Award Data

PROJECT SUMMARY Never in the history of the United States has the unmet medical need to develop novel, non-opioid therapeutics for chronic pain been more urgent than it is today. More than 65 million US adults suffer from chronic pain, resulting in almost $635 billion in annual healthcare costs. Despite their limited efficacy, and potential for addiction, tolerance, and impaired motor performance, ...

SUMMARY A diagnosis of ovarian cancer (OvCa) is especially devastating. With 22,240 diagnoses in 2018 and an estimated 14,070 deaths, OvCa has the third-highest mortality rate, leading to the fifth-highest number of cancer deaths among women in the United States. The objective of this research is to validate the anti-tumor function of humanized antibodies with the end goal of identifying and devel ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Soluble pre-amyloid oligomers (PAO) are the most potent mediators of cytotoxicity, despite common focus on autophagy as a means to clear larger misfolded protein aggregates. Specifically, PAO, rather than aggresomes, are most correlated with desmin-related cardiomyopathy (DRC) caused by an Arg120Gly missense mutation of αB-Crystallin (CryABR120G). In addition to causing DRC, emerg ...

Abstract Pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers, more commonly known as bedsores are a huge problem affecting 2.5 million patients every year in the US and causes 60,000 deaths every year. Pressures exceeding 32 mm of Hg in the bony prominences in the back of the patient body lead to bedsores. Despite the existing low air loss mattresses, alternating pressure mattresses and the state-of-the-art air f ...

Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) and Prof. Rikky Muller at UC-Berkeley propose a two-phase effort to address current speed limitations in holographic photostimulation. Specifically, the proposed innovations aim to achieve streaming of high-resolution holograms at up to 10,000 frames per second (fps) to enable closed-loop optogenetic control.Optical imaging and photostimulation have emerged as compl ...

This proposal addresses a significant barrier to obtaining treatment for college-ageyouth with mental disorders. Many college-age youth with impairing mental disordersremain untreated because of concerns about stigma and privacy, inconvenience and wait times, andbecause universities are often unable to service all such students. Also, of critical importance,when referral for treatment is implement ...

ABSTRACT The overall goal of this Phase I STTR project is to develop a biomimetic size-adjustable prosthetic heart valve (Autus Size-Adaptable Valve) that can be expanded post-implantation to accommodate changes in blood flow due to somatic growth or cardiac remodelling, to prevent the complications of valve prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM). By design, all existing surgical prosthetic valves have ...

AbstractSpine disorders, primarily caused by degenerative spine conditions, deformity, tumors, and trauma, affect approximately half of the population aged over 40. To address these disorders, over 457,000 spine fusions were performed in the US in 2011 (6% annual growth), including about 290,000 anterior cervical discectomy and fusions (ACDF). ACDF surgery removes 1-4 intervertebral discs and repl ...

This grant will establish immunologic proof-of-concept for a second-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccine providing extraordinarily durable T-cell and antibody responses, which together protect the respiratory mucosa and minimize the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). The vaccine platform combines the immunostimulatory power and proven safety of adenovirus-vectored vaccines with novel in- vecto ...

ABSTRACT The prevalence of vaping nicotine has skyrocketed among adolescents in recent years, yet no NIH-funded trials have developed or evaluated vaping cessation interventions. An ideal treatment must directly target established vaping risk factors. Depressive symptoms, which are common among adolescent vapers (36%), have recently been identified as a predominant vaping-related risk factor. The ...