Award Data

SUMMARYParkinsonandapos s diseasePDis the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimerandapos s diseaseADaffecting more thanmillion people in the United StatesBecause age is the major risk factorthe prevalence of both diseases is steadily increasing as our population agesPD belongs to the group of protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases that are due to the misfolding and ...

Project Summary/Abstract Objective: This project aims to elevate electron beam therapy (EBT) technology, which provides effective radiation treatment for superficial cancers (depthandlt;6 cm), to that of other external beam radiotherapies (XRT), e.g. x-rays and protons, by bringing electron intensity modulation into the clinic. Challenge: Approximately 10% of radiotherapy patients (173,000 in U ...

ABSTRACT Although cancer immunotherapy is considered a great breakthrough in cancer therapya significant proportion of patients do not respond to these treatmentsRecent studies have shown that clinical benefits of the most potent immunotherapy lay in the presence of a T cell inflamed tumor microenvironment at baselinehot tumorDysregulated Wntcatenin signaling has been implicated in the lack of imm ...

ABSTRACTTherapeutic use of gas phase nitric oxideNOhas several important applications in medicineSince its first medical application more thanyears agoinhaled nitric oxideINOhas become a mainstay of intensive care for lung failure patientsAs a pulmonary vasodilatorINO is essential in neonatologylung transplantationand pulmonary hypertensionAs an inhaled antiseptic agentNO has been proposed in the ...

Project Summary Liquid biopsy is a potentially powerfulnon invasive approach for detectingclassifying and monitoring tumors by capturing cell free DNA molecules found circulating in blood and other bodily fluidsAny next generation sequencingNGSbased approach requires an efficient protocol for converting cell free DNA into a sequencing libraryNearly all currently available NGS library preparation m ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This project responds to the need identified by NIDCR to develop improved methods to detect and predict progression of dental caries (tooth decay) to improve human health. Worldwide, caries is the most common chronic disease affecting almost everyone. Dental disease is a major cause of economic and social loss and leads to complications including pain, tooth loss and even ...

Diabetes affects more than 9% of Americans and costs over $300 billion in 2017 in USA. Medical therapies have limitations in treating diabetic patients with obesity due their common side effects of weight gain. Bariatric surgery has been proposed for treating diabetic patients with promising outcomes. In this project, we propose a novel method of intestinal electrical stimulation (IES) for treatin ...

Neonatal hypoxia/ischemia is a known cause of cerebral damage resulting from inadequate blood flow and/or oxygen delivery to the infant brain before, during, or after birth. The occurrence among hospital deliveries is ~2-4 per 1000 full-term births with a drastic increase among premature newborns. The deficit in oxygen delivery to the brain results in extensive damage and severe disabilities. Rest ...

ABSTRACT Nitric oxideNOplays a critical role in a wide range of bodily functionsincluding vasodilationneurotransmissionwound healingsuppression of platelet activationand modulation of ciliary beat frequencyFurtherinhaled gas phase NO is now routinely used to treat neonatal pulmonary hypertensionIn infectionNO released by neutrophils and macrophages functions as a potent antimicrobial antiviral age ...

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 ...