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Available for licensing and commercial development are methods for rapid and specific fluorescent staining of biological tissue samples that substantially preserve biological molecules such as mRNA. Also within the scope of the invention are methods for microdissecting tissue to obtain pure populations of cells or tissue structures based upon identifying and excising cells or tissue structures that are labeled with fluorescent specific binding agents.

This application describes an MRI probe/transmitter coil that is composed of concentric cylinders with resonant elements. The probe/transmitter can be tuned using a plurality of freely rotating resonant elements radially mounted between the two cylinders. This invention reduces the effects of subject characteristic variations on the coil resonant frequency in an MRI system. Further, this apparatus increases the sensitivity and efficiency in the magnetic resonance system by raising the Q factor of the probe coil/transmitter.

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, has created a gel with 0.3%-0.5% carbomer 940 which is easily used as an imaging immersion medium for confocal and two photon fluorescence emission microscopy and second harmonic generation imaging. This thick, but transparent, gel can be layered on tissue for microscopic analysis and retain the connection between the objective and tissue at a large working distance without supplementary retention.

Prevention of cardiovascular disorders such as myocardial infarction and stroke is an area of major public health importance. Currently, several risk factors for future cardiovascular disorders have been described and are in wide clinical use in the detection of individuals at high risk. However a large number of cardiovascular disorders occur in individuals with apparently low to moderate risk profiles, thereby limiting the ability to identify such patients. Moreover, many of the risk factors require accurate gathering of clinical information.

The Tec family of tyrosine kinases, consisting of five family members Tec, Btk, Itk, Rlk, and BMX, are key regulators of signaling pathways of T lymphocytes. Many existing antiviral therapies rely on inhibition of viral replication, which leads to emergence or selection of resistant viruses. The current technology provides an alternative method for prevention or treatment of viral infection through administration of a Tec tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Such inhibitors can be siRNA, small chemical compounds, antisense or antibody.

Micropthalmia Transcription Factor (MITF) plays an important role in melanocyte development and melanoma growth. MITF is important for embryonic development, regulating the generation of pigment cells and formation of melanomas and other tumors. MITF is made in various isoforms that may play unique roles for different organs during different developmental periods. Additionally, tissue MITF levels can serve as a molecular marker for the diagnosis of metastatic melanoma and therapeutic response.

This invention comprises a novel artificial network for learning, recognizing, and generating temporal (time-dependent) spacial processing that offers to improve simulations of natural and biologic systems including human learning processes. Previously developed artificial neural networks have limitations because they often do not recognize sequences for which they have not been pre-programmed and have great difficulty discriminating temporal spacial patterns.

Fabry disease is a severe metabolic disorder that affects the vascular system of multiple tissues and organs. An estimated 1 in 40,000 individuals inherit this rare disease, and suffer from various complications including stroke, renal failure, and cardiac arrest. At present, molecular markers that directly measure cellular dysfunction to not exist, thus, prognosis for Fabry disease therapy can not be assessed.

This invention is a new three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging device that will allow better imaging of biologic tissue. Conventional BURST technology excites a set of equally spaced, narrow strips in an object and creates an image from a single slice, perpendicular to the direction of the strips. In order to scan multiple slices or for three-dimensional imaging, repeated excitation of the same strips is required. For ultra-fast scanning, repetition times are short compared to longitudinal relaxation times, leading to saturation effects and, thus, inefficiency.

Available for licensing and commercial development are methods of using two MAP kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors, PD98059 and U0126, in the prevention and treatment of polyomavirus infection. Decrease in viral protein expression upon treatment with the MEK inhibitors has been demonstrated for two polyomavirus species, JC virus (JCV) and BK virus (BKV). It is believed that these MEK inhibitors may also be effective against other polyomavirus species in which TGF-beta expression is elevated.