Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Organ transplantation is one of the great success stories of modern medicine. However, the supply of suitable organs lags far behind the need and many patients die while waitlisted for organs. Current practice involves donor preconditioning to stabilize organs and tissues for transplant in attempts to increase the supply of donor organs acceptable for transpl ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia/Hypertrophy is a major health problem in the United States, with one-in-three men having urologic problems. Currently available treatment modalities include alpha-blockers that do not affect the underlying pathologic process, and 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors that have significant systemic side-effects. We have discovered that human ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): AndroBioSys, Inc. is dedicated to the development of human tissue-based in vivo tools capable of selecting better targeted agents for clinical trials by improved preclinical testing. AndroBioSys has developed the technology for reproducible implantation of primary xenografts of benign and malignant human prostate and kidney tissue. Xenografts have been establis ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD) is a progressive liver disease that in advanced stages can result in cirrhosis and liver failure. ALD can be divided in various stages of development: (1) mild alcoholic liver injury, (2) steatosis, (3) alcoholic hepatitis, (4) alcoholic liver fibrosis and (5) cirrhosis. Liver fibrosis is a form of scar formation that is found in a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Diabetic and non-diabetic nephropathies and the Metabolic Syndrome are associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) - a program comprising proteinuria, accumulation of profibrotic collagen in the renal interstitium and relentless decline in renal function. CKD remains an unsolved challenge for the nephrologist, as it almost inevitably leads to end-stage renal d ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Kidney transplantation is the most effective therapeutic modality for end-stage renal disease; it offers a better quality of life and a longer survival. Despite improvements in surgical and organ preservation techniques over the last decade, renal dysfunction and/or failure remains a significant problem following transplantation. Ischemia-reperfusion injury ass ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A significant body of literature indicates that Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) via potent and direct anti-fibrotic activity protects many organs from the fibrosis-driven pathology. In addition, HGF has been shown to also promote muscle progenitor cells to proliferate to promote the regenerative capacity of the muscle in response to injury or significant work ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ischemic Stroke continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Currently approved thrombolytic therapy suffers for a narrow therapeutic window and clearly other therapeutic strategies are needed, such as neuroprotective or restorative agents. Unfortunately the quest for a therapeutic remains beset by a history of failed clinical ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Emphysema is a major cause of death and disability and afflicts approximately 2 million people. The disease cost more than 2.5 billion in annual health care expenses and causes or contributes to the death of 100,000 people each year in the United States alone. The disease is characterized by destruction of the alveolar wall, permanent enlargement of the airspa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stroke is leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US. Research on the pathophysiological basis of stroke has produced new paradigms for prevention and treatment, but translation of these approaches into improved clinical outcomes has proved to be painfully slow. Preventive strategies focus primarily on reducing or controlling risk factors such as diabet ...