Award Data

Project SummaryEpilepsy is one of the most common brain disorders. Current drugs have limited efficacy. Identifying new targeted drugs that can be used as safer, more effective therapies is in urgent unmet need. Selective inhibition of the transient receptor potential canonical 3 (TRPC3) emerges as a novel strategy to impede epilepsy. However, the currently best selective TRPC3 inhibitor, Pyr3, ha ...

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 ...

PROJECT SUMMARYSpinal fusion is the standard treatment for persistent neck and back pain, but the hardware used to stabilize the fusion can harbor or even promote bacteria that lead to persistent, difficult-to-treat infections that are costly and damaging to patient health. Among the available materials for spinal fusion, polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) cages stand out due to their strength, biocomp ...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, debilitating inflammatory disease with high medical and societal costs afflicting more than 1.6 million Americans. Blockade of TNFα-driven inflammation with approved anti-TNFα biologics (such as Humira®, Remicade®, Simponi®, and Enbrel®) is an effective treatment for many patients suffering from RA. However, due at least in part to the immunogenicity o ...

Abstract There is an unmet need to develop treatments for senile osteoporosis, a disorder characterized by an age-related reciprocal decrease in osteogenesis and increase in bone marrow fat. Senile osteoporosis resembles disuse osteopenia, suggesting its pathogenesis involves impaired bone mechanosensing. We discovered that the polycystin heterotrimeric complex (1PC1+3PC2) functions as a mechanose ...

ABSTRACT The ability to measure and manipulate local brain circuit activity in living, behaving animals is essential to understanding the complexities of brain function and dysfunction. A novel, penetrating high-density carbon fiber electrode array composed of flexible, ultrathin conductive carbon microfibers was recently developed under the BRAIN Initiative to study neural microcircuit dynamics. ...

PROJECT SUMMARY We propose to develop a novel non-contact, label-free multimodality imager that provides real-time intraoperative identification of nerves within the surgical field-of-view to facilitate the prevention of unintended nerve damage (termed iatrogenic nerve injury) during surgical procedures, as they are a major source of postsurgical complications, e.g., chronic pain. In the United St ...

Perinatal brain injury resulting in mental retardation and cerebral palsy is the most severe disability in children and affects 40-148 in preterm and 1–2/1000 in full term infants. This places a huge burden on society, emphasizing the critical need for improved prevention/treatment strategies to decrease perinatal brain injury. Hypothermia (HT) is the only FDA approved therapy to attenuate brain ...

CUSTOMIZABLE TRAINING SOFTWARE FOR PROFESSIONAL ALZHEIMER DIRECT CARE PROVIDERSProject Summary/Abstract - ProActive Memory Services, Inc. New strategies are urgently needed to improve Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/RD) training for 4.6 million professional direct care providers that assist 8.3 million older adults in the US. Assisted living facilities (ALF) and personal care agenc ...

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 ...