Award Data

Summary Our goal is to commercialize interstitial chemo-phototherapy (I-CPT) as a new therapeutic option for locally advanced liver cancers. Doxorubicin (Dox) can be actively loaded into long circulating, serum-stable, porphyrin- phospholipid (PoP) liposomes and be released with 665-nm laser light (PhotoDox). This approach leads to vastly enhanced drug accumulation in irradiated tissues, resulting ...

PROJECT SUMMARYMultiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disease of early adulthood and is mediated by autoimmune mechanisms that lead to demyelination and neuronal damage in the central nervous system, resulting in progressive neurological dysfunction. Up to date, there is no cure for this devastating disease and current available treatments focus on preventing future immunological ...

Abstract Drug resistance to antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection is a serious clinical problem without cost-effective solutions in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) where standard genotypic resistance assays are unaffordable. Discidiumandapos;s goal is to develop a single tube assay that uses lyophilized reactants, standard PCR and in-tube readout, that can be used as a screening resista ...

PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT Pulse oximetry is a powerful clinical tool for clinical evaluation of patients with cardiopulmonary compromise, however, multiple clinical studies have indicated pulse oximetry suffers from overestimation errors in darkly pigmented individuals, which is a critical mistake in screening for a cardiopulmonary disease, including COVID- 19, and could contribute to reports of o ...

Abstract Gene therapy applications based on adeno-associated virus (AAV) have demonstrated promise in clinical applications for the treatment of diverse genetic diseases highlighted by the recent FDA approval of AAV vector formulations as new drugs for ocular and neurological diseases. In these instances, along with all applications of clinical AAV gene therapy to date, constitutive transcription ...

Saphenous vein graft (SVG) failure following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a critical clinical problem, with recent studies revealing that as many as 25% of vein grafts develop stenosis within 12-18 months after surgery, and up to 50% of grafts occlude within 5-10 years. CABG surgery is the gold standard treatment for patients with severe multi-vessel disease, with over 370,000 procedu ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Shift workers experience profound circadian disruption, which can have deleterious long term effects on their health and quality of life. Mood, fatigue, and performance can be improved in shift workers by moving the timing of their peak circadian drive to sleep outside the hours they are expected to work. This can be achieved with a targeted lighting intervention, as light is the p ...

ABSTRACT Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, caused by B. pertussis and B. parapertussis, is the only vaccine-preventable infection that remains endemic in the U.S. Since pertussis vaccine- induced immunity is not permanent, the immunized host is vulnerable to re-infection later in life. Worldwide, there are an estimated 24.1 million cases of pertussis, and about 160,700 deaths per year from ...

Project SummaryCurrent treatment options for advanced cervical cancer are limited, with a 5-year overall survival rate of 17%. In the USA, pervasive disparities remain in access to treatment and mortality, disproportionately affecting African American and Latino populations. Innovative therapeutic approaches for metastatic disease that can increase access to care and reduce disparities are greatly ...

Project Summary Pre-clinical and pre-field toxicology testing of new drugs and chemicals does not routinely include direct assessment of human developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). Current standards for DNT testing require use of animal models with limited throughput and significant differences from human central nervous system (CNS) development. As such, many chemical products have required post-app ...