The 2012 Deals of Distinction™ Award was presented to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) along with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), who jointly own one patent family, and to Gilead Sciences (Gilead) for license agreements granted to the Medicines Patent Pool, a newly established initiative of UNITAID, an international organization established to grant licenses for the generic manufacture and purchase of drugs against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

High sound levels in work settings can have negative effects on worker concentration and productivity. Even offices separated by walls and doors transmit sound between them. As office buildings optimize space, the allotment for each person, office, or work area often decreases. With more office workers in a given area, localized noise levels are increasing beyond optimal levels for worker productivity. 

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis (TB) causes approximately 1.5 million deaths worldwide each year. More than one-third of the world’s population has tested positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium that causes TB, but are not yet ill (latent infection). Of these, approximately ten percent are expected to progress to active TB infection. Treatment is lengthy, and the drugs often come with serious side effects. This has led to poor treatment compliance and allowed the rise of drug-resistant TB strains. 

On July 20, 2012, a committee of the European Medicines Agency recommended for regulatory approval the first gene therapy using an adeno-associated virus vector to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a very rare genetic disease. With a normal diet, patients lacking sufficient levels of lipoprotein lipase have abnormally high serum triglycerides and high levels of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), resulting in acute severe pancreatitis and chronic conditions associated with high levels of VLDL, such as cardiovascular diseases. 

Meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection of the brain that sweeps across sub-Saharan Africa in an area called the “meningitis belt,” is now losing its power to inflict illness and death. Scientists and technology transfer officers from the U.S.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted through the bite of mosquitoes infected with malaria parasites. In 2012, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria and an estimated 660,000 deaths, mostly among young children in sub-Saharan Africa. With the effectiveness of current drugs diminishing as resistant strains of malaria have emerged, new drugs are urgently needed. The plasmodial surface anion channel (PSAC) found on the surface of red blood cells infected with malaria parasites offers an opportunity to develop new drugs to treat and prevent malaria.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an MRI method that produces in vivo magnetic resonance images of biological tissues sensitized with the localized and contrasting characteristics of water diffusion, producing microscopic images of tissues. Water molecules become excited when exposed to a strong magnetic field, which causes the protons in water molecules to move in a coordinated and precise way. The intensity of each image element (voxel) reflects the best estimate of the rate of water diffusion at that location.

New research discoveries from federal intramural laboratories typically reach the market via transfer of the underlying technology to private companies for further development and commercialization.

In April 2013, President Obama unveiled the “BRAIN” initiative, which called on the scientific community to better understand the human brain in an effort to treat, prevent, and cure neurological diseases. For example, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress are a few pervasive neuropsychiatric diseases that afflict more than 150 million people in developed countries, and approximately 15 million of those are in the U.S.

In 1995, Dr. Warren J. Leonard of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported the creation of an interleukin-2 receptor gamma chain (IL-2Rg) deficient mouse. His lab also demonstrated earlier that mutations in the gene encoding IL-2Rg result in X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) and that IL-2Rg is a subunit common to multiple cytokine receptors. The IL-2Rgdeficient mice created by Dr. Leonard provide a unique animal model, the first of its kind, to study XSCID and other immune deficiencies.