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No vaccine candidates against Ebola virus (EBOV) or Marburg virus (MARV) are nearing licensure and the need to develop a safe and efficacious vaccine against filoviruses continues. Whereas several preclinical vaccine candidates against EBOV or MARV exist, their further development is a major challenge based on safety concerns, pre-existing vector immunity, and issues such as manufacturing, dosage, and marketability. The inventors have developed a new platform based on live or chemically inactivated (killed) rabies virus (RABV) virions containing EBOV glycoprotein (GP) in their envelope.

Early work by Hammond at al. showed gamma globulin to be effective for the prevention of poliomyelitis. Therefore, passive immunotherapy could be another way to treat chronic excretors. Even though prior attempts to use intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and breast milk were unsuccessful, there is reason to think that higher doses of antipoliovirus antibodies could result in complete clearance of poliovirus from chronically infected individuals.

Cardiovascular disorders associated with endothelial dysfunction, like atherosclerosis, have decreased endothelial nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability. L-arginine, the primary substrate for endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), is important in the regulation of NO production. Arginase competes with eNOS for L-arginine and has been implicated in the endothelial dysfunction. NIH investigators have generated transgenic mice with human ArgII (hArgII) gene under control of endothelial-specific Tie2 promoter. In these mice, hArgII was expressed at very high levels in all tissues except liver.

Glutamate receptor mGluR5 has been reported to function in the brain. There were no prior reports of it being involved in melanoma. The NIH investigators have discovered that when over expressed in transgenic animals, mGluR5 induces melanoma. The establishment of an mGluR5 tumor mouse model will provide a unique opportunity to help elucidate the mechanisms underlying tumor formation, and allow the study of aggressive melanoma in animals and a screen of potential therapeutics. Such an mGluR5 tumor mouse model is established at the National Institutes of Health and is available for licensing.

Scientists at NIDDK have developed a fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (Fgfr1) conditional knock out mouse. Fgfr1 is a member of the Fgfr family of transmembrane protein receptors with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity. Fgfr1 is important in multiple biological processes, including mesoderm induction and patterning, cell growth and migration, organ formation and bone growth. Fgfr1 is highly expressed in central nervous system tissues and plays a critical role in proliferation, migration, and survival of neurons and glial cells.

The invention relates to the diagnosis and management of cancer-related fatigue (CRF). More specifically the invention relates to identification and measurement of a single Biomarker or a group of biomarkers (e.g. genes) that are associated with cancer related fatigue. The identification and measurement of such biomarkers can be utilized in the diagnosis and management of fatigue and may facilitate the development of therapy for such fatigue.

The Proteus syndrome is a congenital disorder characterized by patchy overgrowth and hyperplasia (cell proliferation) of multiple tissues and organs, along with susceptibility to developing tumors. It is a rare disorder, with incidence of less than one case per million, caused by a somatic mutation. It is also a mosaic disorder, that is one in which cells of the same person have different genetic content from one another.

Available for licensing is a mouse model that constitutively expresses human interleukin-21 (IL-21). Traditionally, human IL-21 transgenic mouse models are difficult to produce as those with high IL-21 levels exhibit growth retardation and die before sexual maturity. The investigators generated transgenic mice that express human IL-21, which can stimulate murine cells in vitro thereby providing an accurate model to elucidate IL-21's role in immunity, immune disorders, and cancer.

Available for licensing are novel pyrrolopyrimidine compounds that disrupt the assembly of the perinucleolar compartment (PNC), a sub-nuclear structure highly prevalent in metastatic tumors. These notable compounds act without overt cytotoxicity.

The presence of the PNC positively correlates with metastatic capacity, making it a potential marker for cancer development and prognosis. These compounds could also serve as useful tools to elucidate the biology driving the formation and maintenance of the PNC, and unravel its association with metastasis.

Attempts to manage body weight are often unsuccessful or only temporary. This is, in part, due to antiquated dieting methods that attempt to address calorie consumption while ignoring metabolic and physical changes. Personalized and more comprehensive methods to track and manage body weight may be more effective.