Grants

NYC Department of Cultural Affairs

Dieu Donne Paper Mill, Inc.

NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section Preliminary evidence suggests that rates of unintended pregnancies may differ by sexual orientation, and there may be additional differences among subgroups of women within sexual orientation groups. For example, women who live in different states may experience differences due to varied access to reproductive health care from varying state policies. This project will combine data from two large national longitudinal cohorts to see how these differences in state policy contexts and demographic characteristics impact differences in unintended pregnancies and associated adverse pregnancy outcomes. The proposed research is an essential next step towards (1) elucidating the mechanisms that affect unintended pregnancies and their outcomes (2) identifying particular policies that promote health and wellbeing, and (3) improving pregnancy outcomes for all.

NCI - National Cancer Institute

Excessive neutral lipid or fatty acid levels in the tumor microenvironment (TME) are important mechanisms for carcinoma-associated fibroblast (CAF) activation. We showed that lipid reprogramming in CAFs is sustained by increasing lipogenesis mediator, DGAT1, and identified a CAF subtype that appears to have a key specific role in regulating tumor-neural crosstalk and possibly increased innervation and perineural invasion (PNI). We discovered that neural fibroblasts (NF) derived from peripheral nerves become part of the CAF population, can reprogram lipid storage while promoting neuritic-like processes formation, and stimulate tumor progression. To our knowledge, this newly recognized CAF cell type has not been previously reported and their function studied. African Americans (AA) are at a higher risk of developing and dying from PCa compared to Caucasians (Cau), but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. PNI is seen at a higher frequency in AA with solid tumors. We observed higher nerve density in AA patients with PCa. We also found that CAF derived from AA patients had higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), an important regulator of nerve regeneration. Moreover, a possible link between lipids and neural mediators emerged when our preliminary results revealed a positive regulatory loop between BDNF and DGAT1. Therefore, we hypothesize that aggressive PCa in AA is due, in part, to nerve injury-induced activation of CAF through the DGAT1-BDNF axis, promoting a nerve and lipid-rich TME. Furthermore, blockade of the DGAT1-BDNF axis with available inhibitors could provide a new therapeutic tool to suppress lipid reprogramming, block excess neural density, and prevent PNI related to tumor progression. The following specific aims are proposed. The first aim will investigate the mechanisms inducing NF activation and lipid reprogramming in the human prostate TME with high nerve density and/or PNI by identifying factors in NFs harvested from human tumors associated with PNI and increased nerve density in aggressive tumors. The transcriptome landscapes of NFs from PNI+ AA will be evaluated. The second aim will determine whether DGAT1 regulation of BDNF signaling axis is required to promote neurogenesis and the neurogenic switch in the prostate TME. Using knockdown strategies for DGAT1 and/or BDNF in selective stromal cell types (NFs, CAFs from AA and Cau with/without PNI) evaluate in vitro morphology of neuritic processes, ion concentration, and intracellular lipid trafficking and analyze in vivo expression of neural and adrenergic mediators, NF morphometrics and interaction with tumor cells. The third aim will assess the benefits of blocking the DGAT1-BDNF axis effects on PNI in vivo by testing the anti-tumor activity of a BDNF antagonists, DGAT1 inhibitors or both in vivo animal models to assess the ability of inhibitor therapies to block neurogenesis, NF or Schwann cell proliferation, or tumor growth. This study was designed to decipher the origins of higher nerve density and/or PNI and has the potential to identify a new therapeutic strategies to suppress lipid reprogramming and neural-tumor crosstalk associated with PCa progression.

