— The sigma-2 (σ2) receptor is an important target for the development of molecular probes in oncology because of its 10-fold higher density in proliferating tumor cells than in quiescent tumor cells, and the observation that σ2 receptor agonists are able to kill tumor cells via apoptotic …

— Background: B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA or CD272) is an inhibitory receptor expressed on T and B cells, dendritic cells and select myeloid cells. BTLA interacts with costimulatory molecule herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM, Tnfrsf14, ATAR, HVEA, LIGHTR, or TR2). When bound to BTLA, HVEM atten…

— This invention features cell permeable nano conjugates of shell-cross-linked knedel (SCK) and peptide nucleic acids (PNA) with mRNA targeting sequences for early diagnosis and therapy of cancers.

— A novel series of phenothiazine-derived molecules are useful for detecting Parkinson’s disease using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The molecules bind with high affinity to the alpha- synuclein protein, which forms aggregates in the brain and is associated with the neurodegenerati…

— Identifying patients at risk of relapse while undergoing particular treatment protocols is critically important yet challenging to do in a timely manner. Researchers at Washington University have deveoped a new method to rapidly and accurately determine relapse risk in a human subject afflicted with…

— Urinary tract infection (UTI) caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is one of the most common infectious diseases in women. The morbidity and economic impact are enormous, with over $2.5 billion spent annually on treatment. The high rates of recurrence, and the large numbers of women that …

— There is currently keen interest in cultivating eukaryotic algae as sources of triacylglycerides (TAGs) to be converted into diesel and jet transportation fuel. Recent studies from numerous labs have shown that when stressed by nitrogen (N)-starvation, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii produce TAGs that ca…

— Background: Opioids, such as morphine, are used in pain management and have significant analgesic effects. However a common side effect of morphine is severe itching. Currently, morphine-induced itch is treated with antagonists against the mu opioid receptor. While these antagonists reduce itch, the…

— Background: Advances in nonlinear materials give rise to a multitude of optical phenomena that have important applications as switches and modulators in telecommunications and optical computing industry. The degree of optical nonlinearity in a material depends upon the strength of the optical field…

— The technology encompasses a software method for automatically and interactively segmenting previously acquired medical images, including MRI and CT studies, based on edge and interior characteristics of regions. The method allows for arbitrary levels of sensitivity in differentiating areas of inte…

— Approximately 5,000 infants are born with moderate, severe, or profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (HL) each year in the U.S. and many more have mild, unilateral, or progressive HL that will be identified in childhood. However, the degree of HL alone cannot predict a child’s language…

— arScan is a Java-based, platform-independent, software tool that can detect variants in next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. It employs a robust statistical approach to call variants and is able to handle germline variants, multi-sample variants, somatic mutations and somatic copy number alterati…

— Background: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (aHSCT) from a healthy donor can cure a variety of blood cell disorders including leukemia, multiple myeloma, and some types of lymphoma. This has resulted in an increasing number of transplants, surpassing 8,000 a year in the US alone. …

— Many diseases can be associated with abnormal production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to oxidative stress. Currently there is no way to image this in situ. Dihydroethidium (DHE) naturally produces a fluorescent product when oxidized by an ROS. The signal is not strong enough for practical im…

— Radiation dosimetry is a type of quality assurance for radiation therapy (RT) treatment to verify performance and dosage of the therapy to ensure accuracy and patient safety. To determine beam delivery accuracy, phantom patients (made to mimic necessary properties of the body) are used daily to cali…

— Optical coherence tomography (OCT) utilizes optical light to obtain an image of opaque or translucent objects, ie tissue. Because scattered light contributes to the bluring found in other optical imaging techniques, OCT filters out all the scattered light. An image is formed using only the back refl…

— Background: Axonal degeneration is a feature commonly associated with many neuropathological conditions including response to injury, exposure to neurotoxins, hereditary neuropathies, glaucoma, and neurodegenerative diseases. The degenerative process is active when neuronal insults trigger a self-de…

— Background Atherosclerosis is a disease process in which lipid deposition causes the formation of plaques that lead to thickening of the artery walls. The cause of a majority of fatal acute myocardial infarction and sudden coronary death is due to the rupture of soft or unstable plaques; however, t…

— Background: Near Infrared (NIR) fluorescence can be highly useful in biological systems as it is highly sensitive and allows for detection and imaging of physiological and molecular processes in cells and living organisms. However, radiometric imaging is difficult in the NIR region of the light spec…