The Rockefeller University

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (including preeclampsia) are among the leading causes of pregnancy complications and maternal deaths worldwide. They also increase the risks to the babies. Numerous interventions have been suggested in order to reduce the rate of preeclampsia. Low-dose aspirin is the most beneficial prophylactic approach in this regard. Nevertheless, aspirin failure is not uncommon. The genetic, laboratory, and clinical factors associated with low-dose aspirin failure in the prevention of preeclampsia are largely unknown. The presence of a genetic variant in PAR4 receptor expressed on platelets, is associated with increased platelet function and possibly with aspirin failure.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2023

open study

A promising approach to correct the metabolic dysfunction associated with obesity is to activate brown fat non-shivering thermogenesis (NST). A critical limitation with NST as a therapeutic option, however, is that this beneficial process is silenced under human physiological temperature conditions and the mechanisms of how this occurs is unknown. This study will be the first to identify human NST silencing factors that may be targeted for the treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2024

open study

Blood contains red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, as well as a fluid portion termed plasma. We primarily study blood platelets, but sometimes we also analyze the blood of patients with red blood cell disorders (such as sickle cell disease), white blood cell disorders, and disorders of the blood clotting factors found in plasma. Blood platelets are small cell fragments that help people stop bleeding after blood vessels are damaged. Some individuals have abnormalities in their blood platelets that result in them not functioning properly. One such disorder is Glanzmann thrombasthenia. Most such patients have a bleeding disorder characterized by nosebleeds, gum bleeding, easy bruising (black and blue marks), heavy menstrual periods in women, and excessive bleeding after surgery or trauma. Our laboratory performs advanced tests of platelet function and platelet biochemistry. If we find evidence that a genetic disorder may be responsible, we analyze the genetic material (DNA and RNA) from the volunteer, and when possible, close family members to identify the precise defect.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Sep 2005

open study

Background: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in people, but the virus rebounds quickly if the drug treatment is stopped; this is because HIV can remain dormant in a pool of blood cells called the persistent viral reservoir (PVR). Yet lifelong ART is expensive and can lead to serious side effects over the long term. Some drugs may be more effective at reducing the PVR. Objective: To see if 2 study drugs (3BNC117-LS and 10-1074-LS) are safe and if they can lower the number of HIV-infected blood cells in people with HIV who are on ART. Eligibility: People aged 18 to 70 years with HIV who are on ART. Design: Participants will be screened. They will have a physical exam and blood and urine tests. They will undergo leukapheresis. Leukapheresis is a procedure where blood is drawn from a needle in one arm. The blood will pass through a machine that separates out the white blood cells. The remaining blood will be given back through a second needle in the other arm. The study drugs or placebo (normal saline) will be administered 3 times at 20-week intervals. The drugs will be given through a tube attached to a needle inserted into a vein in the arm. This will take 1 hour. Some participants will receive only a saline solution. They will not know if they are getting the drugs or the placebo. Participants will undergo leukapheresis up to 4 more times during the study. Participants will have follow-up visits every 10 weeks until the study ends.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2023

open study

Antibodies are the primary mediators of the protection against infection provided by vaccination. Antibodies become most powerful after the B cells that produce them undergo an evolutionary process called affinity maturation, in which antibodies increase their ability to bind to their targets, and thus neutralize pathogens. Affinity maturation occurs in structures within secondary lymphoid organs (for example lymph nodes or tonsils) known as germinal centers. Germinal centers are well known to be triggered by the first dose of vaccines, generating affinity matured plasma cells (B cells that secrete antibody into serum) and memory B cells, which can be converted into plasma cells by booster doses of vaccine. However, it is not fully understood the extent to which memory B cells can return to germinal centers again upon vaccine boosting. Such return would be very important to allow B cells, for example, to adapt to emerging variants of viruses such as influenza or SARS-CoV-2. This study will involve acquiring samples of B cells from germinal centers that form in response to vaccination with the highly effective hepatitis B vaccine. These cells will be analyzed to determine what fraction of them are memory B cells that returned to germinal centers upon boosting, information that is key to knowledge of how vaccine boosters work. Understanding the "rules" that govern how and when memory B cells choose to return to germinal centers in an effective vaccine such hepatitis B could help efforts to develop effective vaccination against more challenging, rapidly mutating viruses, such as influenza, HIV, and hepatitis C.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2022

open study

The reason for doing this research is to study the nature diagnosis and treatment of individuals affected with the genetic disease Fanconi anemia an inherited disorder that leads to bone marrow failure (aplastic anemia) and cancer development.  In most cases it is a recessive disorder: if both parents carry a defect (mutation) in the same Fanconi anemia gene each of their children has a 25% chance of inheriting the defective gene from both parents.  When this happens the child will have Fanconi anemia.  Patients may have a variety of birth defects and may eventually develop acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) head and neck gynecological and/or gastrointestinal cancer.  The researchers doing the study will collect information about the medical history genetics clinical course blood test results treatment complications and social issues of Fanconi anemia.  Information about relatives of Fanconi anemia patients will also be collected.  A purpose of this project is to develop a detailed listing or `registry' of people who may have Fanconi anemia and their close family members. Tissue samples are collected in a repository in order to study the genotype of the study subjects for geneotype/phenotype correlation and to understand why bone marrow and cancer develop.  Using patient samples we want to understand the disease so we can develop new preventive and treatment strategies.

Type: Observational

open study

This is a first-in-human, placebo-controlled, single dose, dose-escalation phase 1 study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and antiviral activity of a highly potent neutralizing anti-HBV monoclonal antibody (mAb), HepB mAb19, which targets the S-protein in individuals with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) on nucleos(t)ide analog therapy (NRTI).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2023

open study