NSF

This project will develop new techniques in the study of harmonics, along with applications to fundamental questions about the structure of prime numbers. More precisely, the mathematical theory of automorphic forms builds from the study of harmonics, or the fundamental tones of musical instruments, to a general theory of the vibrational modes of highly symmetric shapes in arbitrary dimensions. Because of a surprising connection between automorphic forms and prime numbers, it has also proven important to study these highly symmetric shapes with an alternative theory of geometry built up from an unusual notion of size and distance that detects divisibility by a fixed prime number. This is called p-adic geometry. The basic shapes in p-adic geometry look more like fractals such as the Cantor set than the shapes we encounter in our day-to-day life, thus much of our usual physical intuition about the real world cannot be applied in this setting. This project will improve our ability to reason intuitively in p-adic geometry by developing ideas from calculus and geometry, like derivatives and curvature, so that they can be applied also in p-adic geometry, and then use these tools to answer fundamental questions about automorphic forms and their connections to prime numbers. The mathematics of harmonics plays a fundamental role in signal processing, while questions about prime numbers are essential to the modern cryptography schemes that allow us to communicate and make purchases securely online, so that the mathematics to be developed in this project will have ties to areas of importance across the modern economy. The project also provides training opportunities for the next generation of researchers through research supervision and mentoring for undergraduate and doctoral students in mathematics. At a more technical level, this project will develop new tools for studying p-adic geometry using the language of inscribed v-sheaves, which adds a differential layer on top of the theories of diamonds and perfectoid spaces that make up the modern foundations of p-adic geometry. This theory is akin to equipping a topological space with the additional structure of a differential manifold. The project will connect these tools with other recent advances in the theory of p-adic geometry and analytic structures, and use them to study the relation between different spaces of p-adic automorphic forms and to study the geometry of moduli spaces in p-adic Hodge theory. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

PROJECT SUMMARY The bacterial family that is particularly associated with infections of the gut are Enterobacteriaceae. One significant but understudied family member, Providencia alcalifaciens, has been linked to sporadic foodborne outbreaks of diarrhea and isolated from stool samples from persons with diarrhea. P. alcalifaciens is also part of the human oral, sputum and gut microbiomes of healthy individuals. What distinguishes commensal from enteropathogenic P. alcalifaciens? Most diarrheal isolates harbor a large plasmid ranging in size from 128 kb - 181 kb that encodes a type III secretion system (T3SS) that is closely related to, and functionally interchangeable with, the invasion-associated T3SS (T3SS1) of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Of the plasmid- carrying isolates, a subset invades non-phagocytic host cells in cellulo. The primary objective of this application is to define what role this genomic and phenotypic heterogeneity plays in P. alcalifaciens pathogenesis. A comparative genomic analysis identified nine genes in the 40 kb type III gene cluster on the plasmid as statistically associated with the invasion phenotype. In Specific Aim 1, we will use in silico, in vitro and in cellulo analysis to determine if these predicted genes are the molecular drivers of invasiveness in P. alcalifaciens. In Specific Aim 2, we will establish an oral-challenge murine model to assess bacterial colonization and host response in the gut upon infection with invasive and non-invasive P. alcalifaciens isolates. These results will define the contribution of intestinal epithelial cell invasion to P. alcalifaciens enteropathogenesis via the natural route of infection. The potential impact of our proposed work is high because it will be the first to decipher the genetic and molecular basis of pathogenicity of P. alcalifaciens, and the first systematic assessment of P. alcalifaciens virulence determinants in a small animal model.

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Eukaryotic cells can rapidly adjust the abundance, size, and shape of their membrane-bound organelles in response to physiological needs. We recently found that fission yeast cells employ different mechanisms to counteract various types of stress: nutritional deprivation sequentially activates organelle degradation, while ER stress, caused by the accumulation of misfolded proteins, induces morphological changes in multiple organelles, such as the ER, Golgi, and mitochondria, without triggering their degradation. Our current research aims to understand the molecular framework underlying these differential adaptive responses in fission yeast and to investigate their conservation in mammalian systems. We propose that organelles communicate and coordinate sequential degradation through selective autophagy. To explore this, we will integrate structural prediction with genetic and cellular assays to systematically identify selective autophagy receptors and use multi-omics approaches to investigate potential crosstalk between organelles during starvation. Given that ER stress is increasingly recognized as a contributing factor in a number of human diseases including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer, we will also use fission yeast and human cell cultures to examine how these cells reorganize multiple organelles to mitigate ER stress. These insights could advance our understanding of disease pathology and suggest new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

