Award Data

PROJECT SUMMARY Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness, impacting 80 million people worldwide. The only proven approach to prevent vision loss in glaucoma is the reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP), which is most commonly achieved by topical medications. Once daily (QD) prostaglandins are a typical first-line therapy, though the need for adjunctive therapy with other drug clas ...

7. Project Summary ADRD dementias account for up to 25% of all dementias in patients older than 65 years and there is strong evidence of co-morbid pathologies caused by (amyloid β (Aβ), tau and α-synuclein (αSyn). The degree of AD- related pathology in Lewy Body Dementias (LBD) is moderate or severe in 50% of PDD and more than 70% of DLB patients have concomitant AD-related pathology so that t ...

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating acute inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract resulting in intestinal necrosis, systemic sepsis and multi-system organ failure found mostly in infants born prematurely. Despite modern medical advances in the past decade, the etiology remains elusive and morbidity and mortality are still unacceptably high. It has been concluded that the ...

Abstract Status epilepticus (SE) is a common neurologic emergency that fails to respond to first- and second-line anti-seizure medications (ASMs) in about one third of instances, thus progressing to refractory SE (RSE). Patients with RSE are at grave risk for neurological morbidity and mortality. The recently completed NIH-funded Established SE Treatment Trial (ESETT) highlights the need for impro ...

Abstract Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is often considered the prototype hospital-acquired infection. In spite of the billions of dollars spent on preventive measures, estimates of the incidence are in the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of people per year succumbing to disease in the USA alone. Prophylactic vaccines against S. aureus would have an enormous impact in th ...

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects quality of life, productivity, and healthcare use, and can ultimately lead to death. The costs of asthma are largely due to uncontrolled disease and accordingly rise as its prevalence and severity increase. Unfortunately, the incidence and impact of asthma attacks have not improved despite widespread adoption of effective universal treatment guidelines by h ...

Abstract: This Fast-track SBIR application will fund and enable a new approach to respiratory monitoring, continuous predictive respiratory monitoring (CPRM), that stands to reduce morbidity and mortality due to respiratory compromise, while reducing health care system costs. Current devices and systems (human and machine) for respiratory monitoring are responsive by sounding a warning alarm when ...

Abstract Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle disease with an 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 α7β1 integrin is a transmembrane linkage system in skeletal and card ...

Summary/Abstract: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a severe inherited blood disorder that leads to frequent acute and costly long-term complications. Hydroxyurea is the primary SCD modifying medication in childhood because studies show that it can reduce acute complications and mitigate costly long-term comorbidities. Hydroxyurea non-adherence is common, however, and a key reason for the limited impac ...

Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is the strongest known risk factor for, and obligate precursor of, esophageal high- grade dysplasia (HGD) and adenocarcinoma (EAC). However, determining future neoplastic progression risk is quite challenging in BE patients: current risk estimation is based solely on highly variable, subjective, observer-dependent histopathologic diagnoses (i.e., non-dysplastic (ND), Low ...