Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of chronic disability in the United States. A clinical goal in the treatment and prevention of OA is to develop replacement cartilage using tissue engineering (TE) technologies. Although TE cartilage presently lacks the mechanical stability of native cartilage, studies have demonstrated that mechanical stability can be e ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mobile phone technology offers a variety of opportunities for innovative approaches to health communication and intervention. These opportunities have been amplified by the emergence of next-generation smartphone devices that are capable of rich multimedia and sophisticated interactivity. Smartphone-based programs can be integrated seamlessly into a user's ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Based on numerous epidemiological studies and recent prospective trials; the use of daily aspirin is associated with a significant reduction in colorectl cancer incidence, deaths and metastatic spread to other organs. However, the chronic use of this drug is limited due to the sid ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to synthesize, based on genomic sequence information, a human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strain with demonstrated ability to establish persistent infection in sero-positive individuals. The resulting synthetic product will form the basis for the development of attenuated HCMV vaccines. Innovative synthetic biology methods will overcome ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this study is to develop a head tracking procedure for the automated assessment of hearing in infants using Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA). The head tracking procedure will be incorporated into the Intelligent Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (IVRA) system from Intelligent Hearing Systems Corp. The IVRA system currently provides automa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is uniformly recognized that sedentariness - the sitting disease - is bad for the health of the nation. The solution to reversing sedentariness involves devising and disseminating real-world solutions to promote day-long physical activity and help people who want to, to lose weight and improve their blood glucose, lipids and blood pressure. The Gruve is ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Approximately 15 million people in the world, and more than 700,000 people in the United States, experience a stroke each year. Following a hemispheric stroke, motor control of extremities on one side of the body is usually affected. Many patients suffer a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Though not specifically FDA-approved for this indication, topiramate is among the most effective medication treatments for alcohol dependence. Topiramate is rarely used to treat alcohol dependence, however, because it has prominent side effects including somnolence, dizziness, and cognitive disturbances that require gradual dose titration. Many patients stop ta ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Acute and chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers represent a major area of medical concern. With roughly 27 million patients suffering from these types of partial thickness wounds, representing substantial billions in medical expenses, a means to rapidly close such acute and chronic wounds with minimal medical staff involvement would be a major new bre ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Over the past decade, an investigation of how family members talk through cancer on the telephone has resulted in the recent publication of a lengthy volume entitled A Natural History of Family Cancer: Interactional Resources for Managing Illness (NH). Based on the conversations analyzed for this volume, and related research on the psychosocial impacts and con ...