inpatient wards, and intensive care unit (ICU) settings across multiple health systems in the Unit ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes (CMS) are a group of clinically similar neuromuscular transmission disorders that differ in their underlying genetic mutation. While some phenotypical variation exists, CMS are commonly characterized by muscle weakness (myasthenia) that worsens with physical exertion. Defects in Collagen Q (ColQ), a multidomain functional protein of the Neuro Muscula ...

Abstract Currently, clinically used drug abuse medications exist for treatment of addiction to opiates, alcohol, and nicotine, but not psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine (METH). Compounds that co-activate both nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) and mu receptors have potential for treatment of drug abuse. In particular, buprenorphine, a partial mu agonist/kappa antagonist, which also acts as a ...

For more than a decade, our work has focused on development of therapeutic interventions for viral- and bacterial-induced acute lung injury (ALI) and the more severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Significantly, we identified the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway as key to the host response to influenza and secondary bacterial infection following influenza. We also identif ...

ABSTRACT Developing drugs that target the central nervous system (CNS) is hampered by an inability to perform direct in vivo preclinical measurements. Here, we propose to identify an optimal smoking cessation drug candidate by monitoring how our newly synthesized prodrugs alter real-time brain dopamine responses to nicotine. Varenicline (CHANTIX®) is the leading FDA-approved oral medication for s ...