Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Researchers are now able to perform computational physiology and pharmacology experiments on realistic model neurons with accurate geometries and full complements of membrane biophysics and biochemistry; however, the practical utility of such simulations are restricted because of the limitations of current commodity computer hardware. We will provide real time, ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder, affect nearly 21 million Americans or 9.5% of the U.S. population age 18 years of age and older. Among mental health problems, majordepressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for people ages 15-44, affecting nearly 15 million adults each year. While res ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is an enormous need for the development of a new class of chemical microsensors that are versatile, selective, sensitive and reliable to allow investigation of the neurobiological mechanisms of behavior and disease symptoms. Currently, the preferred method for monitoring neurotransmitters in vivo real time is fast- scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) and the p ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and the Autism Spectrum Disorder, which affect millions of people, share a common symptom, the afflicted people do not respond adaptively to social cues. This unifying feature has helped call attention to the importance of understanding the behavioral, genomic, neural, and developmental foundations of sociality, ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose a commercial product composed of a computerized microscope system that allows investigators to perform automated cell counting and measuring using design-based stereology (DBS), as well as automated reconstruction of cytoarchitecture (ROC), on tissue sections from the nervous system. DBS has become the standard methodology for quantitative histology ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary/Abstract Drug discovery depends crucially upon reliable assays for biological activity. Live cell assays provide a rich environment for measuring biological activity. Coupled with genetically encodedfluorescent biosensors, live cell assays have the potential to provide read-outs with unprecedented specificity for particular signaling pathway ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In patients suffering from hydrocephalus, cerebrospinal fluid volume accumulates abnormally in the brain. Hydrocephalus affects one in 1,000 births, or 70,000 patients a year. The most common method of treatment consists of implanting a shunt with a passive differential pressure valve to drain the excess fluid. The failure rate of this treatment is 50% for pedi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Medication nonadherence is a costly healthcare problem, adding 177 billion annually to the nation's healthcare expenditures. Three out of four Americans do not take their medicine as prescribed, and the ramifications affect virtually every aspect of the health care system. It is called America's other drug problem for good reason. Nonadherence issues ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies are the most common cause of cancer in the world. Of the 10.8 million people in the world each year who develop cancer, approximately 3.3 million have GI malignancies. Until recently,the only sections of the GI tract that could be imaged were the esophagus, stomach and colon through traditional endoscopy. Initial segments of t ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): PharmacoPhotonics (DBA FAST, Inc.) proposes Fast-Track research to determine GFR in its first human Pilot study. The long-term goal of this SBIR project is to test FAST's minimally invasive catheter based fluorescent device in humans and commercialize this device for rapid detection and quantification of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in patients with ac ...