Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is an exceptionally common vaginal condition in which robust lactobacillus microflora in the vagina is replaced by a dense polymicrobial overgrowth. At any given time, about 1 in 3 women in the U.S. have BV; half are asymptomatic, and most women with symptomatic BV have only mild symptoms (increased discharge with a fishy smell). Despit ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This multiphase STTR project will result in a standard method to evaluate the release of airborne particles from commercial products that contain engineered nanomaterials during their use or disposal. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an important class of engineered nanomaterials that are incorporated into diverse products such as sporting goods, clothes, electronic ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nonlinear optical microscopy techniques (such as two-photon florescence) are being used to acquire volumetric (i.e. three dimensional) images that probe several hundred microns into scattering tissue. These techniques are being combined with fast acquisition schemes to allow imaging of live, moving specimens at high NA. This combination allows for high-resoluti ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Increasing evidence indicates that systemic inflammation and the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which becomes the target of overreacting or misguided immune cells that determine BBB failure and immune extravasations into the brain parenchyma, are involved in the pathogenesis of neurological diseases such as meningitis, inflammation, Alzheimer's disease, and multipl ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In this small business technology transfer research (STTR) program, Omega Optics and the University of Texas at Austin propose to develop a planar lightwave circuit based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectrometer for single molecule detection. The sensitivity of the SERS spectrometer comes from the 5-nm gap between gold nanowires, which can achieve ...