Research Roundup

 

The goal of the National Science Foundation’s Seed Translational Acceleration of Research (STAR) Project awards, provided under the Accelerating Research Translation (ART) award, is to build translational research capacity and infrastructure for U.S. institutions of higher education and to enhance their role in regional innovation ecosystems. UW is among the first cohort of awardees. The projects have strong commercial potential and industry support. Read about all the projects.

 

Three STAR projects:

 

Higher Accuracy Flu Testing Kits
Infections of influenza, or the flu, are commonly diagnosed using rapid influenza diagnostic tests that are inexpensive but often produce false-negative results due to their poor sensitivity, requiring that their outcomes be validated with advanced tests. In the project “Development of a Sensitive Lateral Flow Immunoassay Device for Analyzing Nasal Swab Samples Collected on a Dissolvable Surface,” principal investigator Debashis Dutta, graduate student Amit Acharzo and their team demonstrated a more-than-20-fold improvement in results using their new test. The proposed method also reduces reliance on user skills for performing the tests, cutting down variability in test results. The new test is currently being used at clinics in Laramie. It has the potential to save $100-$200 per incident in testing costs. It can also improve treatment with reliable results within 15 minutes.
 
Turning Liquid Medicines into a Dry State
From vaccines to genetic disorders, RNA-based medicines have applications in many aspects of human health and disease. However, a major drawback of these new medicines is the need to keep them frozen, making these medicines reliant on a robust cold chain. Led by Thomas Boothby and graduate student Tyler Gonzalez — with the company partner Sigma Genetics — “Cold-chain free Stabilization of RNA-Lipid Nanoparticle Formulations” looks to keep these new medicines stable in a dry state, making them much less sensitive to temperature and allowing them to be stored at room temperature. This would allow these medicines to be shipped and stored more easily as well as to be distributed to areas with less stable electricity or lack of refrigeration. The researchers hope to achieve these results by applying techniques used by organisms that can survive extreme drying, such as tardigrades, and to translate that basic biological knowledge into a product that enables dry-state stabilization of these sensitive RNA-based medicines.
 
Healing Diabetics’ Wounds Faster
Because people with diabetes often get wounds that won’t heal due to proteins in their body, a team led by Sreejayan Nair is studying repurposing a known drug, Odanacatib, for the treatment of nonhealing diabetic wounds. The project, called “Preclinical Development of Odanacatib for Diabetic Wound Healing,” has the potential to help solve an unmet need that affects over 6 million Americans per year. Nair’s team is partnering with WiTii Pharma on the study. Odanacatib is a bone drug that can stop the proteins and help skin grow back, closing the wound and preventing infections and amputations.
 

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