Women are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of the world’s HIV burden is located. The development of female-initiated protection methods is motivated by the gender power disparity between men and women, which often leads to inability for women to negotiate ...

Vascular calcification (VC) is prevalent in chronic kidney disease and elevated serum inorganic phosphate (Pi) is a recognized risk factor. The type III sodium-dependent phosphate transporter, PiT-1, is required for elevated Pi-induced osteochondrogenic differentiation and matrix mineralization in vascular smooth muscle cells ...

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is used for the frontline treatment of most types of cancer but is associated with significant toxicity due to the lack of cell specificity of these drugs. Newer treatment strategies, such as polymeric drug delivery vehicles that preferentially accumulate in tumors via the EPR effect and oncolytic ...

Macrophages are widely recognized as a key cell type in modulating the foreign body response. The manner in which they affect the foreign body response largely depends on their activation state, often referred to as their polarization. The macrophage polarization state lies on a spectrum between two extremes, known as the M1 ...

Silicon photonic biosensors have the potential to transform medical diagnostics and healthcare delivery. Hundreds of these nano-scale sensors can be integrated onto a single millimeter-sized silicon substrate and fabricated in foundries to achieve economies of scale similar to modern day computer chips. These refractive index ...

Transplantation of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes is a promising strategy for repairing damaged cardiac muscle following a myocardial infarction. Our group and others have demonstrated both long-term engraftment and increased cardiac function after implantation in preclinical models using rodents and large animals. Despite ...

Heart diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. As damages done to the heart are irreversible, heart transplant is the ultimate therapy, but it is greatly limited by the shortage of heart donors. Thus, scientists are attracted by induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a solution because of ...

Point-of-care diagnostics have transformed healthcare workflow, perhaps most notably in the wide-reaching impact of home pregnancy tests. Lateral flow strips are simple and inexpensive, but limited in their application to relatively simple diagnostic tasks. Nucleic acid amplification assays on the other hand are more accurate ...

Persons with chronic venous disease experience progressive deterioration of their lower extremity hemodynamics. Different factors are thought to contribute to this hemodynamic decline, including incompetent venous valves, thrombotic blockage, and reduced efficiency of extremity muscle pumps. Left untreated, venous disease and ...

Most tissues in the human body demonstrate multiscale organization, from extracellular matrix (ECM) structure, to cell morphologies, to overall tissue architecture. Further, in the cases of cardiac and skeletal muscle, tissue structure is critical to appropriate tissue function. However, current tissue engineering methods ...