Project Summary. Accumulating evidence suggests that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has a long preclinical phase, lasting years to decades during which the accumulation of pathological proteins such as amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau can occur prior to the appearance of overt cognitive symptoms. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the most common sleep disorders and is composed of both sleep disruption (SD) and intermittent hypoxia (IH). Disentangling the separate contributions of chronic SD and chronic IH may reveal how OSA impacts risk for AD. While the effects of SD and IH on Aβ have been studied in both humans and animal models, less is known about the effects of SD and IH on tau spread and propagation throughout the brain, a crucial step in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) throughout the brain. Our rationale for targeting tau stems from our own findings demonstrating significant associations between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of the wake-promoting neuropeptide orexin and both total and hyperphosphorylated tau, and that individuals with OSA might show signs of MCI and AD at a younger age. In addition, the treatment of OSA has been shown to delay the age of onset of MCI and to improve cognitive function in AD. Although these observations and others implicate OSA in the regulation of tau in the brain they do not establish directionality. A causal role for OSA in accelerating NFT formation would be strengthened by both chronic SD and chronic IH in mouse models of tauopathy and forms the basis for Aim 1. Given the association between tau and orexin, effective treatment of OSA holds particular promise in slowing the spread of tau throughout the brain. While hyperphosphorylation of tau is important in the formation of NFT’s, the development of AD may be separately accelerated by the spread of tau from neuron to neuron by particular aggregate conformations, a phenomenon that depends on activity of the seeding neuron. The locus coeruleus (LC) is a key brain region that expresses some of the earliest tau pathology, and importantly, the LC promotes wakefulness through rostral noradrenergic projections and is silent during sleep. Therefore, the increased neural activity of the LC during SD or IH represents a potential mechanism by which chronic SD affects the spread of tau pathology to rostral targets. Identifying the precise brain targets to which tau spreads from the LC and the time course over which this occurs is addressed in Aim 2. Addressing the hyperphosphorylation and spread of tau in models with and without LC specificity and the associated behavioral consequences on spatial, motor and fear learning as a function of chronic sleep disruption or chronic intermittent hypoxia serves as the basis for Aims 3.

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Summary Regulation of immune responses is critical to provide beneficial immunity against pathogens and cancer, while avoiding autoimmune diseases and immunopathology. A population of memory-phenotype CD8+ T cells, expressing the transcription factor Helios” has been proposed to play a key role in preventing excessive and autoimmune responses following vaccination or infection. However, the precise identity of these Helios+ “regulatory” CD8+ T cells, the factors controlling their differentiation and maintenance, and the exact ways in which they contribute to immune homeostasis are highly controversial. In this exploratory proposal, we develop model systems intended to dissect the development, homeostasis and specificity of these CD8+ T cells, position ourselves for future studies on the physiological role and therapeutic potential of Helios+ CD8+ T cells.

NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

PROJECT SUMMARY For a pregnancy to succeed, the immune environment at the maternal-fetal interface must be precisely regulated to support fetal development. Uterine natural killer (uNK) cells–the most abundant lymphocyte at the maternal- fetal interface–are thought to contribute to various physiological aspects of gestation crucial for fetal development. Their critical role in pregnancy is evidenced by studies linking abnormalities in uNK cells to adverse pregnancy outcomes, particularly in uterine transplant recipients. Our preliminary findings provide the first direct evidence showing that the loss of uNK cells in the pregnant murine uterus significantly reduces litter sizes and increases resorption rates, further underscoring their indispensable role in pregnancy. Despite mounting evidence linking uNK cell dysfunction with adverse pregnancy outcomes, critical knowledge gaps in uNK cell biology persist, particularly regarding the origins and functional specialization of these cells within the uterine microenvironment. Our lab has previously shown that the uNK cell population is heterogeneous, consisting of both tissue-resident NK (trNK) cells and conventional NK (cNK) cells. While the developmental trajectory of cNK cells has been well-established, the developmental origins of uterine trNK cells remain unresolved. Here, we will investigate the origins and differentiation of uterine trNK cells in the virgin and pregnant murine uterus. Our preliminary findings show that both trNK cells and cNK cells in the murine uterus are Eomesodermin-dependent both at steady-state and during pregnancy, suggesting uterine trNK cells derive from the cNK cell lineage. Additionally, our initial studies demonstrate that progenitors in the bone marrow can give rise to uterine trNK cells. Together, our data support the central hypothesis that uterine trNK cells originate from the cNK cell lineage and are derived from either 1) early NK cell precursors in the bone marrow or 2) mature cNK cells in the periphery. Recognizing that these possibilities are not mutually exclusive, we will clarify the origins and developmental kinetics of uterine trNK cells using cutting-edge techniques and novel mouse models, including adoptive transfer studies in a newly engineered reporter mouse as well as advanced whole-mount confocal imaging. We also hypothesize that peripheral cNK cells can differentiate into uterine trNK cells during murine pregnancy and are driven to do so by molecular factors in the pregnant uterus. To explore the potential plasticity of peripheral cNK cells in the pregnant uterus, we will leverage innovative mouse models and state-of-the-art spatial transcriptomics to identify key regulatory signals and cell populations governing this transition. Collectively, this proposal will address key gaps in uNK cell biology by providing critical insights into the origins and differentiation of uNK cells that have the potential to uncover novel therapeutic targets for patients with uNK cell abnormalities, particularly uterine transplant recipients, ultimately improving reproductive health outcomes.

