Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This STTR-AT-NIAID seeks to develop an integrated nucleic acid system based on research done by Catherine Klapperich's laboratory at Boston University. The BU lab-on-a-chip includes a micro solid phase extraction (lt SPE) column, flap valves and hydrophobic vents to gate fluid movements through micro channels, and multiple reaction chambers for experimenta ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic wounds that fail to respond to traditional therapeutic interventions afflict millions of people each year, and direct costs associated with treating these wounds are estimated at 5 to 10 billion annually. Eradication of pathogenic bacteria that have colonized chronic wounds is complicated by the propensity of these bacteria to form ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) hold great promise in human health with applications ranging from therapeutic agents that target cancer cells, to diagnostic biomarkers that can detect trace levels of a given antigen. Thispromise is best reflected in global sales of antibodies which reached nearly 31 billion in 2007 and future sales predicted to reach 56 billion ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Control of GVHD by milatuzumab in hu-SCID mice Dendritic cells (DCs) are the primary initiator of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a major and life- threatening complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT). Depletion of DCs has been demonstrated to be an effective approach for control of GVHD. We recently found that milatuzumab ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Infections associated with medical devices can be serious and even fatal. Catheter colonization and production of a biofilm on the surface of a catheter shortly after implantation are normally the prelude for infections. A number of antimicrobial-treated catheters have been developed to combat these infections, however, many of them have limited clinical effica ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life shortening inherited disorder amongst Caucasians, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infections are the leading cause of mortality in CF patients. Treatment of patients infected with P. aeruginosa is complicated by the cell-to-cell signaling systems of this organism, which regulate biofilm formation, virulence gene ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) affects ~ 2 million Americans with devastating impact on multiple organs, especially the skin, joints, kidney, and brain. Therapeutic strategies for lupus are largely palliative orimmunosuppressive with serious toxicities. No new drugs for SLE have been approved in decades. Thus, novel therapeutic approaches to lupus - par ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cancer is America's second leading cause of death. Many approved cancer drugs, such as bortezomib (Velcade), are cytotoxic agents that kill normal cells as well as tumor cells. Therapeutic benefit depends on tumor cellsbeing more sensitive than normal cells, thereby allowing clinical responses to be achieved at relatively safe drug doses; however, damage t ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): By the end of 2006, an estimated 23,000 adults and 15,500 children had received cochlear implants in the United States alone (www.nidcd.nih.gov). The complexity of the system as well as confounding factors such as brainplasticity and changing physiology require that these parameters be continually updated to maximize listening performance and user satisfaction. ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a combinatorial approach in which individual fragments binding to regions of the target site are selected from a fragment library, and then combined to form potential lead compounds.Interest in this approach has significantly increased during the last few years, with many companies using FBDD methods based on X-ray crystallo ...