Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Health and Retirement Study is one of the world's most important data resources for the study of aging. The basic longitudinal survey instrument has been supplemented with data from a variety of other sources including Social Security Administration records containing the detailed earnings history of the respondent. Under current HRS protocols, the use of t ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Highly-integrated and complex tissue and organ culture-based assays, such as organotypic brain slices and dissociated cortical cultures, have great potential to contribute to the understanding of basic CNS processes, disease states, pharmacological and toxicological properties of drugs. The information-dense analyses of these cultures using multiunit extra cell ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The "Big Idea" driving this project is that human memory is small, the body of scientific knowledge is vast and that breakthroughs are possible if software can do a better job of connecting researchers with knowledge in text and databases. The first step is to stop looking for words (as a search engine does) in data but instead try to find facts in data. A fact ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Acute liver failure (ALF) constitutes a challenge to clinicians and scientists alike. Commonly associated with the alcohol-acetaminophen syndrome, its clinical course is unpredictable and polarizing, with death as the outcome in a large percentage of cases. Given the lack of specific therapy, organ transplantation is the only clinically effective strategy. Cons ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Progressive renal disease remains an unsolved challenge for the nephrologist, as it almost inevitably leads to end-stage renal failure, a life-threatening condition that necessitates renal replacement therapy. Few, if any, of the currently practiced therapeutic strategies oppose the molecular and cellular programs of apoptosis and fibrosis that drive renal dise ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Lung transplantation has become the mainstay of therapy for most end stage lung diseases including pulmonary emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. However, increasing demand for suitable donor lungs far exceeds the number of available organs, in part because the lung is exquisitely sensitive to ischemia. Mild to severe ischemia-reperfus ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Malignant glioma is the most commonly diagnosed primary brain cancer. Despite advances in diagnosis and therapy, these tumors show a high incidence of recurrence, have a poor prognosis and lack effective therapies. Recent advances in tumor molecular biology have led to renewed interest and heightened optimism for the development of new therapeutics for the trea ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Scleroderma or fibrosis of skin caused by a surplus of extracellular matrix protein (collagen) is localized in the skin, or excess collagen may be collected in the kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and heart. Scleroderma affects approximately 400,000 persons in the United States every year and according to research studies, annual direct and indirect cost ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease, characterized mainly by inflammation of the lining, or synovium, of the joints. It can lead to long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability. Approximately 2.1 million people in the United States, or 1% of the population, have RA. It can affect anyone, including children, but ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is estimated that the annual incidence of spinal cord injury (SCI), not including persons who die at the scene of the accident, is approximately 11,000 cases per year. The number of patients currently affected by SCI in the United States has been estimated at 250-300,000. Currently patients with SCI face a life-long sentence of extreme morbidity. Hepatocyte ...