Feeding requires babies to coordinate sucking and swallowing, which depends on healthy brain development. Some newborns who experience brain injury or serious illness cannot safely practice feeding by mouth, which disrupts the development of these important brain circuits. As a result, many of these infants require a feeding tube placed in the stomach (called a G-tube) when they leave the hospital. Unfortunately, long-term feeding tube dependence is linked to poorer growth, delayed development, and breathing problems. Despite how common and serious these feeding difficulties are, there are currently no effective therapies for infants with the most severe swallowing problems. This study will test a non-invasive therapy called transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), which gently stimulates a nerve in the ear that connects to the brain. When paired with structured oral motor exercises, this approach may help strengthen the brain circuits needed for feeding. We will study 12 infants with severe feeding impairments to evaluate whether this therapy is safe, feasible, and shows early signs of benefit. This project will provide early evidence about whether a targeted brain-based therapy can improve feeding outcomes during a key window of early development.

This study is being done to determine whether the rates of birth defects, miscarriages, premature births and other outcomes in women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) taking azathioprine/6MP or biologic therapy or small molecules are different from those among IBD-affected women not taking these medications. Participants will be asked to give blood samples to assess drug levels during pregnancy and after birth. They will also be asked to answer questionnaires about their and their baby's health.

The purpose of this pilot study is to refine a mobile app, based on usability data, from 15 adults living with pulmonary hypertension (PH). The app is intended to reduce symptom burden and improve health-related quality of life for adults with PH, a chronic and debilitating cardiopulmonary condition. Participants will be asked to use the app and provide their thoughts about how to make it better by completing surveys and through interview. We also aim to assess readiness for broader implementation through surveys and targeted interviews with PH providers (N=15). Optimizing barriers and facilitators to implementation and gathering clinician perspectives will inform the design of a future randomized controlled feasibility trial.

This study is for patients diagnosed with early-stage melanoma and are the age of 75 or older. The usual approach for patients who are not in a study is treatment with two surgical procedures, a wide local excision (WLE) plus a sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, followed by immunotherapy. The purpose of this study is to find if performing the WLE alone is just as effective as the usual approach and if it leads to improvements in patients' overall well-being.

A wide local excision (A wide local excision (WLE) is a surgical procedure performed to cut out an abnormal lesion and some surrounding normal tissue; this is sometimes followed by a sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, in which lymph nodes that cancer cells could spread to are removed as well. Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses your body's immune system to identify and attack cancer cells.

Patients may participate in this study for up to 5 years. Procedures include a surgical biopsy, surveys, and regular visits with your doctor including follow-up study visits or phone calls every 6 months. There will be about 428 people taking part in this study, approximately 39 participants will be enrolled at MUSC.

Risks include infection, scarring, and bleeding. Participants may or may not receive a direct benefit from participating in this trial, however, information learned from the trial may help other people in the future.

A single weight based dose of alcohol will be given to approximate an alcohol binge (aiming to achieve a blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%) to investigate downstream effects on intestinal permeability and changes in hepatic steatosis. Several studies have been performed in humans under similar conditions and looking at similar things. The PI, Dr. Garth Swanson, conducted one of these studies previously. Here, participants will be given a weight-based dose (2mL vodka per kg body weight) of alcohol, with assessment of intestinal permeability via urine collection over the 24 hours directly following alcohol consumption, assessment of changes in hepatic steatosis by evaluation with fibroscan before and after alcohol consumption, and blood markers of endotoxemia and related inflammatory markers after. The weight-based dosing of alcohol was chosen to reflect previous studies looking at the effects of a single episode of alcohol binge use, with the goal of achieving a blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%, the lower limit of what is needed to be considered an acute alcohol binge.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) can help preserve muscle strength and muscle thickness in individuals living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a progressive disease that causes weakness and muscle loss over time. NMES is a therapy that uses small electrical impulses delivered through adhesive pads placed on the skin to stimulate muscles to contract.
Participants in this study will use a portable NMES device at home approximately three times per week for 12 weeks. One muscle group will receive active electrical stimulation while the same muscle group on the opposite side of the body will receive low-intensity stimulation that does not produce a visible muscle contraction. This allows researchers to compare the effects of stimulation within the same participant.
During the study, participants will attend periodic clinic visits where researchers will measure muscle strength, evaluate muscle thickness using ultrasound, and ask questions about symptoms such as fatigue, muscle cramps, and comfort with the device. A follow-up visit will occur four weeks after the stimulation period ends. The goal of this pilot study is to determine whether home-based NMES is safe, feasible, and acceptable for individuals with ALS and to gather preliminary information about whether it may help slow muscle decline.

The Velocity Percutaneous Arterio-Venous System is a minimally invasive method of creating hemodialysis vascular access. The study aims to understand clinical efficacy and initial clinical safety data of the device.

The goal of the DDRCC Biorepository is to collect human samples and health information to store for future research. Samples to be collected are blood, tissue (gastrointestinal, liver, pancreas and/or lymph nodes), stool, and cheek swabs. Participants may be eligible to enroll if scheduled for a clinical visit or surgical procedure during which these samples could be collected.

This study is designed to explore a new treatment option for motor symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease. Motor symptoms and gait disturbance for Parkinson's are often disabling and can increase risk of falls and requce quality of life. We are testing whether a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is tolerable, acceptable and can be administered at-home and used to improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease. TaVNS delivers electrical impulses through the skin of the ear to the vagus nerve which research has shown modulates brain activity. The purpose of this research is to see whether this treatment approach is feasible, tolerable and and potentially effective at treating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. If successful, this research study will hopefully lead to a larger study in the future where the efficacy of the treatments can be studied.

In the current study, we will recruit individuals using addictive drugs (cocaine, cannabis, opioids, or methamphetamine) and non-drug use control individuals. The study participants will fill out questionnaires, consent, and donate samples (urine, saliva, nasal swab, and blood). These samples will be used to study the causes of unhealthy conditions during drug uses. Our goal is to prevent or treat the drug-associated unhealthy conditions (i.e., anxiety, memory impairment).