NIA - National Institute on Aging

Abstract Approximately 60% of the 6.9 million Americans with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathology have Lewy Body (LB) pathology and 1.4 million Americans have been diagnosed with Lewy Body Disease (LBD). Like AD pathology, which emerges up to two decades prior to the onset of memory symptoms, LB pathology accumulates in asymptotic individuals. A consensus to test disease modifying therapies for dementias at preclinical stages of the disease is emerging. It is critical to know if patients have LB pathology in preclinical LBD trials or in preclinical AD trials (to prevent heterogenous treatment effects driven by covert LBD). Efficient recruitment and validated outcomes within the asymptomatic phase of the disease are challenges for preclinical studies. The olfactory bulb is an early site for LB pathology, and two different odor identification tests predicted the presence of LB pathology in asymptomatic individuals. Current olfactory tests are administered by research assistants, requiring a face-to-face meeting. A self-administered, multi-lingual, validated olfactory test battery would afford scaling of this promising surveillance strategy for Lewy body pathology into the home setting, and make recruitment more efficient for both preclinical LBD and pure AD trials. To address this unmet need, we propose to examine the utility of the AROMHA Brain Health Test, a web-based app paired with smell cards using proprietary naturalistic odors. This validated at home olfactory battery consists of self-administered tests of odor identification, odor memory, and odor discrimination. In Phase I, we will tailor the multilingual AROMHA Brain Health Test for early detection of LBD. In Aim 1, we will query patient reported outcomes of known risk factors for LB pathology, such as REM sleep behavioral disorder, subjective smell loss, constipation, and orthostatic hypotension, and pair this app with our validated, mailable bilingual smell cards. In Aim 2, we will pilot this battery in the DLB arm of the longitudinal cohort of Mass. ADRC, which includes deeply phenotyped patients at the dementia (n = 30) or mild cognitive impairment stages of LBD (n = 30) as well as age-matched controls (n=20). In addition, we will obtain skin biopsies for phospho-synuclein staining and the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT) (Aim 2). We will model olfactory performance to predict the diagnosis of a clinical diagnosis of DLB vs. age-matched controls, and to predict the presence of LB pathology seen in skin biopsies collected from these participants, with a particular focus on seeking sensitivity and specificity of olfactory changes related to aging and early LBD. Successful completion of these aims will afford a Phase II application for longitudinal smell testing of recruited patients, and further validation in multiple patient cohorts with a deeper phenotyping of LBD and other neurodegenerative disease biomarkers (plasma, neuroimaging, CSF). Used alone or together with other non-invasive measures, a remote test to screen cognitively normal people harboring olfactory dysfunction - and possible LB pathology - who are at risk of developing LBD is an important tool to efficiently recruit participants for clinical trials testing therapies for preclinical LBD and/or AD.

Accelerator YMCA

Expand programming to include digital bridge program to teach computer hardware skills to at least twenty-five high school dropouts, ages 16-21. Students will earn a fully functioning computer to take home.

Spark Media Project

Digital Café

Education for All

Establish a computer lab for East Africans offering workshops in computer usage, productivity software, internet citizenship, digital self-sufficiency and youth engagement.

THE EYEBEAM ATELIER

Digital Day Camp

Clackamas Community College

Increase technology access in the library for low-income students, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, and other students with barriers to technology access.

