This invention is a method to significantly improve the temporal or spatial resolution in a phase contrast MRI (PC-MRI) study. In general, conventional PC-MRI involves encoding the motion information of spins in the phase of the image. The velocity of the spin motion can be extracted by calculating the phase difference between two consecutive images acquired with two different bipolar encoding gradients.

Approximately 30,000 patients are diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) each year in the United States, and an estimated 12,000 patients die of this disease. Most patients are diagnosed with advanced local disease or metastatic disease. Metastatic RCC carries a poor prognosis with median survivals in the range of 10-12 months. Drugs that inhibit VEGF receptor tyrosine kinases such as Sorafenib and Sunitinib have recently been approved by the FDA to treat metastatic RCC.

ADP-ribosylation is important in many cellular processes, including DNA replication and repair, maintenance of genomic stability, telomere dynamics, cell differentiation and proliferation, and necrosis and apoptosis. Poly-ADP-ribose is important in a number of critical physiological processes such as DNA repair, cellular differentiation, and carcinogenesis. Until recently, only one human enzyme, PARG, had been identified that degrades the ADP-ribose polymer.

Immuno-therapy has taken a lead among the new cancer therapeutic approaches. It is one of the most promising new therapeutic approaches that exploit the innate immune mechanism of an individual to fight against a certain disease.

Available for licensing and commercial development is a novel two-photon microscope system, which would allow improved fluorescent light collection, the use of less excitation power and deeper penetration of tissue and isolated cells. Multi-photon fluorescence microscopy (MPFM) is an imaging technique that can investigate biological processes to sub-cellular resolution at depths of hundreds of microns below the surface of biological tissues.

Catheter-based mitral valve regurgitation treatments that use a coronary sinus trajectory or coronary sinus implant can have unwanted effects because the coronary sinus and its branches have been found to cross the outer diameter of major coronary arteries in a majority of humans. As a result, pressure applied by any prosthetic device in the coronary sinus (such as tension on the annuloplasty device) can compress the underlying coronary artery and induce myocardial ischemia or infarction.

Available for licensing and commercial development are methods to optimize sequence-based assays such as microarrays, multiplexed PCR or multiplexed antibody methods. This computational method uses numerical optimization to identify an optimal probe set to be used in an assay for the measurement of a specified set of targets. The method incorporates the sequence information of the target (protein, DNA, RNA or other polymer), the assay characteristics, limits on probe set size and assay probe length in its optimization.

The catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase complex (DNA-PKcs) has been shown to be important in DNA repair and VDJ recombination in lymphocytes. The inventors have discovered that DNA-PKcs also plays novel, important roles in energy regulation and neurological function. The inventors observed that mature DNA-PKcs-deficient mice (also known as SCID mice) have a lower proportion of fat, resist obesity, and have significantly greater physical endurance than wild-type control mice, particularly with increasing age.

Aquaporins, also known as water channels, form pores in cell membranes and selectively transport water in and out of the cell. Aquaporins are involved in regulation of water balance and blood pressure, and thirteen different isoforms have been found in mammals. Aquaporin 2 (AQP2) is located in the collecting duct of the kidney, and is regulated by the peptide hormone vasopressin. AQP2 expression is increased in conditions where there is water retention, such as pregnancy and congestive heart failure, and mutations of AQP2 are associated with nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system has recently been recognized to play a central role in tumor biology. Bortezomib, an inhibitor of the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome, has clinical activity in a variety of hematologic malignancies and is FDA approved for use in Multiple Myeloma and Mantle Cell Lymphoma.