Award Data

Project SummaryAutism spectrum disordersASDare estimated to affect more thanof children underyears of age in the USThese neurodevelopmental disorders are characterized by impaired social communicationrestrictive interests and repetitive or stereotyped behaviorsThere are frequent co morbidities in ASDincluding epilepsy and intellectual disabilityASD can be divided into two main categories based on ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Central Nervous System disorders have proven to be among the most difficult of diseases to treat and have placed an enormous burden on societyA major contributing factor to this situation is that currently we often cannot distinguish between normal and pathological states since we do not possess even a basicground truthmap of how neurons and other cells are arranged at the nanoscal ...

Project Summary In spite of the prevalence and severity of many neurological disordersthe development of new classes of drugs has been sluggish for decadesThe lack of new therapeutics is duein partto challenges in replicating the relevant biology in robustscalable in vitro assaysSynaptic dysfunctionin particularhas been implicated in a number of devastating neurological disorders including epileps ...

Project Summary Severe psychiatric disordersincluding schizophreniabipolar disorderand major depressive disorder are prevalentchronic and debilitating brain diseases that result in intense suffering and reduced quality of lifeThere is a profound lack of new medicines for psychiatric disorderswhich remain a major area of unmet medical needDiscovery of more effective therapies for mental illness has ...

DescriptionThe mechanisms underlying brain functionssuch as perceptionmotor controllearning and memoryin health and disease result from the coordinated responses of neurons distributed across multiple brain regionsHoweverconventional electrode technologies have not scaled to capture this networked activityResearchers are forced to compromise between low resolution over large areas of the brain or ...

SIGNIFICANCEThe long term impact of stimulation upon visceral organ function remain unknown in many diseasesas acute tethered experiments are confounded by the influence of anesthesia and abnormal patterns of food intake and sleepAnimal handling stressloss of animals from damage to electrode hardware and connectorsand motion artifacts preclude tethered configurations as a viable alternative for lo ...

Project Summary The threat of a radiation attack or accident isunfortunatelyall too real and could potentially affect a large enough population so as to overwhelm the medical systemTo be prepared for such an eventit is necessary to stockpile effective radiation medical countermeasuresMCMthat are safeeasily administered to large numbers of peopleand effective even when treatment is delayedhrs after ...

Platelet Biogenesis is developing a microfluidic bioreactor that reproduces key features of adult bone marrowphysiological microenvironmentto produce human plateletsPLTsPLTs are thebandaidsof the bloodstreamresponsible for clot formation and blood vessel repairLow PLT count is a significant consequence of a radiation accident or deliberate nuclear attackfor which PLTs are a critical first line the ...

Project Summary Zika virusuntil recently an obscure mosquito borne flavivirus from Africahas emerged rapidly within the past two years as a major threat to public health in the Western HemisphereHaving traveled across the Pacificit has become endemic in Brazil and is expanding its territory northwards in South and Central AmericaMexico and the Caribbeancarried by a similarly expanding Aedes mosqui ...

Abstract Multi drug resistanceMDRin Gram negative pathogensincluding Pseudomonas aeruginosaposes a significant threat for effective treatment of infections caused by these organismsA major component in the development of the MDR phenotype in Paeruginosa is overexpression of the Resistance Nodulation DevelopmentRNDfamily efflux pumpswhich pump antibacterial agents and biocides out of the celland ar ...