AXON ENTERPRISE INC

Engineering and Research and Technology Based Services-Computer services-System and system component administration services-Technical support or help desk services

NIA - National Institute on Aging

PROJECT SUMMARY Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a severe and rapidly progressive Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD) syndrome that lacks effective treatment and leads to a rapid onset of dementia, disability, and death. Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) is the second most common type of neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Both PSP and DLB cause significant motor impairment, resulting in progressive loss of independence in activities of daily living, such as eating, dressing, and writing. There are no FDA-approved treatments for FTLD syndromes (including PSP) or DLB. One of the key challenges in the development of new effective therapies for DLB syndromes is the lack of validated instruments and biomarkers to measure disease severity, disease progression, and the effect of therapeutic interventions. Since 2019, BioSensics, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) have partnered to develop a wearable-based remote monitoring solution for FTLD syndromes. The solution uses PAMSysTM, a patented and validated pendant sensor for monitoring physical activity, posture, and walking parameters during activities of daily living. Through a Direct Phase II SBIR award (R44AG080861) from the National Institute on Aging, we have demonstrated the feasibility of using PAMSys for tracking ambulatory change in PSP. In this project, we will extend our work by using both PAMSys and PAMSys ULMTM wrist sensors to enable comprehensive monitoring of upper and lower limb function. PAMSys ULM is a patented wrist sensor solution for monitoring goal-directed movements of the upper limb during activities of daily living. The primary goal of the project is to qualify digital monitoring biomarkers of motor function for both PSP and DLB with the FDA Biomarker Qualification Program (BQP). Context of Use: COU1 and COU2) Monitoring by working biomarkers to track ambulatory change over time in PSP and DLB, COU3 and COU4) Monitoring biomarkers to track changes in upper limb function over time in PSP and DLB. We will work with CurePSP, The Association for Frontotemporal Dementia, and the Lewy Body Dementia Association to recruit study participants and leverage an NIH-funded platform trial in PSP to facilitate patient recruitment and assure enrollment diversity. We will demonstrate the accuracy (analytical validation) of both PAMSys and PAMSys ULM in PSP and DLB. In addition, we will conduct a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of monitoring motor function in PSP and DLB using PAMSys and PAMSys ULM. Afterward, we will conduct a multisite longitudinal clinical validation of digital health technologies for monitoring motor function in a sizeable and diverse cohort of PSP and DLB patients and compare this to functional scales and patient-reported outcome measures. Moreover, as recommended by the FDA BQP, we will conduct interviews with all participants using the Technology Acceptance Model to examine the perception of benefit, technology acceptance and anxiety, and attitude toward use from patients’ point of view.

National Institutes of Health

Digital Health Technology Derived Biomarkers and Outcome Assessments for Remote Monitoring and Endpoint Development (UG3/UH3 - Clinical Trial Optional)

National Endowment for the Humanities

DIGITAL HUMANITIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION FORTIFICATION AT BUTTS HILL (PORTSMOUTH, RHODE ISLAND) [THIS PROJECT WILL CONDUCT NON-DESTRUCTIVE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMAGING ANALYSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION FORTIFICATION AT BUTTS HILL IN PORTSMOUTH, RHODE IN ORDER TO DETERMINE WHETHER SUBTERRANEAN WARTIME STRUCTURAL FEATURES SUCH AS MILITARY BARRACKS CAN BE IDENTIFIED. RESULTS WILL THEN BE AGGREGATED WITH PREVIOUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL INFORMATION TO REALIZE: (1) ON-SITE STORYBOARD EXHIBIT SIGNAGE THAT RECOUNTS THE HISTORY OF BUTTS HILL FORT DURING WARTIME, AS WELL AS (2) A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTING ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMAGING RESULTS, HISTORICAL MAPS, AND SATELLITE/AERIAL IMAGERY OVERLAID WITH HISTORICAL TEXT IN AN INTERACTIVE ON-LINE INTERFACE. THE PROPOSED DUAL APPROACH COMBINING TRADITIONAL ON-SITE PUBLIC DISSEMINATION CONTENT WITH A WIDE-REACHING DIGITAL HUMANITIES APPROACH WILL SERVE TO ENGAGE LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND A NATIONAL VIRTUAL AUDIENCE IN CELEBRATING THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE LEADING UP TO THE NATION?S SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL.]

