Award Data

Project Summary Heart disease remains the leading cause of mortality in the world and, drug-induced cardiotoxicity is a major cause of drug failure and withdrawal from the clinic or the market, contributing to the poor overall success rate of drug development programs. In vitro models of cardiac contractility have the potential to generate predictive data earlier in the pipeline to reduce later-st ...

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) causes more than 509,000 deaths per year worldwide, and over 80% of these cases occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the settings where it is available and affordable, ESCC diagnosis is made using the highly invasive and expensive procedure known as esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD, also referred to as upper endoscopy). However, citizens of ...

7. Project Summary Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is a growing problem as populations age. More than 25 million people are affected by dementia worldwide with most suffering from AD. AD is characterized by the presence of plaques of insoluble amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tangles of hyperphosphorylated aggregates of the cytoskeletal protein, tau. Thus far, most AD tre ...

Project summary Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a commonly used 3D x-ray imaging modality in dental and craniofacial imaging. While CBCT is primarily employed in evaluating bony anatomy in 3D, soft tissues are often poorly visualized in dental CBCT images. Moreover, tissue densities cannot be extracted accurately from CBCT images. The main culprit behind this problem is scattered radiation ...

Project Summary During this project, Electronic BioSicences (EBS) and Professor Meni Wanunu (at Northeastern University) will develop a true single-molecule, direct, long-lived, RNA sequencer. The developed RNA sequencer will be capable of sequencing RNA with high-accuracy (andgt;99%), as well as iteratively sequencing various samples and quantitatively profiling the RNA content of a given sample, ...

PROJECT SUMMARY Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a neurovascular complication of diabetes mellitus and the leading cause of blindness in working age adults and elderly, affecting approximately 4.2 million diabetes patients in the US, of which 655,000 have vision-threatening DR. There is an urgent need for the development of additional approaches to prevent and treat diabetic retinopathy, as the curren ...

Project Summary Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating disease that affects millions of Americans and imposes a huge socio- economic burden. AD-related cognitive decline is associated with the accumulation of Aβ (Amyloid beta) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau protein, which are insufficiently cleared and degraded by mechanisms such as the glia-lymphatic system o ...

Project Summary/AbstractPhysical Sciences Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Michigan (U-M), proposes to develop a novel technology that will non-intrusively monitor driver cognitive decline and/or high-risk driving behavior that is especially suited for seniors (aged andgt;65). Contextual physiological biomarkers along with computer vision base ...

Project Summary/Abstract Underdog Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (UDP), in collaboration with the SENS Research Foundation (SRF), aims to demonstrate that 7-ketocholesterol (7KC) is elevated in red blood cells (RBCs) in Atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. 7KC is primarily created by non-enzymatic oxidation of cholesterol. With only a few exceptions, human tissues lack the ability to metabolize or ex ...

AbstractThere are approximately 43.5 million informal (unpaid) caregivers in the U.S., of which 5.6 million are African American. Informal caregivers often provide a variety of types of support including emotional, physical, and financial, to people with chronic conditions.1 Providing care can be very stressful and emotionally and physically exhausting for informal caregivers.2 African American ca ...