Award Data

Project Summary Skin is the first line of defense against the outside environment. When the skin barrier is breached by UV irradiation (UVR) or toxic chemicals, living cell layers including epidermal keratinocytes, melanocytes and dermal fibroblasts are subjected to DNA damage. If unrepaired, this damage can lead to photoaging and cutaneous carcinogenesis. In fact, skin cancer is by far the most c ...

Summary Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. with a 5-year survival rate of andlt;9%. The poor prognosis is partially due to resistance to standard of care treatments including gemcitabine (Gem) and Gem+nab-paclitaxel (n-PTX). The transcription factors HIF-1α and c-MYC are at the center of the mechanisms producing Gem and n-PTX resistance ...

Project Summary Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are a growing health problem in our aging population. Assessment of cognitive functioning for early detection is critical to identify individuals who might benefit from treatment with the available symptomatic medications for mild dementia as well as future disease-modifying therapies that are actively under development and being tested i ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a looming public health crisis that threatens millions of patients' ability to experience healthy aging. In addition to the challenges that AD poses to patients, healthcare providers and caregivers, there is also tremendous economic burden associated with AD and related dementias – estimated to be well over $200B/year in the United States alone. Hundre ...

Project Summary/Abstract We propose a new approach to the decontamination of central venous catheters and the prevention of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), an important healthcare-associated infection. CLABSIs cost the US healthcare system approximately $2.3 billion annually (Pronovost, NEJM, 2009). Additionally, CLABSIs can be life threatening, especially in the very youn ...

Abstract PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The recent groundbreaking experiment using a single neutralizing monoclonal antibody (nmAb) to reduce the death rate in Ebola virus (EBOV)-infected individuals highlights the importance of this class of drug in the treatment of infectious disease. In August 2019, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced that administration of mAb114 had reduced the death rate from 70% to appro ...

STTR_Developing Nanopieces 7. Project Summary/Abstract The bottleneck of developing new RNAi (RNA Interference) drugs is the lack of highly efficient and non-toxic RNA delivery to non-liver tissues in vivo. It is especially challenging to deliver negatively-charged nucleic acid into avascular, dense, and negatively-charged matrix in hard-to-reach tissues including joint cartilage. NanoDe Therapeut ...

Abstract Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle disease with a predicted incidence of 1 in 5000 males. DMD results from mutations in the gene encoding dystrophin, a 427 kDa scaffolding protein responsible for providing a mechanical link between the muscle fiber actin cytoskeleton and laminin in the extracellular matrix. The 7β1 integrin is a transmembrane linkage system in skeleta ...

Major depressive disorder is a debilitating mood disorder that affects ~7% of US adults in their lifetime, costing the U.S. economy more than $200 billion a year. Drugs that increase monoaminergic signaling are the mainstay of depression therapy, but have a delayed onset of action and are only effective in about 50% of affected patients. Aberrant brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling ...

Myasthenia gravis is a severe neuromuscular disease primarily caused by complement activating autoantibodies directed towards the skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor. Present treatments are ineffectiveand uniformly have adverse effects, which negatively impact quality of life. Despite being a rare disease, myasthenia gravis is a costly one with a hospitalization expense of half a billion dollar ...