Award Data

The cornea is one of the most important tissues in the eye and its transparency is critical for good visual function in humans. Corneal tissue injuries are the most common, everyday issue for practicing ophthalmologists and can run the gamut in severity. Healing of large corneal wounds, such as alkali burns, involves extended migration of epithelial cells as well as reinnervation of the cornea. Ho ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Cellular innate immune sensors, such as STING (STIMULATOR OF INTERFERON GENES), have evolved to detect microbial infection of the cell (1-3). STING controls the potent cytosolic DNA-stimulated innate immune pathways and is activated by cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) such as cyclic di-GMP and cyclic-di-AMP secreted by intracellular bacteria following infection. Alternatively, STING can ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) is an acute autoimmune disease that can present with fever and ataxia as well as loss of consciousness and coma. ADEM largely affects children, is driven by T and B lymphocytes aberrantly activated against a myelin antigen, and is strongly associated with a prior infection or immunization. There is no FDA-approved therapy for the treatmen ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Lupus is a chronic, systemic autoimmune disease in which cells of the immune system attack organ systems throughout the body including the kidneys, brain, and lungs and that presents heterogeneously with symptoms that can include fever, arthritis, alopecia, stroke, and heart attack. Lupus is driven by autoreactive B and CD4 T cells with a particular role for TfH and TH17 CD4 T cell ...

Project summary Currently available optical components limit biomedical imaging. In particular, in neurobiology, standard microscope components limit the field-of-view and speed of imaging of neuronal activity. Through prior work on BRAIN Initiative project, we have developed approaches for new optical components that expand the field-of-view 5 to 50 times over standard microscopes, with no loss i ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease resulting in the progressive loss of limb, trunk, and head and neck (bulbar) motor function and is the most common adult-onset motor neuron disease. The disease is characterized by significant across-patient heterogeneity in the onset region and in pattern and progression rate, making early and accurate diagno ...

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Positron-emission tomography (PET) studies play a critical role in many areas of neurological health by enabling quantitative in vivo measurements of specific neuroreceptor systems (e.g. receptor density, drug occupancy, endogenous ligand occupancy) to (i) evaluate fundamental hypotheses about disease or (ii) aid in the development of novel treatments targeting those rec ...

PROJECT SUMMARYDosing of chemotherapeutics is limited by systemic toxic side effects. We are developing a new class of image- guided temporarily deployable, endovascular catheter-based medical devices that selectively remove specific drugs from the blood stream to reduce systemic toxicities. The proposed ChemoFilters incorporate specialized materials that bind target drugs in situ through a variet ...

Project Summary I-RED Southeast XLerator Network, powered by XLerateHealth, LLC in collaboration with the University of Kentucky as the lead academic partner institution, proposes to develop a suite of experience-based entrepreneurship education products and commercialization education tools to address the needs of academic institutions and their faculty, researchers, innovators, and graduate/unde ...

AbstractTreatment of non-resectable recurrent/metastatic solid cancers is currently palliative only and there is an urgent unmet need for novel mechanisms of action and additional paradigm shifting therapeutic options. Antigen- targeting cancer immunotherapies such as bi-specific antibodies (eg Bi-specific T cell engager or BiTE’s) provide a unique approach for cancer immunotherapy. However, app ...