Award Data

PROJECT SUMMARY The β-hemoglobinopathies are prevalent genetic blood diseases with few treatment options. It is estimate that 7% of the worldandapos;s population carries an abnormal hemoglobin gene with 400,000 infants born annually with a severe life threatening hemoglobinopathy. Drug mediated induction of normal, but developmentally silenced, fetal hemoglobin (HbF) expression reduces anemia and ...

PhenylketonuriaPKUis a genetic disorder of metabolism characterized by a pathological elevation of phenylalaninePhein the body stemming from a dysfunctional phenylalanine hydroxylase enzymePAHThe resulting high concentrations of Phexcan result in severe intellectual disabilitybehavioral problemsand neurological deficitse gseizuresStrict control of dietary Phe is the primary treatment for PKU curre ...

Aerosolized pathogenssuch as Influenza virusescan spread rapidly and silently throughout a populationcausing severe outbreaks that can be difficult to controlEarly detection of these airborne pathogens is key to controlling outbreaksespecially among vulnerable populations such as in hospitalstreatment centers or nursing homesYet available methods are neither rapidnor portableCurrent methods rely h ...

Optical photothermal IR (OPTIR) microscopy for chemical imaging of living cells at sub-micron resolution Project Summary/Abstract Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp (PSC) and Prof. Ji-Xin Cheng of Boston University in collaboration with Prof. Rohith Reddy (University of Houston) propose to develop, validate, and commercialize a novel technical called Optical Photothermal Infrared (OPTIR) spectroscopy. ...

Methamphetamine use disorder is associated with damage to regions of the brain that control cognitive and psychiatric functionOne third to one half of adults with methamphetamine use disorder experience cognitive impairments and other psychiatric symptoms that significantly impact treatment outcomesincreased relapse and lower treatment retention ratesMounting evidence demonstrates how immune facto ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and invariably fatal degenerative dementia and the most common form of dementia that currently affects over 5 million Americans. The quality of life and economic costs are significant with estimated U.S. health care payments of over 200 billion in 2012, plus unpaid care by over 15 million Americans that is valued ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this project is to develop and commercialize noninvasive equipment, called the sleep and respiratory track (SARTrak) system, for high throughput detection of sleep apnea in animals. The specific goal for the Phase I application is to design and evaluate a basic model of the SARTrak system with eight chambers (one chamber per animal), i.e. ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An increasing variety of diseases are being shown to be due to immunological processes, including diabetes, and now Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is the most prevalent age-associated disease and growing evidence suggeststhat aspects of the innate immune system play a major role its progression. Based on this evidence, we propose a new approach to the treatm ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad long-term of this project is to develop methods for evaluation of adherence to intravaginal microbicide therapy for the prevention of HIV transmission. Correct determination of adherence to preventative therapies in clinical trials is essential to accurate evaluation of efficacy. A better understanding of the true adherence to a preventative therapy w ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to synthesize, based on genomic sequence information, a human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) strain with demonstrated ability to establish persistent infection in sero-positive individuals. The resulting synthetic product will form the basis for the development of attenuated HCMV vaccines. Innovative synthetic biology methods will overcome ...