Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuron-cell culture is widely used for studies in basic research, drug discovery, and toxicity testing. Traditional random cultures allow limited access to subcellular compartments (axons, dendrites, synapses) due to extensive and haphazard growth of neurons. Our long-term goal is to provide robust, user-friendly, and cost effective culture platforms that can o ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nonlinear optical microscopy techniques (such as two-photon florescence) are being used to acquire volumetric (i.e. three dimensional) images that probe several hundred microns into scattering tissue. These techniques are being combined with fast acquisition schemes to allow imaging of live, moving specimens at high NA. This combination allows for high-resoluti ...

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): Diabetes mellitus (DM) leads to a 3-4 fold higher risk of experiencing ischemic stroke. In addition, DM stroke patients are more prone to develop more and earlier white matter (WM) high-intensity lesions than non DM stroke patients. Treatment of stroke with tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) at 2-3 hours after stroke decreases lesion volume in non-DM rats. How ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Expansion of the trinucleotide repeat CGG in the FMR1 gene causes dysregulation of FMR1 protein expression and results in a host of serious conditions, from cognitive impairment, autism, ovarian failure, and progressiveneurological disorders. Over 1.5 million Americans harbor expanded repeat regions, and 10 million are indicated by symptoms or family history to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a position tracking and mobility assessment system that will enable the elderly to live longer and more safely at home or in an assisted living facility. The ability to move is a critical function tat underlies the quality of life for the elderly. Changes in mobility such as speed of walking have been shown to ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The most common artificial voice source for post-laryngectomy speech rehabilitation is the hand-held buzzer or electrolarynx (EL). This device is relatively easy to use and enables most laryngectomees to verbally communicate, but with reduced intelligibility and markedly degraded naturalness. In addition, EL speech is often described as robotic and monotone, at ...

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 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Crystallization, followed by subsequent structure determination, is a major step in understanding the structure- function relationship of macromolecules. Understanding macromolecule structure has become a key part in the development of new pharmaceuticals, and is a major area of NIH research. Crystallization however is also the rate limiting step, despite techn ...

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 ...