FFPE is a well-established and widely used method for preservation and histological analysis of tissue samples. DNA/RNA/and Proteins can be extracted from FFPE samples, but generally lack single cell resolution and completely lack 3D spatial resolution. Enabling 3D resolution allows the correlation of morphology to information like gene expression,...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent and feared neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging, characterized by progressive neuronal loss and cognitive dysfunction. AD affects nearly 5 million Americans, and unfortunately, there is no cure as of yet. Numerous studies have implicated oligomeric amyloid beta (Aß) aggregates as...

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is one of the most common juvenile autoimmune diseases and is characterized by progressive destruction of pancreatic ß-cells. By the time of T1D diagnosis, around 70-90% of pancreatic ß-cells are already dead. T1D patients face many potential health complications and co-morbidities which lead to both personal and societal...

ErbB4 is a receptor tyrosine kinase member with roles in several key pathways associated with cell proliferation, death and differentiation. ErbB4 overexpression is associated with several types of cancers as well as psychiatric and cardiovascular disorders. Currently there are no drugs available for ErbB4-driven pathologies, or methods of identifying...

The market for point of care test strips demands high quality tests and low production costs without sacrificing sensitivity and specificity. Highly-ordered nanomaterials are being investigated as a viable approach for meeting these demands. Highly-ordered nanomaterials are ideal as they are inexpensive to manufacture and have been shown to produce...

Chronic stress has been widely implicated in a plethora of lethal and life-altering diseases including diabetes, heart attacks, depression, Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. Thus, there is great interest in monitoring stress levels in the population. Stress has both biochemical and physiological effects on the body that can be quantified in bodily fluids....

Despite recent advances in early detection and treatment, breast cancer remains a common and devastating health problem. With the advent of molecularly-targeted therapeutics, biomarkers that are associated with biological subtypes of cancer may be useful for predicting responses to therapeutic interventions. Researchers at the Biodesign Institute...

Ovarian cancer is one of the most common cancers among women, with over 21,000 new cases and over 14,000 deaths per year. If detected early, the 5-year survival rate is over 80%, but that drops to just 11% if detected at stage IV, and over 60% of patients are diagnosed with advanced disease. Early detection is hampered by limitations in current biomarkers,...

Gastric cancer (GC) is a major public health problem in many countries, with more than 1 million new cases, worldwide, in 2018, contributing to almost 800,000 deaths. And new research suggests that GC may be on the rise in the US, particularly among younger adults. Early detection of GC often allows for greater therapeutic options, however, because...

Crohn’s disease (CD), is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects about 3 out of 1,000 people in the U.S. It is currently not known what causes CD, but hereditary, environmental factors and a dysregulated immune system are thought to play a role. Diagnosis of CD is difficult and often involves expensive imaging and invasive biopsies. Current...