Main Menu

This invention is a method to significantly improve the temporal or spatial resolution in a phase contrast MRI (PC-MRI) study. In general, conventional PC-MRI involves encoding the motion information of spins in the phase of the image. The velocity of the spin motion can be extracted by calculating the phase difference between two consecutive images acquired with two different bipolar encoding gradients.

Approximately 30,000 patients are diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) each year in the United States, and an estimated 12,000 patients die of this disease. Most patients are diagnosed with advanced local disease or metastatic disease. Metastatic RCC carries a poor prognosis with median survivals in the range of 10-12 months. Drugs that inhibit VEGF receptor tyrosine kinases such as Sorafenib and Sunitinib have recently been approved by the FDA to treat metastatic RCC.

Immuno-therapy has taken a lead among the new cancer therapeutic approaches. It is one of the most promising new therapeutic approaches that exploit the innate immune mechanism of an individual to fight against a certain disease.

Available for licensing and commercial development is a novel two-photon microscope system, which would allow improved fluorescent light collection, the use of less excitation power and deeper penetration of tissue and isolated cells. Multi-photon fluorescence microscopy (MPFM) is an imaging technique that can investigate biological processes to sub-cellular resolution at depths of hundreds of microns below the surface of biological tissues.

The catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase complex (DNA-PKcs) has been shown to be important in DNA repair and VDJ recombination in lymphocytes. The inventors have discovered that DNA-PKcs also plays novel, important roles in energy regulation and neurological function. The inventors observed that mature DNA-PKcs-deficient mice (also known as SCID mice) have a lower proportion of fat, resist obesity, and have significantly greater physical endurance than wild-type control mice, particularly with increasing age.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system has recently been recognized to play a central role in tumor biology. Bortezomib, an inhibitor of the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome, has clinical activity in a variety of hematologic malignancies and is FDA approved for use in Multiple Myeloma and Mantle Cell Lymphoma.

Cell-free hemoglobin based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) are blood substitutes and resuscitative agents that can be used to replace whole blood donations, alleviate blood shortages and reduce the risks of infections such as HIV and hepatitis. Stroma-free HBOCs offer the advantages of increased stability, consistency of supply, and reduced immunogenicity over the use of the alternative cell based sources.

Available for licensing and commercial development is a guidewire device and system for MRI guidance of vascular interventions. The guidewire design, and its coupled system, enables interventionalists to visualize the location of the tip and distal shaft of an MRI compatible guidewire relative to the vascular system and surrounding anatomy. Visualization of both the shaft and tip enables interventionalists to advance the guidewire through tortuous vessels reducing the risk of puncturing vessel walls and also steering it through labyrinthine vasculature.

Antibodies to NHE3, useful for immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry, are available to resell for research purposes. NHE3 is a membrane Na+/H+ exchanger involved in maintenance of fluid volume homeostasis in the kidney. It is expressed on the apical membrane of the renal proximal tubule and plays a major role in NaCl and HCO3 absorption. The inventor has developed rabbit polyclonal antibodies directed against a peptide sequence common to human, rat and mouse NHE3.

Antibodies to thiazide-sensitive sodium-chloride cotransporter (NCC), useful for immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry, are available to resell for research purposes. NCC is found on the apical membrane of the distal convoluted tubule, where it is the principal mediator of Na+ and CI- reabsorption in this segment of the nephron. NCC is the target of thiazide diuretics used in the treatment of hypertension. The inventors have developed rabbit polyclonal antibodies directed against a peptide sequence in the C-terminal region of NCC.