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The discovery and selection of suitable compounds for the treatment and prevention of autoimmune, inflammatory, and pain disorders is a significant challenge. Researchers at National Institute of Aging (NIA) mitigated this issue. They discovered and synthesized numerous novel fatty acid derivatives (novel small molecules) that may ameliorate these conditions and provide treatment options for these disorders. In a relevant rat model, the fatty acid derivatives developed by NIA demonstrated:

Substance use disorder is a chronic medical condition, taking its toll on our public health care and judicial systems in an economically unsustainable way.  More than 20 million Americans suffer from substance use disorders.

Papillomavirus pseudoviruses that comprise the L1/L2 capsid proteins can package a wide variety of non-viral DNA plasmids and deliver the packaged genetic material to cells. This function makes them attractive candidates as targeted gene delivery vehicles.

The accurate placement of transplanted tissue at a precise position in the retina is difficult but critical for a successful implementation of an ocular surgical intervention. 

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using genetically engineered T-cell receptors (TCRs) is a promising cancer treatment. These TCRs target genetic mutations unique to patients and play an important role in tumor regression. However, mutation-reactive T-cells and their TCRs can be difficult to identify and isolate from patients. Therefore, we need more efficient methods of isolating mutation-reactive T-cells for use with ACT. 

Although multidimensional diffusion/relaxation NMR experiments are widely used in materials sciences and engineering applications, preclinical and clinical MRI applications of these techniques were not feasible. Moreover, higher-field MRI scanners posed another obstacle to translation of this NMR method. Their specific absorption rate (SAR) limits the use of multi-echo or CPMG pulse trains, so that the large amounts of data required by these methods cannot be collected in vivo due to exceedingly long scan times.

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) uses cancer reactive T-cells to effectively treat patients. However, several obstacles inhibit the successful use of ACT for cancer treatment.  Current approaches for the expansion of T-cells may produce T-cells with a terminally differentiated phenotype that is associated with diminished anti-tumor activity and poor capacity for long-term persistence. Thus, there is a need for improved methods of obtaining an isolated population of effective T-cells for ACT. 

Studies have shown that Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP-2) suppresses tumor growth and tumor-associated angiogenesis. Currently, the main obstacle in using TIMP-2 as a biologic therapeutic has been the inability to produce sufficient quantities of the protein for testing and development. 

Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) developed an MRI-method that is based on the acquisition of multiple pulsed field gradient (m-PFG) rather than single-pulsed field gradient (s-PFG) MRI sequences. In particular, double PFG (dPFG) MRI sequences offer higher sensitivity and greater robustness, as they are more sensitive to the effects of “restriction;” i.e., to water trapped within the axon’s intracellular space, and thus to the diameter of the axons.

Neurites of the central nervous system can be conceptualized as cylindrical pores with finite lengths and radii. In response to physical trauma, axons may assume a “beaded” morphology which alters their ability to conduct electrical impulses, impairing brain function. These microstructural changes are thought to underlie some of the cognitive defects observed in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Current methods for characterizing traumatic brain injury (TBI) cannot provide microstructural detail on the 3-dimensional shape of axonal segments.