Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Methamphetamine use among gay and bisexually identified men (GBM) and other men who have sex with men (MSM) is strongly associated with HIV infection due to the concomitant high-risk sexual behaviors that often occur while using the drug. As a result, HIV prevalence is significantly higher among MSM that report frequent use of methamphetamine and highest among ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Effective early intervention depends on reliable screening of risk for communication impairments as soon as possible. Established infant communication risk factors include poor attention, gestures, social connectedness,exploratory play, and speech. Although these risk factors can be detected by 12-18 mos. and reliably predict later language and social disorders ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In today's device world, products must address soaring healthcare costs under the increased scrutiny of quality and safety. By addressing patient safety, we believe costs can be reduced and quality improved. Non-infectious urethral catheter related complications are one such patient safety problem the US and worldwide health care industry faces. Urethral c ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal addresses PHS 2012-02 Omnibus Solicitation of the NIH for Small Business Technology Transfer Grant Applications (Parent STTR [R41/R42]). More than 20 million American adults (1 in 10) have some level of chronic kidney disease (CDC), with a growing incidence in the aging population. Nearly 400,000 ESRD patients receive some form of dialysis, with t ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) is responsible for the development of liver fibrosis in chronic liver diseases of all causes and remarkably, HSC clearance by apoptosis may allow recovery from liver injury andreversal of liver fibrosis. There is full agreement among liver fibrosis experts that inhibiting o reversing HS activation (the therapeutic targ ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hepatic fibrosis (HF) is a major health problem leading to cirrhosis and death. There is currently no pharmacological treatment for HF, and liver transplantation is unable to meet the needs of all patients afflicted with HF. We have shown that chronic liver injury involves the activation of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and TLR9. We further demonstrated that the ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase I STTR Grant Proposal requests 100,000 support for WestFace Medical Device to construct and test the WestFace Imaging Adaptor in conjunction with Ruikang K. Wang, PhD and his laboratory at the University ofWashington. Utilizing optical coherence tomography (OCT), the patented OCT Adaptor (USPTO Pats. # 7,682,089, # 8,057,107, #8,235,602) provides re ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goals of this project are twofold: a) to develop a new technique for nanoscale Mass spectrometry imaging based on AFM based tip enhanced IR ablation (nanoIR-MS). b) to apply this technique towards the application ofSingle cell imaging. Information on the chemical composition within a cell has implications in the understanding of cell metabolism, division, d ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary We propose to develop a non-invasive method to predict mammalian oocyte quality by analyzing the surrounding cumulus cells' gene expression patterns (cGEP). The result of the cGEP assay---a cGEP score---can be used to predict embryo quality and ultimately the embryo transfer (ET) results. This technology, if success, will for the first time ...

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 ...