Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In the US alone, the disease afflicts ~13 million people and is the third-leading cause of death. Cigarette smoking isthe primary risk factor for COPD, initiating a persistent and progressive inflammatory immune response. Respiratory infections and pollutants can ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Scleroderma is a devastating autoimmune disease with a chronic course, involving the overproduction of collagen leading to fibrosis of the skin and connective tissues. The disease has a range of symptoms including pain,stiffness and swelling of the joints, shortness of breath and gastrointestinal complications. More than 50% of patients with the aggressive form ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Sanfilippo disease mucopolysaccharidosis type III MPS III is a devastating neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder of childhood for which there is no cure or effective treatment available The fundamental cause of MPS III is an inherited mutation in one of the enzymes required to catabolize heparan sulfate HS a glycosaminoglycan which plays importa ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Treatment for depression is a core health disparity for Latinos in the U S Although U S Latinos are more likely than non Hispanic Whites to experience depression Alegria et al U S Latinos are less than half as likely as Whites to receive evidence based care for depression Lagomasino et al Latinos with elevated depressive symptoms are mos ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Babesia microti the primary etiologic agent of human babesiosis is a tick borne eukaryotic apicomplexan pathogen that is an increasing threat to the US public health Although B microti is primarily a tick borne pathogen it can be transmitted by transfusion of infected blood Despite the well recognized threat there is no FDA licensed test to screen donor ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Seasonal influenza flu virus an NIAID category C priority pathogen causes widespread infection resulting in at least million cases of severe illness and deaths worldwide Young children and elderly or immunocompromised individuals are typically at greater risk of severe illness or death from influenza Newly emerging strains can result ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant One of the challenges of research in infectious diseases is to find ways to use the increasing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying disease transformation and progression to develop novel therapeutic strategies for diseases such as increasing menace of bacterial infections Targeting specific RNA such as rRNA which are involved in proliferation and survival ...

Project Summary Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is recognized as the single most important viral cause of acute respiratory disease in infants and young children worldwide. Elderly populations and immunocompromised individuals are also at significant risk for serious RSV disease. Despite this very substantial disease burden imposed by RSV worldwide, there are no vaccines available. Severa ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to evaluate and commercialize a combination of proprietary magnet assemblies and magnetic nanoparticles (initially developed by our University STTR partner), that has been shown in preliminary animal studies to improve delivery of medications to the inner ear. Initial animal studies using the system (which uses magne ...

Project Summary Abstract The long term objective of this project is the generation of a universal drug discovery platform based on protein arginine methylation mechanisms involved in human disease The importance of protein arginine methylation in the context of human disease has become clear in the last few years with the realization that protein arginine methyltransferases and the target prot ...