Novel A₃ adenosine antagonists available for licensing. A₃ receptors are particularly highly expressed in inflammatory cells, making it a potentially desirable target for inflammatory diseases. This technology relates to highly specific antagonists and partial agonists of A₃ adenosine receptors, which are negatively coupled to adenylate cyclase and have been broadly implicated in inflammation, cardiovascular disease, endocrine conditions and cancer. Further, A₃ adenosine receptors have been implicated in asthma and glaucoma.

Available for licensing is a software system useful in applications involving nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The software system, called NMRPipe, is written in the C programming language, and makes use of the TCL/TK scripting environment. The system includes over 500 modules for processing and analyzing experimental data of one to four dimensions collected on NMR spectrometers. The system exploits the UNIX computer operating system facilities of pipelines and scripts to link modules in a highly flexible, user-definable manner.

Multivalent interactions are important in cell attachment, wound healing and immune responses. Such interactions are associated with cancer metastasis, blood clotting and the generation of antibodies from a vaccination. Mimicking multivalent interactions on a synthetic scaffold is challenging especially when large numbers of ligands (such as 5 or more) need to be displayed. There are numerous synthetic scaffolds that have been developed, but there are significant limitations that remain.

A new conjugate vaccine for cholera has been developed. The invention includes a new method to conjugate the O-specific polysaccharide-core part of the bacterial lipopolysaccharide and protein subcomponents. Conventional technology has entailed chemical treatment of both components to introduce linkers, which made them amenable for covalent linking. The new method simplifies production by utilizing squaric acid chemistry for conjugating the free amine-containing species (e.g. polysaccharides) directly to amine-containing species (e.g.

Adenosine modulates many physiological processes by activating specific adenosine receptors. These adenosine receptors play a critical role in the regulation of cellular signaling and are broadly distributed throughout the body. Thus, the ability to modulate adenosine receptor-mediated signaling is an attractive therapeutic strategy for a broad range of diseases. This technology relates to a group of compounds that display high affinity and specificity for the A1 adenosine receptor subtype.

The NIH announces a novel method for fast, simple, and accurate detection of nucleic acids outside the modern laboratory. Nucleic acid testing is highly specific and often provides definitive identification of a disease or pathogen. Methods to detect nucleic acid sequences and identify a disease or pathogen are dominated by PCR, but applying PCR-based techniques in remote settings is challenging. Researchers at the NIH have developed a universal, colorimetric, nucleic acid-responsive diagnostic system that uses two short peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes and does not rely on PCR.

Currently, adeno-associated virus (AAV) represents the gene therapy vehicle of choice because it has many advantages over current strategies for therapeutic gene insertion. AAV is less pathogenic than other virus types; stably integrates into dividing and non-dividing cells; integrates at a consistent site in the host genome; and shows good specificity towards various cell types for targeted gene delivery.

Microglia activation leads to inflammation mediated dopaminergic degeneration in the brain of patients with Parkinson and Alzheimer's Disease. Thus Identification of drugs that reduce microglia activation could prevent or reverse neuronal degeneration in these diseases and other degenerative CNS disorders.

This invention involves ApoA-1 mimetic peptides with multiple amphipathic alpha-helical domains that promote lipid efflux from cells and are useful in the treatment and prevention of dyslipidemic, inflammatory and vascular disorders. IND-enabling studies for one of the peptides, named Fx-5A, are completed in preparation for an IND filing at the FDA, to be followed by a Phase I clinical trial planned for 2017.

Lactoferrin, an iron-binding glycoprotein, kills bacteria and modulates inflammatory and immune responses. It is expressed in mucosa membrane and is present in saliva, tears, vaginal secretion and neutrophils. It modulates immune and inflammatory response by down-regulating several cytokines. Therefore, lactoferrin is an important protein in first line of defense and protecting health. Changes in lactoferrin expression could also be used as a marker of gene activation, especially estrogen-induced gene activity in the uterus.