University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Iowa State University
California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo
Utah State University
Fundamental Characterization Of Oxygen Nanobubbles,
2017
Purdue University
Fundamental Characterization Of Oxygen Nanobubbles, John Hamlin, Yi Wen, Joseph Irudayaraj
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
A hypoxic environment is created by tumors’ incredible growth rate. Hypoxia provides radioresistance to the tumors, thus making radiation treatment less effective. The issue is that increasing the radiation leads to increased side effects in patients. Our goal for the oxygen-filled nanobubble is to deliver oxygen to the tumor to lessen radioresistance and make radiation treatment more efficient. However, we need preliminary research to understand and improve the nanobubbles before further research and implementation. To do this, we synthesized different batches of nanobubbles to optimize the production method and find the best container and temperature to store nanobubbles. We measured ...
The Response Of Schwann Cells To Weak Dc Electric Fields,
2017
Purdue University
The Response Of Schwann Cells To Weak Dc Electric Fields, Alexander T. Lai, Jianming Li
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Schwann cells are glial cells that serve the vital role of supporting neurons in the peripheral nervous system. While their primary function is to provide insulation (myelin) for axons, they also help regenerate injured axons by digesting severed axons and providing scaffolding to guide the regeneration process. This specific role of Schwann cells makes them highly important cellular targets following nerve injury. Although some efforts have been made to encourage Schwann cell migration after nerve damage, the use of electric fields to control cell responses remain unexplored; therefore, this experiment serves to characterize the behavior of Schwann cells to weak ...
Establishing A Lung Model For Evaluation Of Engineered Lung Microbiome Therapies,
2017
Purdue University
Establishing A Lung Model For Evaluation Of Engineered Lung Microbiome Therapies, Kathryn F. Atherton, Stephen Miloro, Jenna Rickus
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Benzene, a toxin and carcinogen found in air polluted by cigarette smoke, car exhaust, and industrial processes, is associated with the development of leukemia and lymphoma. Other than avoiding exposure, there is no current method to deter the effects of benzene. One potential strategy to prevent these effects is to engineer the bacteria of the human lung microbiome to degrade benzene. To evaluate this novel approach, we must verify that the bacteria remain viable within the lung microenvironment. To do so, lungs were harvested from rats and swabbed to determine the contents of the original lung microbiome. Then green fluorescent ...
Pathogenic Dna Detection Using Dna Hairpins: A Non-Linear Hybridization Chain Reaction Platform,
2017
Purdue University
Pathogenic Dna Detection Using Dna Hairpins: A Non-Linear Hybridization Chain Reaction Platform, Lance Novak, Tamara L. Kinzer-Ursem
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Currently, 3.2 billion people are at risk of being infected with malaria, with 1.2 billion of those being at high risk (>1 in 1000 chance of getting malaria in a year). Thus, there is a need for a biosensor that is highly sensitive, cost effective, and simple to use for point-of-care diagnosis. The biosensing platform, PathVis, has achieved this by measuring changes in fluid properties after a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). LAMP is a DNA amplification system that requires enzymes and a temperature of 65degrees C. LAMP currently limits PathVis by being costly, requiring refrigeration, and difficult to ...
Localized Blood Occlusion Generation In An In-Vitro Circulatory Catheter System,
2017
Purdue University
Localized Blood Occlusion Generation In An In-Vitro Circulatory Catheter System, Ryan D. Harris, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Hydrocephalus is a debilitating neurological disorder that involves the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in a ventricle of the brain. The implantation of a catheter commonly treats hydrocephalus with drainage. These catheters have a short lifespan due to obstruction from biological materials. Shunt systems have an extremely high failure rate of more than 40% failed within 1 year and up to 85% failed within 10 years. Previously, polymer-based flexible implantable magnetic micro-actuators were developed to clean up the catheter by mechanical vibration. We have demonstrated clearing of bacteria attachment and are proceeding to examine clearing effects on larger clotting materials, such ...
An Automated Device To Increase Screening Throughput Of Zebrafish Larvae,
2017
University of Maine
An Automated Device To Increase Screening Throughput Of Zebrafish Larvae, Fuoad Saliou-Sulley
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The use of the zebrafish as an animal model alternative to mammalian species has spawned research advancements in several medical fields. Since the zebrafish shares a high degree of sequence and functional homology with mammals, studies using this organism can provide in-depth insight into host response to disease and provide a platform for testing a range of treatment options. The optical transparency of zebrafish at early stages of development permits easy assessment of the effects of treatments, occurrence of tumors and other abnormal growth, disease progression, and immune response, to name only a few. These characteristics make it ideal for ...
Enhancing Co-Water Mass Transfer By Functionalized Mcm41 Nanoparticles,
2017
Iowa State University
Enhancing Co-Water Mass Transfer By Functionalized Mcm41 Nanoparticles, Haiyang Zhu, Brent H. Shanks, Theodore J. Heindel
Theodore J. Heindel
Organic groups are grafted to ∼250-nm-diameter MCM41 nanoparticles with a spherical morphology to enhance the CO-water volumetric mass-transfer coefficient (kLa) for synthesis gas fermentation. The results indicate that (i) ∼250-nm MCM41 nanoparticles show a higher kLa value than large silica particles (1.4 and 7 μm), (ii) surface hydroxyl groups on MCM41 nanoparticles play an important role in mass-transfer enhancement, (iii) organic groups grafted to MCM41 modify the mass-transfer enhancement, and (iv) mercaptan groups grafted to MCM41 show the most mass-transfer enhancement of ∼1.9 times that of no nanoparticle addition. The CO-water mass-transfer enhancement depends on the interaction between ...
