Award Data

DESCRIPTION: Post-translational modifications of proteins (PTMs) play a central role in diverse cellular processes including protein folding, targeting, signal transduction, immune response, adherence, motility and protein degradation. Over 300 differenttypes of PTMs are already known and are found in an estimated 80% of all proteins, accounting in part for the vastly larger proteome compared to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): New proteomic technologies are urgently needed that can meet the demand of emerging large-scale biological studies. We have developed a novel microarray analysis platform, which enables screening of large bead librariesusing MALDI TOF mass spectrometry imaging. While biological tissue imaging by mass spectrometry is now a well-established technique, MALDI TOF M ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our goal is to develop an efficient and inexpensive toolkit for ablating or reversibly inactivating specific cell types in the brain or other organs of mammals. We propose new techniques in which the genes for nitroreductase (NTR) or Drosophila allatostatin receptor (AlstR) are delivered into cells using an adeno-associated viral vector (AAV). Both are fusion ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase I SBIR describes the first step towards the commercial development of an innovative technology for recording and decomposing the surface electromyographic (sEMG) signal into its constituent motor unit actionpotentials (motoneuron firings). The proposed SBIR will provide a much needed mechanism to further develop, harden, and make more user-friendly ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this Phase I project, we propose to investigate a novel primer chemistry and probe detection system called the Zip nucleic acids (ZNA ). ZNAs are oligonucleotides conjugated to a number of cationic spermine moietiesthat enhance the effective concentration of primers and probes near nucleic acid targets. This property has been reported to enhance the speed ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this research program is to validate in dogs a candidate vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) for evaluation in future clinical evaluations. We have recently described a powerful and reliable antigen discovery strategy to directly identify microbial vaccine candidate antigens in human bodily secretions. We combined RP-HPLC and mass ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a highly infectious member of the paramyxovirus family causing upper and lower respiratory tract infections. RSV infection is the leading cause of pulmonary disease of the lower respiratory tract (bronchiolitis, pneumonia and respiratory failure) in infants due to virus-induced airway damage and complex inflammatory pr ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to discover novel antibiotics by activating the silent biosynthetic operons of Actinobacteria. Whole genome sequencing of many Actinobacteria showed that there are 10-20 times more operons coding for secondary metabolites than known compounds in a given species. This opens an attractive opportunity to access a large untapped source o ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The incidence of fungal infections and, in particular, Candida infections, the fourth most common nosocomial pathogen, has continued to increase over the past 20 years. This increase is due to the increasing numbers ofpatients subjected to severe immunosuppression as a result of transplant procedures, chemotherapy regimens, advances in medical and surgical ther ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rapid Test for Recent HIV Infection and Incidence Panels for Assay Evaluation Project Summary Accurate estimates of HIV incidence are required for monitoring the epidemic, for targeting resources, and for evaluating the effectiveness of various interventions. Yet the assays that underlie these estimates are widely understood to be flawed. Among the flaws are ( ...