Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Genital herpes is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections worldwide and is associated with substantial morbidity. The impact of genital herpes as a public health threat is amplified because of its epidemiologic synergy with HIV. Epidemiological studies consistently demonstrate that HSV infection increases the risk of HIV transmission and acqu ...

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of mortality in the U Sresulting in overdeaths every year and costing more than $billion in loss of productivitySmoking is also the leading cause of cancer and of deaths from cancerAlthough the prevalence of smoking has declined over the pastyearslarge disparities in tobacco use remain across a number of groupsLatino a smokers represent a major health dispari ...

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) affects an ever growing population. While this disease typically has been associated with juveniles, the disease in adult populations is rapidly increasing. The defining clinical component is insulin loss, which occurs because of sustained inflammation in the islets. At present there is no means to prevent or reverse insulin loss. A major inflammatory pathway in T1D that cont ...

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): Human prion diseases are infectious and invariably fatal forms of neurodegenerative diseases, including sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common form, and variant CJD (vCJD) which is associated to consumption of cattle meat infected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Currently there is not sensitive, objective and non-invasive biochemical di ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Multiple SclerosisMSis 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 systemresulting in progressive neurological dysfunctionUp to datethere is no cure for the disease and current available treatments focus on preventing future immunological attacksprimarily by su ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We have raised murine monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to a conserved region of the CD4 binding site of gp120 (CD4bs) that neutralize genetically diverse HIV strains. The MAbs have a novel mechanism of action. They hydrolyze multiple molecules of gp120, thereby imparting MAb increased biological efficacy. About 10% of HIV infected subjects develop resistance to cur ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to develop and commercialize noninvasive equipment, called the sleep and respiratory track (SARTrak) system, for high throughput detection of sleep apnea in animals. The specific goal for the Phase I application is to design and evaluate a basic model of the SARTrak system with eight chambers (one chamber per animal), i.e. ...

Aerosolized pathogenssuch as Influenza virusescan spread rapidly and silently throughout a populationcausing severe outbreaks that can be difficult to controlEarly detection of these airborne pathogens is key to controlling outbreaksespecially among vulnerable populations such as in hospitalstreatment centers or nursing homesYet available methods are neither rapidnor portableCurrent methods rely h ...

Methamphetamine use disorder is associated with damage to regions of the brain that control cognitive and psychiatric functionOne third to one half of adults with methamphetamine use disorder experience cognitive impairments and other psychiatric symptoms that significantly impact treatment outcomesincreased relapse and lower treatment retention ratesMounting evidence demonstrates how immune facto ...