Award Data

PROJECT SUMMARY An estimated 30 million people in the United States suffer from some form of peripheral neuropathy, a condition that develops as a result of damage to the peripheral nervous system. The top two major causes of peripheral neuropathy in the US are diabetes mellitus (both T1DM and T2DM) and chemotherapeutic agents. Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments to prevent or reverse ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Lack of exercise is a major cause of secondary health conditions, especially for people with paralysis, for whom participation in physical activity is especially difficult. Hybrid functional electrical stimulation (H- FES) exercise enables vigorous, total body physical activity for people with paralysis. However, existing H-FES devices are neither affordable nor accessible ...

Project Summary Despite significant cost and clear evidence of health risks associated with Cesarean section surgeries, an unnecessarily large number of infants are delivered via Cesarean section (C- Section) surgeries. The high rate of C-section in the US, relative to globally accepted norms, and the associated additional cost and complications are in part, due to high false positive rate of intr ...

AbstractThe alarming scope of the rapidly growing opioid epidemic has commanded the nation’s attention. The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers estimates that in 2015, the economic cost of the opioid crisis was over $504.0 billion (2.8% of GDP); and it is only expected to continue rising. Today, 1 in 5 fatalities amongst young adults is opioid related; with half a million fatal overdose ...

PROJECT SUMMARY The ability of dying cells to activate antigen presenting cells (APCs) is carefully controlled to avoid unwarranted inflammatory responses. Thus, tumor cells avoid aggravating APCs by efficiently simulating regular dying cells which following phagocytosis do not trigger inflammatory responses required for efficient cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) priming. However, dying tumor cells co ...

Project Summary/Abstract Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most prevalent adult leukemia in Western countries. Despite recent treatment advances, CLL remains incurable. In the era of emerging targeted therapies, disease progression and relapse increasingly are key challenges faced by CLL patients. Therefore, there is an ongoing need for the identification of targetable vulnerabilities in t ...

Project Summary Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly occurring forms of cancer, accounting for 21% of all cancer in men. The Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) aims to standardize reporting of prostate cancer using multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI). However, the in-depth analysis, as demanded by PI-RADS, remains challenging due to the complexity and heter ...

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 ...

PROJECT ABSTRACT Family caregivers face daunting challenges in caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, there is no widely available mechanism to provide real-time, context sensitive support to informal AD caregivers that can address the specific care needs of each AD patient. To address this critical gap, we developed CareVirtue, an innovative web/mobile application for family ca ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a malignant disease of hematopoietic precursor cells in the bone marrow, is one of the most common cancers in adults accounting for 1% of all cancers. AML is typically diagnosed later in life with individuals 60 and older having a long-term survival rate of merely 5-15%. Cytogenic analysis of the abnormal cells at the time of diagnosis has proven to be ...