Award Data

SUMMARY Patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) experience low oxygen saturation, shortness of breath, low quality of life, and a short life span (lt10 years) following diagnosis. These patients frequently present to emergency rooms, and many are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs), straining the health care system. Despite therapy with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, prostacyclin analogs, a ...

Knee  Osteoarthritis  (KOA)  is  a  degenerative  joint  disease  that  leads  to  significant  pain  and  functional  disability  affecting  over  30%  of  older  adults  making  it  one  of  the  most  common  and  debilitating  conditions  related  to  aging.  This  disease  results  in  a  loss  of  mobility,  reduced  quality  of  life,  and  in ...

Project Summary Each year, between 340,000 and 900,000 premature deaths can be linked to air pollution caused by releasing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), i.e., an estimated 1.8 billion tons of VOCs are emitted to the global environment each year. Also, some VOCs cause serious adverse health effects even at the trace level concentration, e.g., cancer, damage to the central nervous and immune sy ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Vitiligo is the most common acquired hypopigmentary disorder that afflicts 0.5-2% of the world population, from all ethnicities and skin color. It is characterized by loss of melanocytes, which is often progressive, resulting in depigmented skin lesions. Vitiligo can be segmental (5-16% of all cases) or most commonly, non-segmental. It is a disease of young adults, as 25% of all no ...

Summary The proposed DE iRED program consists of university and private sector partnerships to deliver a comprehensive program that will engage and support biomedical innovators in the early stages of technology commercialization by addressing key bottlenecks in the startup process as identified both in the solicitation and by the DRIVEN Accelerator Hub. According to DRIVEN’s Voice of Customer i ...

Project Summary Project Title: Development of a Small Molecule Inhibitor of Fortilin for Atherosclerosis Treatment and Prevention. Atherosclerosis affects more than 18 million Americans and is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases and acute cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. Current interventions include changes to diet and exercise, smoking cessation, and treatment with st ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Deformability and non-adherence are the most intrinsic biorheological properties of red blood cells (RBCs), as they play a critical role in modulating RBC perfusion through the microvasculature. In acquired or inherited blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease (SCD), these two interrelated properties are pathologically altered. SCD is an autosomal recessive disorder associated ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Lipodystrophy includes a heterogeneous group of disorders that are characterized by abnormal or degenerative conditions of the adipose tissue. This rare and often underdiagnosed condition can be partial/localized or generalized and is generally associated with metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, diabetes, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and other severe conditions. Lipod ...

Project Summary/Abstract The normal platelet count in human blood is 150,000-400,000/μL, and these platelets are responsible for efficient hemostatic surveillance and bleeding mitigation in the body. Thrombocytopenia (TCP, low platelet count) is a condition caused by a decrease in platelet production, increase in platelet destruction or consumption, or increase in splenic sequestration. The age-a ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is one of the major complications of implant surgery, especially in spinal surgery, where SSI leads to unfavorable health and functional outcomes. Antimicrobial coatings have been explored as a way to prevent microbial colonization on the surface of pedicle screws. However, current strategies to generate antimicrobial coatings do not show broad-spectru ...