Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a position tracking and mobility assessment system that will enable the elderly to live longer and more safely at home or in an assisted living facility. The ability to move is a critical function tat underlies the quality of life for the elderly. Changes in mobility such as speed of walking have been shown to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The most common artificial voice source for post-laryngectomy speech rehabilitation is the hand-held buzzer or electrolarynx (EL). This device is relatively easy to use and enables most laryngectomees to verbally communicate, but with reduced intelligibility and markedly degraded naturalness. In addition, EL speech is often described as robotic and monotone, at ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since its introduction in the 1960's, fluorescein angiography (FA) has been the gold standard for retinal vascular diagnosis. However, FA is costly, invasive, and time-consuming, which limits its usefulness as a screening tool. As a potential non-invasive alternative to FA for diagnosing retinovascular disease, we have developed an imaging method called ph ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this STTR project is to develop a pre-formed, naturally-based hydrogel postoperative adhesion barrier with improved handling characteristics, laparoscopic deliverability, and consistent efficacy. Our technology is based on a novel, patented process that imparts exceptional elasticity and toughness on normally brittle, weak materials. Postoperative a ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this 3 year Fast-Track STTR is to develop and evaluate a home-based intervention ('it's Your Game- Family') to provide age-appropriate sexual health life skills education and training for children (11-14 years) and to enhance parents' skills and self-confidence in support of this training. IYG-Family (IYG-F) will be an on-line g ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Monitoring physiology of individual cardiomyocytes in high throughput has not been reported. The inability to perform high throughput physiological measurements limits many basic and applied studies, including the use of stem cell derived cardiomycoytes in cardiotoxicity testing. Current automated cardiotoxicity tests have poor predictive value because they use ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human prion diseases are infectious and invariably fatal forms of neurodegenerative diseases, including sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common form, and variant CJD (vCJD) which is associated to consumption of cattle meat infected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Currently there is not sensitive, objective and non-invasive biochemical di ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Acute and chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers represent a major area of medical concern. With roughly 27 million patients suffering from these types of partial thickness wounds, representing substantial billions in medical expenses, a means to rapidly close such acute and chronic wounds with minimal medical staff involvement would be a major new bre ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Debridement of dead, damaged and/or infected tissue from thermal burn wounds and a certain subset of ischemic and necrotic diabetic foot wounds is a commonly utilized wound preparation modality before the application of fillers, dressings or grafts. The existing wound debridement techniques have serious issues such as invasiveness and impreciseness, painful ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, is a leading cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality around the world, responsible for approximately 76,000 maternal and 500,000 infant deaths per year.As a heterogeneous and poorly understood disorder, its pathogenesis and possible treatments are an area of active research. While the majority o ...