NIDA - National Institute on Drug Abuse

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Many evidence-based preventative interventions have been developed to prevent substance use, physical and mental illness, and promote positive educational and social outcomes among adolescents. Among these, caregiver-mediated interventions boast strong effects that are mediated by effective parenting skills. However, the impact of these interventions is severely limited by low rates of home practice of intervention skills among caregivers. To address this research-to-practice gap, researchers have been investigating barriers and facilitators of caregiver engagement, focusing in large part on intervention attendance. Strategies for increasing caregivers' home practice of skills remain underexamined. Yet, caregiver home practice is a key component of theorized intervention effectiveness and has been found to impact parenting behaviors and subsequent child outcomes over and above that of attendance. Therefore, the next important step in supporting parenting behavior change is to develop implementation support strategies for evidence-based interventions that target caregiver home practice specifically. This K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will develop and pilot a digital behavior change intervention for use as an adjunct to an evidence-based preventative intervention. The digital behavior change intervention aims to increase caregivers' home practice of intervention skills. Informed by the theory of planned behavior, habit formation principles, and relapse prevention theory, the intervention will leverage mobile health technologies (mHealth) to circumvent and problem solve common barriers to home practice including home practice intention, frequency of practice, home practice competence, and maintenance of intervention skills. The intervention will be developed as a smartphone application (i.e., “app”) with components informed by a qualitative assessment of barriers to caregiver home practice and refined through direct stakeholder input on design requirements to optimize acceptability and feasibility. The intervention will be piloted with 48 caregiver participants as an adjunct to Bridges, an evidence-based intervention for adolescent substance use prevention and mental health promotion. Findings from this project have the potential to improve caregiver home practice, intervention engagement broadly, and ultimately boost effectiveness and public health impact of numerous caregiver- mediated interventions. In response to NOSI NOT-OD-23-031, this administrative supplement seeks the support of personnel to support the continuation of proposed project activities (e.g., participant recruitment, qualitative and quantitative data collection, pilot trial of the digital behavior change intervention) within the original timeline. No changes have been made to the aims, goals, or scope of the work proposed in the funded K01 application.

NHLBI - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

ABSTRACT Lung complications occur in 1 in 20 people that receive a surgery that requires an overnight stay in the hospital, even if their surgery is not near the lungs. Anesthesia during surgery and inactivity during recovery cause air sacs in the lungs to deflate, which puts patients at risk of complications like pneumonia that increase mortality five-fold, increase lengths of stay and recovery periods, and are both costly and non-reimbursable. The current standard of care is to prevent lung complications with use of incentive, or therapeutic, spirometry, where patients must breathe in from an incentive spirometer device 10x each hour to inflate their alveoli. Proper incentive spirometry can prevent 1 in 3 post-surgery lung complications. However, current incentive spirometers are entirely mechanical, making it difficult for nurses to track patient adherence to their exercises beyond labor-intensive bedside monitoring. The majority of incentive spirometry is currently self-monitored and self-reported by patients, which leads to poor adherence and overreporting. This makes incentive spirometry largely inefficient and ineffective in the clinic today. Airalux seeks to solve this problem with a redesigned incentive spirometer that can automatically collect user metrics and display them on a mobile dashboard for clinician monitoring. The Airalux device is also designed to increase incentive spirometry adherence through behavioral nudges and goal setting for patients. We have developed a unique combination of sensors, mechanical design, and a software suite that can directly measure patient airflow and does not rely on the mechanical piston systems of current incentive spirometers, which are clunky, difficult to digitize, and introduce large opportunities for user error. The goal of this technology is to make incentive spirometry easy for patients to use and easy for clinicians to monitor. The aims of this project are to develop a prototype with reduced materials costs that make it viable and affordable for clinical use. Because this technology relies on environmentally sensitive sensor configurations, we must also verify that our reduced-cost device can measure inhalation volumes accurately in a broader range of environmental settings. This will enable advancement of our technology to Phase II, when we will conduct a randomized clinical trial with patients using our lower cost prototype and assess clinical outcomes from increased adherence, such as improved oxygenation and reduced complication rates. Commercially, this device seeks to improve patient outcomes after surgery, while also saving hospitals non-reimbursable costs associated with lung complication treatment and readmissions.

Coalition for Refugees from Burma

Deliver a three-component technology access and training program in partnership with Somali Youth and Family Club, targeting immigrant and refugee parents of students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools.

InterConnection

Low-income adults will learn basic software skills and advanced training in networking, website development and troubleshooting.

Youth in Focus

Offer two advanced-level digital photography classes for disadvantaged teens, providing training in photography skills and online content sharing.