Blood is not continuously sterile. Data from dental studies, blood donors, and random blood cultures document that "normal" human blood often harbors microbes. Sepsis only occurs when immunological regulatory systems fail. Growing evidence link subclinical, potentially transient bacteremia to cardiovascular and other diseases. Could many of the diseases associated with inflammatory markers represent either continuous ...more »

Can better predictors of disease severity such as specific biomarkers and/or genetic polymorphisms be identified so as to help understand the course and progression of sickle cell disease in various patients?

How to develop effective medical therapies to reduce aneurysm progression - currently only surgical intervention is effective.

What role does venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) play as a disease modulator in Sickle Cell Disease?

Controversies exist regarding aortic disease imaging (the aorta as well as the aortic valve, including characterization in the presence of a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV)). Many imaging approaches are optimized for evaluation of coronary artery disease rather than aortic disease. Without accurate characterization, the degree of disease progression may be under estimated, patient symptoms may be discounted, and those who ...more »

Adequately powered randomized vitD trials - as primary prevention, and after asthma diagnosis

Precision medicine will provide unprecedented opportunities to tailor health care based on knowledge of personal patterns of genetic variations. These variations usually impact protein or RNA sequences, resulting in altered properties. These alterations can result in increased susceptibility to a particular disease or intolerance to common therapeutics. To take full advantage of knowing a patient’s set of gene variations, ...more »

Does early mobilization, i.e. as soon as mechanical ventilation begins, improve long term outcomes in ALI survivors??

What circadian-based strategies (e.g. timing of medication) can be applied to improve the efficacy of treatments for heart, lung, and blood diseases (e.g. hypertension, nocturnal asthma, thrombosis, obesity/diabetes)?

While transplant for patients 60 and older for high-risk hematologic malignancies has increased and observational data are promising, the risks and benefits of translant versus non-transplant remain largely unknown. We now have the tools and mechanisms to remove the blindfold! The NHLBI should support the cooperative groups in conjunction with the BMT-CTN to establish a common framework for transplant trials in older ...more »

What are the metrics that can predict success of clinical trials?

Strategies and infrastructure to support clinical trials in rare diseases must go further in the development of critical partnerships with advocacy organizations. These partnerships must be formalized and based on models that help to accelerate the research.

To conduct longitudinal gene expression analysis of adaptive immunophenotypes within newly-diagnosed sarcoidosis subjects who spontaneously resolve their pulmonary disease compared to those to experience disease progression.

Sleep Paralysis (SP) is a very common (up to 40% of all people), yet little-known condition that is terrifying, and potentially traumatizing, especially to people who are unaware of this condition. It is critical that SP is better known by all doctors, therapists, and the public. Too many people are mistreated and misdiagnosed as psychotic or even demon possessed when they do not understand SP, or they hide the experience ...more »

Can we extend gene editing and iPS/cell technologies to high throughput formats for the evaluation of genetic variants identified from GWAS in the development and progression of disease?