Award Data

ABSTRACT VISA-IS/US GAMES The Issue: Many Hispanic youth face culturally related challenges such as discrimination, being perceived as a “threat” by White and Black Americans, having to juggle and reconcile their heritage and US cultural systems, and acculturation conflicts with parents. These cultural challenges are also related to schooling: in the US, school “success” is often defined i ...

Project Summary Currently, opioid-use disorders are mitigated by replacing illicit opioids with prescription opioids, like methadone and buprenorphine. While this may work for some patients, few patients successfully reach opioid-abstinence. Thus, new agents targeting opioid-use disorders via non- opioid approaches are overdue. One-way opioids induce such tolerance and dependence is through a seco ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACTAfrican American women are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer (CC) as white women. Their initial clinical picture is also more negative, characterized by more severe dysplastic changes and later-stage disease. Given this, it is not surprising that Black women are also more than twice as likely to die from CC as compared to white women. Even worse, t ...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is comprised mainly of Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), and is characterized by a chronic non-resolving inflammatory response in the intestinal mucosa. Although the exact etiology is unknown, dysbiosis, genetic, environmental, and immunologic factors are all thought to play roles in this multifactorial disease. There are no cures, and in most cas ...

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. According to American Cancer Society statistics, about 1.76 million new patients are expected to be diagnosed with cancer and about 600,000 people are expected to die due to cancer in the United States in 2019. Approximately 6-10% of the total cancer patients are diagnosed with stage IV/metastatic cancer, ...

PROJECT SUMMARY The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to improve the clinical success and longevity of orthopedic prostheses for younger and active Americans to get relief from debilitating pain and to improve the quality of their life. The long-term survival of total hip replacements (THR) in young, active patients with higher demands remains a challenge ...

PROJECT SUMMARY RNA viruses, such as influenza and the Ebola virus, have been classified as the greatest threat for causing a global pandemic given their high mutation rates and abilities to jump between host species. National and global agencies have called for research and development efforts to improve RNA virus surveillance capabilities. While the tools for surveilling DNA viruses have advance ...

Polarization Metasurface Detection Device for Food Safety Project Summary The ongoing effort in food safety diagnostics is in constant need of tests, which are more deployable (i.e. lower-cost and more compact), with the utmost accuracy. Metasurface-based optics present an opportunity for high-performance optical fixtures at reduced cost and size to conventional optics. A single metasurface is cap ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Obesity among children is an escalating problem and among all other ethnic groups, African American (AA) children have the highest prevelance of pediatric obesity. One in 4 AA girls are obese – the obesity rate among AA girls is higher than girls of other ethnicities and AA boys as well. Obesity increases a child’s risk for various chronic lifestyle conditions and is a ...

PROJECT SUMMARY The aim of this proposal is to evaluate therapeutic potential of a novel PPAR-α agonist A91, for treating wet-form of age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD). Current standard of care for wet-AMD, or other ocular diseases with an obvious dysfunctional microvasculature basis, is mainly dependent on managing the growth of abnormal blood vessels. In doing so, treatment options emp ...