Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Candida is a fungus that is among the most common causes of infections in hospitalized patients in the United States and worldwide. Candida spp. are one of the most common microbes that infect the blood and urine of hospitalized patients. The cost associated with Candida blood infections alone exceeds at least $1 billion per year in the US. Even with therapy, 4 ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this application is to develop a wearable multi-sensor way finding device for the visually impaired that can function reliably both indoors and outdoors. The Phase I specific aims are to: 1) assemble and test a hardware platform that consists of a pocket-size computer and four sensors: a wireless signal receiver inside a wearable comp ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Directed evolution has been widely employed to enhance protein structural stability and activity, expand functionality and alter specificity. We propose a novel approach for generating libraries of variant genes that takes advantage of the evolutionary history of a gene family by generating a combinatorial library incorporating amino acid replacements inferred ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many Americans suffer from ocular diseases which require application of topical therapeutic agents. These diseases range from bacterial conjunctivitis to intraocular inflammation. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eye) affects nearly 30 million people. Glaucoma affects 2 to 3 million Americans. Topical treatments exist but their ability to deliver drugs to the ey ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Broad long term objectives and specific aims: The long-term objective of this project is to develop a digital anatomical research resource library of very high-resolution computational models, and imaging data sets. Our objective is to produce an anatomical library otf the complete human skeleton. The implications of this project, both scientific and social are ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The increasing costs of therapy and the demonstrated benefits of improved treatment efficacy with early detection are important incentives to develop tumor diagnostic agents of greater specificity and sensitivity. Paramagnetic gadolinium complexes are widely used as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) contrast agents to improve sensitivity and/or specificity duri ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In several recent PA's, the NIH has articulated a clear vision for the future of medical imaging systems a) enhanced spatial or temporal resolution, b) better sensitivity and specificity, c) multi-modality, and d) new functional or molecular imaging or spectroscopy methods. Owing to their unique combination of properties, direct conversion gamma radiation imagi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Development of a miniature orally inserted blower with embedded sensing for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing is proposed. This Oral Positive Airway Pressure (OPAP) device represents a potentially radical change in the interface, machine, and patient adherence of sleep disordered breathing treatment. The ergonomic design of the device w ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a commercial neutron source for the treatment of brain and liver cancer based on boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Boron-containing compounds are injected into a patient's bloodstream and accumulate in a malignant tumor. When irradiated with neutrons, the boron atoms preferentially capture neutrons and decay, releasing short-range radi ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Delayed reconstitution of antigen-specific immunity following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) predisposes patients to opportunistic infections and tumor recurrence. To address these problems, we are developing a vaccination methodology using a non-replicating but highly immunogenic Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) vector. When an Lm vaccine ...