Main Menu

The second leading cause of death in the United States is cancer and more than one million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, with this number likely to increase as the population ages.

The claimed invention provides a method of detecting the presence of a parvovirus in a sample. Parvoviruses infect animals and man. In man, the only known pathogenic member of this family is parvovirus B19. The inventors have identified the parvovirus B19 receptor which provides for a method to diagnose, prevent, and treat parvovirus infection utilizing the binding affinity for the receptor.

This application describes an MRI probe/transmitter coil that is composed of concentric cylinders with resonant elements. The probe/transmitter can be tuned using a plurality of freely rotating resonant elements radially mounted between the two cylinders. This invention reduces the effects of subject characteristic variations on the coil resonant frequency in an MRI system. Further, this apparatus increases the sensitivity and efficiency in the magnetic resonance system by raising the Q factor of the probe coil/transmitter.

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, has created a gel with 0.3%-0.5% carbomer 940 which is easily used as an imaging immersion medium for confocal and two photon fluorescence emission microscopy and second harmonic generation imaging. This thick, but transparent, gel can be layered on tissue for microscopic analysis and retain the connection between the objective and tissue at a large working distance without supplementary retention.

Available for licensing and commercial development are methods to optimize sequence-based assays such as microarrays, multiplexed PCR or multiplexed antibody methods. This computational method uses numerical optimization to identify an optimal probe set to be used in an assay for the measurement of a specified set of targets. The method incorporates the sequence information of the target (protein, DNA, RNA or other polymer), the assay characteristics, limits on probe set size and assay probe length in its optimization.

This invention is a novel method and apparatus for greatly improving and sustaining spontaneous breathing in patients with severe respiratory failure. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is widely used in the treatment of patients with mild respiratory failure.

Blocking interleukin (IL-21) may be an effective method to treat or prevent various viral infections. In the course of an immune response to a virus, IL-21, produced primarily by CD4+ T cells, can inhibit or stimulate (regulate), immune cell function (B cells, T cells, natural killer cells, dendritic cells). IL-21 regulation may be either protective or pathological; autoimmune disease pathology has been associated with IL-21 promoted inflammation (in: type 1 diabetes, lupus, and multiple sclerosis).

A new and highly advantageous method of purifying polar organic compounds using affinity countercurrent chromatography, has been created. This invention permits separation of very hydrophilic organic compounds using countercurrent chromatography in which a ligand for the desired analytes is used to enhance the partitioning of polar species into the organic layer of an aqueous-organic solvent mixture.

The invention relates to fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) and their uses as fiducial markers for microscopy. FNDs are bright fluorescent probes that do not blink or bleach and have broad fluorescence excitation and emission peaks. The fluorescence intensity can be readily controlled by the size of the FND, the number of fluorescent centers produced in the nanodiamonds, or in situ through the application of a weak magnetic field.

The invention provides for a novel ultrasound-based imaging modality that is based on the interaction of a static magnetic field and conductive moieties in the imaged sample under electrical excitation. The invention also provides a novel ultrasound-based imaging modality that provides a contrast mechanism which reflects the conductivity distribution of the medium being imaged.