Award Data

Project SummaryUltrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are known to reflect emotional processing, brain neurochemistry and brain function - key observations in animal model studies. Collecting and processing USV data is time-intensive, manual, and costly. Most importantly, it limits researchers’ ability to employ fully effective, and nuanced experimental designs, and is a barrier to entry for other rese ...

ABSTRACT SUMMARY In previous studies we identified novel non hematopoietic umbilical cord blood stem cellsnhUCBSCsthat could be expanded to high passages and exhibit restorative properties following ischemic brain injury repairWe found that the high passaged cells were equivalentif not even betterthan the low passaged nh UCBSCsThis finding suggests that these cells can serve as a source of highly ...

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): Pancreatic islet transplantation is a viable approach for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, this therapeutic approach suffers from graft rejection. Dr. Shirwan, founder of ApoImmune, has developed a novel immunotherapeutic approach aimed at tolerance induction to alloantigens without chronic use of general immunosuppression. This approach, terme ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Complete achromatopsia is an autosomal recessive inherited congenital disorder of retinal cone photoreceptors Patients with complete achromatopsia experience extreme light sensitivity and daytime blindness and best visual acuity under non bright light conditions is usually or worse and generally stable over time In addition to poor acuity hypersensit ...

ABSTRACTThis proposal seeks to develop a novel vaccine against pathogens transmitted by the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, by targeting tick salivary proteins (Salps) critical for tick feeding. I. scapularis Salps provide functions critical for evading host defense responses detrimental to the tick. Further, these salivary functions are also co-opted by tick-transmitted pathogens to ensure t ...

PROJECT SUMMARYZika virus, an emerging flavivirus, is associated with severe clinical outcomes, including Guillain-Barré syndrome and birth defects. Transmission of Zika virus is primarily mosquito- borne. Mosquito salivary proteins are known to enhance infectivity and pathogenesis in Zika, dengue and West Nile viruses by modulating immune responses. This proposal seeks to develop a novel vaccine ...

PROJECT SUMMARYMalaria is one of the world’s major public health threats. The disease is transmitted when an infected female Anopheles mosquito, while probing for a blood meal, injects saliva together with Plasmodium sporozoites into the skin of the vertebrate host (1, 2). To date, a highly effective, safe and FDA-approved human vaccine against malaria has not been developed. The most establishe ...

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 introduction and implementation of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in AIDS patients diminished HIV viral load and led to an increase in life expectancy, but HIV infection can still lead to severe complications in the nervous system such as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and sensory distal neuropathy (HIV-SN). For this patient po ...