Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Delayed reconstitution of antigen-specific immunity following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) predisposes patients to opportunistic infections and tumor recurrence. To address these problems, we are developing a vaccination methodology using a non-replicating but highly immunogenic Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) vector. When an Lm vaccine ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): RNA interference (RNAi) is a specific post-transcriptional gene silencing pathway mediated by intracellular dsRNAs of 21-23 bp in length known as small interfering RNA (siRNA). Since the recent discovery of effective siRNA-mediated gene silencing in mammalian cells, there has been significant validation and enormous interest in the approach from both academic a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Directed evolution has been widely employed to enhance protein structural stability and activity, expand functionality and alter specificity. We propose a novel approach for generating libraries of variant genes that takes advantage of the evolutionary history of a gene family by generating a combinatorial library incorporating amino acid replacements inferred ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Significant Aims: Biomedical research, human performance and other laboratories that work with living subjects and perform complex experiments unanticipated by software "solution" providers, must expend significant resources creating & maintaining data acquisition and control (DAQ&C) systems that are seldom useful in other labs because of their complexity or po ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of the proposed research is to develop methods to create immune protected universal donor cloned transgenic pigs for xenotransplantation. According to the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) more than 30,000 organ transplants are performed in the US alone, yet greater than 95,000 people are currently on the waiting list to receive donors organs f ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Engineering microbial strains with superior production capabilities is one of the most challenging and intriguing endeavors in bioprocess development. However, due to the lack of rational and systematic approaches, the timelines and cost for strain development can be large and at times prohibitive for many products. In this STTR, we will utilize an integrated c ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Turner syndrome (TS) is the most common genetic problem effecting women, with an incidence of 1 in 1,500 to 2,000 live female births and occurs when an entire, or portions of an X-chromosome is deleted. Phenotypic features include primary hypogonadism, renal abnormalities, and profound short stature. Yet, with growth hormone therapy, acceptable adult stature c ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Influenza A (fluA) infection causes annual substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly for infants, the elderly, and the immuncompromised. FluA mainly replicates in the respiratory tract, with virulent strains also disseminating to other tissues, such as the central nervous system. A growing concern is the recent spread of virulent avian influen ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this project is to develop a genetic test, involving the protein, RGS9, to identify patients that are at risk for developing tardive dyskinesia (TD) or L-DOPA induced dyskinesia (LID). Antipsychotic drugs have revolutionized the treatment of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders but a debilitating side-effect of "typical" antipsychotics is TD, ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The central goal of this application is to develop a combination product comprising two fully human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) produced in plants for the prevention of serious disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV causes high morbidity and mortality in certain neonate populations as well as in the elderly and in bone marrow transplant patie ...