Award Data

ABSTRACTDelayed identification of infant head malformation is causing unnecessary medical complications and societal costs. A critical challenge in the early detection is the absence of tools available to pediatric offices to perform quantitative head shape assessment during well-child visits. Delays in diagnosis limit the opportunity for early, less invasive and effective treatment options. In th ...

Project Summary/ Abstract Over 600,000 people in the US will die from cancer this year. It is estimated that 25% of these deaths could have been prevented by detection in earlier stages. Implementation of minimally-invasive routine screening, such as pap smears for cervical cancer, has proven to be an effective approach for reducing cancer mortality. However, several challenges prevent successful ...

It is estimated that approximately 5-10% of all diagnosed cancers are caused by Hereditary Cancer Syndromes (HCS) that are associated with germline mutations (inherited genetic mutations passed directly from a parent to a child that create a genetic predisposition to certain types of cancer). Recent epidemiologic models indicate that 1 in 279 people may be carriers of one of the most common HCS, a ...

ABSTRACT In 2020 malaria caused 241M clinical cases and 627,000 deaths, the greatest numbers of annual deaths since 2012. There were more deaths in Africa from malaria than from COVID-19. There is an urgent unmet medical need for a malaria vaccine that prevents infection and disease in individuals and can be deployed in mass vaccination programs for malaria elimination. The RTS,S malaria vaccine w ...

Project Abstract In 2020 malaria cases (241M) and deaths (627,000) reached the highest since 2012 emphasizing the urgent need for new tools for prevention, control, and elimination of this disease. Sanaria’s Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) sporozoite (SPZ) Vaccine, composed of radiation attenuated PfSPZ administered by intravenous injection, assessed in 1740 subjects aged 5 months to 61 years in 6 co ...

Modern pharmaceuticals have greatly improved the quality of life for many patients suffering a variety of illnesses. Unfortunately, among the 17 most commonly prescribed drugs, only 6 are highly effective for most patients, 5 have a modest effect, and 6 show little clinical effect. Worse still, unwanted illness and death from treatment of patients with the incorrect drug or dosage causes over 275, ...

Research Summary/Abstract ErythroMer (EM) is a novel biosynthetic blood substitute developed to address the critically unmet need for emergency transfusion in situations where the use of banked red blood cells (RBCs) are either not available or undesirable. EM is a self-assembled lipid-oligomeric hybrid nanoparticle with a high per particle payload of hemoglobin (Hb) and the allosteric modifier, R ...

Few interventions have proven to be successful in promoting medication adherence and impacting short- and long-term posttransplant outcomes in adolescent heart transplant (HT) recipients. Improving adherence is a persistent challenge with youth experiencing chronic health conditions, especially among adolescent transplant recipients. Adolescent organ transplant recipients experience unique challen ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Congenital Myasthenic Syndromes (CMS) are a group of clinically similar neuromuscular transmission disorders that differ in their underlying genetic mutation. While some phenotypical variation exists, CMS are commonly characterized by muscle weakness (myasthenia) that worsens with physical exertion. Defects in Collagen Q (ColQ), a multidomain functional protein of the Neuro Muscula ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a severe life-threatening complication that can be caused by viral infection. The disease is characterized by cytokine-driven hyperinflammation and leukocytes count changes. The innate immune response has been linked to ARDS immunopathogenesis. In this regard, neutrophils have been highlighted as essential effector cells in the developm ...