Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Menopause is associated with about a 10-15 pound weight gain and a redistribution of fat to the abdomen. The increase in abdominal fat, also known as visceral fat is known to produce cytokines that cause inflammation which can lead to the metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome represents a major public health burden because it increases the risk of cardiova ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Congenital cardiovascular defects, specifically single ventricle abnormalities, constitute the most common cause of death among infants born with birth defects. Even after surgically rerouting the single ventricle circulation via the Fontan procedure, the circulation in these patients relies on blood flowing passively through the lungs. Thus, this group of pati ...

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 ...

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. This often is attributable to thrombus formation at an atherosclerotic plaque or thromboembolism. Patients who present within 4.5 hours of symptom onset are eligible for thrombolysis with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). This serves andlt;5% of victims. Recently, major advance has been made with proven efficacy fro ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pain management remains a significant unmet medical need. Anandamide is an endogenous marijuana-like ('endocannabinoid') molecule that plays important roles in the regulation of pain. Previous work has shown that endocannabinoid receptors located outside the central nervous system (CNS) exert a powerful regulatory control over pain initiation. Moreove ...

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 ...

Project Summary Abstract Acute gastroenteritisAGEinfectious diarrhea is a common condition that is costly in the US and highmortality in developing nationsThe cornerstone of AGE management is oral rehydration therapyORTan evidence based technique that has saved overmillion lives in theyears since its introductionThe problem we aim to address is ORT s underuse in developed countries specifically in ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal involves the development and validation of a novel approach to improve and accelerate the discovery of biopharmaceuticals (i.e. vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and other therapeutic proteins). Biopharmaceuticals are used to treat a variety of infectious and chronic diseases. The proposed research is intended to establish a new paradigm for rapidly ...

Optical photothermal IR (OPTIR) microscopy for chemical imaging of living cells at sub-micron resolution Project Summary/Abstract Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp (PSC) and Prof. Ji-Xin Cheng of Boston University in collaboration with Prof. Rohith Reddy (University of Houston) propose to develop, validate, and commercialize a novel technical called Optical Photothermal Infrared (OPTIR) spectroscopy. ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As elders age, they need increasing amounts of adaptive assistance and care from their caregivers- people who are often busy or remote. With the baby boomer generation preparing to retire, the sheer number of people who will need support will far outstrip the nation's ability to provide professional caregivers. Furthermore, the nation will not be able to afford ...