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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.

A tissue microarray (TMA) is an important technique used by pathologists to accurately analyze tissue samples. It is a means of aggregating tissue samples in an organized grid fashion for high throughput analysis. Automated TMAs are commercially available, but they are expensive ($16,000-$230,000) and require specialized training and experience to apply the technology.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), in partnership with the nonprofit Center for Advancing Innovation (CAI) and the Avon Foundation for Women, launched The Breast Cancer Startup Challenge, a first-of-a-kind, international, university-based competition. Through the creation of startup companies, it represents a new
model to accelerate the transfer of federally funded inventions to the marketplace, specifically focused on increasing the volume of developing emerging breast cancer technologies.

Medical research to combat disease is now a global effort and one that now requires an international technology transfer effort to see that new discoveries from research are effectively developed and commercialized to reach patients. While the United States in general, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in particular, have long led the way in effective biomedical technology transfer, such is not the case with new or younger transfer programs at research institutions outside the US, especially those in emerging and middle-income countries.

Cancer vaccines harness the immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells, and are a promising new approach to fighting cancer. In contrast to preventative vaccines, cancer vaccines identify antigens from cancer cells and immunize cancer patients against those antigens to stimulate the body’s immune cells to attack and kill the cancer cells. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has developed investigational cancer vaccines that induce a specific, targeted immune response against cancer cells expressing the brachyury protein.