NIH and NIGMS offer Administrative Supplements that provide additional funding to a currently funded grant within the scope of another project area. Currently DE-INBRE has eight active administrative supplements.
Learn more about these supplements here or click to see the NIH Reporter Listing:
This proposal investigates a novel approach to hypertension (HTN) diagnosis in youth. We investigate the feasibility of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) device placement at an initial outpatient pediatrician visit for expedited diagnosis of HTN in youth living within socially and economically deprived communities. We assess the feasibility of ABPM device placement and provider, parent, and patient acceptance of ABPM at this initial visit.
The aim of this project is to acquire a Beckman CytoFLEX LX flow cytometer for small particle and multicolor flow cytometry. The UD Flow Cytometry Core has two fluorescence-activated cell sorters (BD FACS Aria Fusions), but does not have a dedicated, modern analytical flow cytometer for multicolor flow cytometry panels and small particle (~80 nm) analyses.Acquiring an instrument with FSC detectors specializing in small particle detection will make it possible to use flow cytometry to study the rapidly growing field of research on extracellular vesicles (EV) and exosomes. It will open up new avenues of research for investigators studying EV release in human and mouse bone marrow cells, pancreatic cancer cells, bacteria, fungi as well as other small particles, such as virus-like particles and nanoparticles for drug delivery.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer and second leading cause of cancer mortality for women overall. Black women experience 40% higher breast cancer mortality rates than White women despite similar incidence rates. More than half of this racial disparity is attributable to triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive subtype of invasive breast cancer that is twice as prevalent among Black vs. White women. The overall objective of this proposal is to develop the infrastructure to conduct this type of biomedical research in Delaware, an IDeA state that leads the US in both TNBC and alcohol-attributable breast cancer. We aim to develop a new prospective cohort to conduct comprehensive assessments of exposures for established and emerging TNBC risk factors in tandem with epigenetic immune patterns from a representative sample of breast cancer patients.
Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) face many individual (diagnosis-specific, demographic), parent/family-related, and community-level barriers that affect their ability to optimize their health behaviors (being physically active, eating healthy, sleeping appropriately) and developmental outcomes (motor/participation, social, behavioral, cognitive/academic performance). Children with NDD are at a greater risk for poor developmental outcomes, physical inactivity, and reduced school and community-based recreational participation compared to their neurotypical (NT) peers. These challenges faced by children with NDD lead to higher rates of overweight/obesity and social isolation and in turn affect their long-term physical health, psychological health, and future development. Identifying and addressing the various complex, multi-level factors affecting health behaviors and developmental outcomes of children with NDD will eventually improve their overall physical/mental well-being, quality of life, as well as life expectancy.
The glymphatic-lymphatic system plays an essential role in immune surveillance and clearance of metabolic waste. Dysfunction of the system is closely associated with neurodegenerative disorders. While the existence of brain lymphatic vessels (mLVs) was proposed more than 200 years ago, it was only reliably confirmed with solid experimental evidence in 2015. Fluorescent imaging and gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA) have since been used to probe the brain’s glymphatic-lymphatic system in rodents and nonhuman primates. However, current strategies for imaging the glymphatic-lymphatic system have several limitations that preclude their use for in vivo imaging and application in the clinical setting. We hypothesize that fluorine-18 labeled VEGFR3-specific radiotracers can be used for real- time PET imaging of the whole brain’s glymphatic-lymphatic system.
The aim of this project is to acquire a Particle Metrix ZetaView QUATT to characterize small vesicles and particles by nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). The UD Bio-Imaging Center and its satellite Flow Cytometry Core currently provide nanoparticle characterization of extracellular vesicles (EVs), viruses, virus-like particles, and other nanoparticles used for drug delivery with electron microscopy and flow cytometry. These approaches are invariably complemented and/or validated by NTA to determine size distribution, concentration, and zeta-potential. Despite the ubiquity of the NTA approach, there are currently no NTA systems in a fee-for-service core facility in Delaware. This project aims to fill this critical gap in capabilities by placing the ZetaView NTA system in the UD Bio-Imaging Center, which will ensure that it is easily accessible and well-maintained by core facility staff scientists.
Neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is the most common cause of cerebral palsy in children born at term. Affected children are also at significantly increased risk of learning disorders, intellectual disability, ADHD and Autism and these neurodevelopmental impairments can result in lifelong disability. HIE can be caused by any condition that impairs blood or oxygen delivery to the fetal brain around the time of birth, including maternal infection or inflammation, placental insufficiency/abruption, chorioamnionitis, among other factors. Therefore, it is critical to develop a complete understanding of the mechanisms of injury to develop novel or augmentative therapeutic agents.
Ovarian cancer (OVC) is the deadliest gynecologic cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death among US women. A critical limitation in fighting OVC is the inability to detect OVC early (stages I & II). Detection at early stages improves five-year survival to ~95% compared to ~57% overall. The five-year survival further drops to ~36% for black women. Currently, no reliable diagnostic markers are available that identify OVC early and accurately. We utilize female chickens (hens) as a model to identify early and accurate diagnostic biomarkers for OVC. Chickens (unlike mice) develop OVC spontaneously, just like humans. Moreover, disease progression and disease staging parallels human OVC. Further, total number of ovulation events (a risk factor, if high) and age of onset (menopause) are also similar across both species. The overarching long-term goal of this research is to design and validate a diagnostic test similar to a mammogram or a pap smear that can be routinely performed to identify OVC before it can be clinically identified. In this proposal, we will utilize specific-pathogen free hens as an animal model. Such comprehensive metabolite profiling especially for lipid metabolites as early and accurate diagnostic biomarkers in human ovarian cancer lays the groundwork for large-scale validation in patients, helping fulfill a critical need in the ovarian cancer precision prevention landscape.
