Award Data

Lyme disease (LD) is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States, with up to 300,000 cases a year. LD is caused by several species of the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (the Lyme borreliae), which are transmitted by ticks from animal (bird, rodent) reservoirs to human hosts. While a short course of antibiotics is usually effective in eliminating the bacteria a ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Pancreatic cancer continues to be a devastating disease with less than 10% 5-year survival. Pancreatic cancer is aggressive and there are no good tools for early detection. By the time of diagnosis, the tumor is often surgically unresectable. At this stage, patients are often treated with different chemotherapeutic agents or their combination, which while potent, have sign ...

ABSTRACT Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a highly debilitating disease that affects about 1% of the global population, which increases up to 10% in individuals aged more than 65 years. The life expectancy for these patients is less than 10 years after diagnosis, and no specific drugs are available for pharmacologic treatment. Despite the introduction PDE5, prostacyclin analogs, and endothelin antag ...

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections, affecting 150 million people worldwide each year. In the USA, community-acquired UTIs account for about 11 million cases each year that cost the U.S. public health budget $5 billion annually. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) accounts for up to 80% of UTIs. While UTIs are currently treated with antibiotics, the fre ...

PROJECT ABSTRACT Family caregivers face daunting challenges in caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, there is no widely available mechanism to provide real-time, context sensitive support to informal AD caregivers that can address the specific care needs of each AD patient. To address this critical gap, we developed CareVirtue, an innovative web/mobile application for family ca ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant There are approximately million cases of dengue fever each year with billion people at risk mostly in low income countries There are four serotypes of dengue fever virus DENV and in its uncomplicated form the disease is worthy of its indigenous name andquot break bone feverandquot An individual may suffer sequential infections with multiple DE ...

Through this STTR contract, we propose to evaluate the efficacy of our vaccine, FlowVax Marburg, in nonhuman primates (NHPs). This will be achieved through four Tasks. In Task 1, we will manufacture the vaccine in a quantity sufficient for the animal studies. In Task 2, we will perform MHC genotyping on a representative population of NHPs and, based on results, select a set of MHC-matched NHPs for ...

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Overall Staphylococcus aureus is a gram positive bacteria which possesses a multitude of virulence factors It is a frequent and severe pathogen in hospitals and of increasing concern in the community where it results in severe skin infections pneumonia bacterial endocarditis and sepsis A significant proportion of these infections are the result of methici ...

RA is one of the most common chronic autoimmune disorders that can lead to complete joint destruction and severe disability if untreated. There is no cure for RA and up to 50% of RA patients do not respond to anti-TNF therapies as circulating Th-17/IL-17 levels are highly elevated subsequent to TNF blockade. For this subset of RA patients, disruption of a novel pathway that impairs the synergy bet ...

PROJECT SUMMARY An estimated 30 million people in the United States suffer from some form of peripheral neuropathy, a condition that develops as a result of damage to the peripheral nervous system. The top two major causes of peripheral neuropathy in the US are diabetes mellitus (both T1DM and T2DM) and chemotherapeutic agents. Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments to prevent or reverse ...