Award Data

The Proposed Phase II SBIR will develop and demonstrate an innovative approach to produce ultra-lightweight, active, segmented primary mirrors for beam directors and imaging telescopes. Named the Integrated Zonal Meniscus Mirror, it combines thedesireable materials properties of a silicon carbide substrate with electroactive actuators and sensors, and application specific integrated circuits imbe ...

Sensitive site exploitation activities are focused on collecting forensic evidence left behind by persons involved in terrorist or other illegal activity, and the biological evidence recovered is often referred to as"touch DNA samples". Touch samples include fingerprints, skin cells found on clothing (e.g. a shirt collar), and oral epithelial cells found on the opening of a soda can or the rim of ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An implantable wireless flow sensor system has been under development that would enable measurement of the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) through the ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt, currently used to treat hydrocephalus patients. CSF flow is a key indicator of shunt function, and there is currently no way to measure it in situ, resulting in the absence ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is the leading cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation. Current antibiotic treatments exhibit failure rates as high as 18%, even when the organism is susceptible to the antibiotic being administered. The goal of this project is to address this critical medical need by identifying specif ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As of 2008 the CDC estimated that there were approximately 1.1 million persons in the U.S. infected with HIV- 1 and about 56,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. During the mid-to-late 1990s, advances in treatment slowed the progression of HIV to AIDS and related deaths. Unfortunately, the treatment often leads to the emergence of drug resistant mutants of HI ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a novel automated platform to enable rapid, sensitive, user-friendly, and cost-effective screening for the antibiotic resistant bacteria that frequently cause serious healthcare associated infections. Every year, about 100,000 deaths result from 2 million serious healthcare associated infections at an estimated cost of 35B. About 20,000 f ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The American Heart Association estimated the cost of cardiovascular disease in the United States in 2000 to be at $326.6 billion. This figure includes health expenditures and lost productivity resulting from morbidity and mortality. Heart failure is not a disease of the elderly or persons who live unhealthy lifestyles. The highest incidence occurs between 25-45 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Smoke inhalation is a major co-morbid factor in thermal injury. Therapy of smoke inhalation is supportive -there are no specific countermeasures to protect the lung from injury. We report the discovery that a nuclear cell death mechanism, mediated by poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), accounts for the acute lung injury and inflammation in a classic ovine s ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chagas' Disease is a vector-borne parasitic infection of humans with Trypanosoma cruzi, which has recently been identified as an emerging and significant threat to transfusion safety and the blood supply. It is a chronic and potentially fatal condition which affects over 10 million people living in tropical regions of the Americas, is endemic in 21 countri ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a significant neurological disorder that afflicts more than 4.5 million Americans and more than 10 million people worldwide. The lack of a cure for AD will result in a demand for better and safer AD drugs. All of the drugs on the market today have serious side effects. Recently, researchers at The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosci ...