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Niemann-Pick disease is a class of inherited lipid storage diseases. Niemann-Pick Type C disease is an autosomal recessive neurovisceral lipid storage disorder which leads to systemic and neurological abnormalities including ataxia, seizures, and loss of speech. Patients with the disease typically die as children. The biochemical hallmark of Niemann-Pick Type C cells is the abnormal accumulation of unesterified cholesterol in lysosomes, which results in the delayed homeostatic regulation of both uptake and esterification of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.

Motion artifacts continue to be a significant problem in MRI of human brain. Prospective motion correction based on external tracking systems has been proposed to ameliorate this issue. However, the calibration of these systems is very complicated and time consuming, as it requires a camera system calibration as well as a calibration between camera and MRI system using dedicated phantoms. An alternative motion correction method for MRI that does not require calibration and can work with just a single video camera has been developed and is available for licensing.

The zinc finger protein ZFP36L2 has been shown by the inventors to play an essential role in hematopoiesis, a process that is dysregulated in hematological cancers, anemia, and other conditions. Thus, ZFP36L2 has promise for use in a diagnostic test to detect abnormal hematopoiesis, or as a target for the development of therapeutics to treat abnormal hematopoiesis.

This technology is directed to the discovery of specific microRNAs that target and downregulate enzymes within the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway and is currently being tested in vivo.

Classical X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) and radiography are based on X-ray absorption and cannot show soft tissue structures as well as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Detecting the phase delay/advance of X-rays that travel through the body could enhance soft tissue contrast 10 - 100 times. Submicron-period X-ray transmission gratings for medical x-ray energies can substantially enhance the phase detection sensitivity, but fabrication is a great challenge. This invention includes a method to fabricate multilayer transmission gratings of large areas.

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).

Sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) inhibitors to reduce necrosis and, thereby, as novel therapeutics to treat ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. Accumulating evidence indicates that programmed necrosis plays a critical role in cell death during ischemia-reperfusion. NIH investigators have shown that the NAD-dependent deacetylase SIRT2 binds constitutively to receptor-interacting protein 3 (RIP3) and that deletion or knockdown of SIRT2 prevents formation of the RIP1-RIP3 complex in mice.

Available for licensing and commercial use is software based on an iterative deconvolution procedure that recovers images that have been blurred by a known point spread function. The software provides superior results when multiple independent observations of the same specimen are obtained. An example of such observations might be the multiple views of a specimen collected by a selective illumination plane microscope (SPIM).

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 pertains to software processes, additions, and docking approaches to Autodock Vina that speeds the rate and efficiency of analyzing ligand interactions with a receptor by cognate ligands and rewards conformations in the scoring algorithm for residue interactions that are based on the biological data. The score is multiplied by a weighting factor to control the degree of ligand-residue interactions that are considered. This multiplier is then added to the docking score for confirmation.