Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We are developing means to reduce errors in Dipole Source Localization (DSL). DSL is commonly used to analyze brain waves for clinical and research purposes. It is known from our work and the work of others that the models used to compute the DSL are not perfect, but it is not known how much the imperfect models affect the solutions obtained. Based upon our ...

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RNA-protein interactions play critical roles in cellular regulatory processes and in the life cycles of many pathogenic viruses including HIV, hepatitis C, SARS, and West Nile virus, and thus represent attractive targets for therapeutics. We have developed novel cell-based assays to identify drugs that target the RNA-protein interactions. The assays incorporate a system of genetic reporters to acc ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Newborn screening is currently performed by collecting dried bloodspots from infants and then sending them to a lab for analysis. Lysosomal storage diseases alone number greater than 40 and there is an increasing necessity to screen for a number of disease conditions for which therapies are becoming available. Tandem mass spectrometry is an excellent multiplex ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our parent project aims to develop a small, lightweight, battery-powered collector suitable for time-resolved personal and micro-environmental monitoring of the chemical constituents of airborne particles. This revision submission aims to enhance that technology through the development of an air-to-air particle concentrator that is effective for ultrafine and n ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neurobehavioral assessments, including arousal activity level and sleep pattern, are endpoints of global nervous system function. Virtually all pathological conditions, particularly neuropsychological disorders such as anxiety and depression, and a variety of different classes of drugs, can lead to the alteration of behavior and disturbance of sleep. Although a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over 6.3 million fractures occur each year in the United States alone (Praemer et al. 1999) and approximately 15% of fractures exhibit delayed or impaired healing. The clinical applications currently used to treat delayed fracture require open surgery to insert an autologous bone graft. If open surgery is confounded by co-morbidity or is deemed otherwise undes ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Of the nearly 5 million patients who visit a physician for tendon pain each year in the US, approximately 200,000 go on to have a surgical repair. And while surgical repair has a high-rate of symptom relief, recovering patients are routinely immobilized for several months. Increased tendon strength, during shorter time courses has been reported in animal models ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infection surrounding metal implants is a common and sometimes devastating cause of implant failure in a number of fields including oral, craniomaxillofacial (CMF), orthopedic, and cardiovascular surgery. These infections, which arise from the establishment of biofilms on device surfaces, not only necessitate new surgeries but in themselves present a significan ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunts are used to treat pediatric and neonatal hydrocephalus in severe cases, representing approximately 1/3rd of affected infants. Due to the high susceptibility for infection and mechanical breakdown, the failure rate of VP shunts is around 30-40%. A need therefore exists to improve infection prevention for this procedure, likely by ...