Effect Of Electrolytes On Co-Water Mass Transfer,
2017
Iowa State University
Effect Of Electrolytes On Co-Water Mass Transfer, Haiyang Zhu, Brent H. Shanks, Theodore J. Heindel
Theodore J. Heindel
The influence of various electrolytes such as sulfate, nitrate, and chloride on CO-water mass transfer was investigated in this study. The results indicate that the enhancement in the CO-water volumetric masstransfer coefficient ranged from 1.5 to 4.7 times that of a baseline system without electrolytes, depending on electrolyte type and concentration. For those electrolytes with the same anions, copper-containing electrolytes provided stronger enhancement, whereas for those electrolytes with the same cations, sulfate-containing electrolytes showed stronger enhancement. By measuring both the CO-water volumetric mass-transfer coefficient (kLa) and the mass-transfer coefficient (kL), it was found that the electrolytes inhibit gas ...
Reconstructing Genome-Wide Regulatory Network Of E. Coli Using Transcriptome Data And Predicted Transcription Factor Activities,
2017
Iowa State University
Reconstructing Genome-Wide Regulatory Network Of E. Coli Using Transcriptome Data And Predicted Transcription Factor Activities, Yao Fu, Laura R. Jarboe, Julie A. Dickerson
Laura R. Jarboe
Background: Gene regulatory networks play essential roles in living organisms to control growth, keep internal metabolism running and respond to external environmental changes. Understanding the connections and the activity levels of regulators is important for the research of gene regulatory networks. While relevance score based algorithms that reconstruct gene regulatory networks from transcriptome data can infer genome-wide gene regulatory networks, they are unfortunately prone to false positive results. Transcription factor activities (TFAs) quantitatively reflect the ability of the transcription factor to regulate target genes. However, classic relevance score based gene regulatory network reconstruction algorithms use models do not include the ...
Metabolic Engineering For Production Of Biorenewable Fuels And Chemicals: Contributions Of Synthetic Biology,
2017
Iowa State University
Metabolic Engineering For Production Of Biorenewable Fuels And Chemicals: Contributions Of Synthetic Biology, Laura R. Jarboe, Xueli Zhang, Xuan Wang, Jonathan C. Moore, K. T. Shanmugam, Lonnie O. Ingram
Laura R. Jarboe
Production of fuels and chemicals through microbial fermentation of plant material is a desirable alternative to petrochemicalbased production. Fermentative production of biorenewable fuels and chemicals requires the engineering of biocatalysts that can quickly and efficiently convert sugars to target products at a cost that is competitive with existing petrochemical-based processes. It is also important that biocatalysts be robust to extreme fermentation conditions, biomass-derived inhibitors, and their target products. Traditional metabolic engineering has made great advances in this area, but synthetic biology has contributed and will continue to contribute to this field, particularly with next-generation biofuels. This work reviews the use ...
Optimization Of Enzyme Parameters For Fermentative Production Of Biorenewable Fuels And Chemicals,
2017
Iowa State University
Optimization Of Enzyme Parameters For Fermentative Production Of Biorenewable Fuels And Chemicals, Laura R. Jarboe, Ping Liu, Kumar Babu Kautharapu, Lonnie O. Ingram
Laura R. Jarboe
Microbial biocatalysts such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been extensively subjected to Metabolic Engineering for the fermentative production of biorenewable fuels and chemicals. This often entails the introduction of new enzymes, deletion of unwanted enzymes and efforts to fine-tune enzyme abundance in order to attain the desired strain performance. Enzyme performance can be quantitatively described in terms of the Michaelis-Menten type parameters Km, turnover number kcat and Ki, which roughly describe the affinity of an enzyme for its substrate, the speed of a reaction and the enzyme sensitivity to inhibition by regulatory molecules. Here we describe examples of ...
Metabolic Engineering Of Biocatalysts For Carboxylic Acids Production,
2017
Iowa State University
Metabolic Engineering Of Biocatalysts For Carboxylic Acids Production, Ping Liu, Laura R. Jarboe
Laura R. Jarboe
Fermentation of renewable feedstocks by microbes to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals has the potential to replace petrochemical-based production. For example, carboxylic acids produced by microbial fermentation can be used to generate primary building blocks of industrial chemicals by either enzymatic or chemical catalysis. In order to achieve the titer, yield and productivity values required for economically viable processes, the carboxylic acid-producing microbes need to be robust and wellperforming. Traditional strain development methods based on mutagenesis have proven useful in the selection of desirable microbial behavior, such as robustness and carboxylic acid production. On the other hand, rationally-based metabolic engineering ...
Genome Sequence Of The Psychrophilic Deep-Sea Bacterium Moritella Marina Mp-1 (Atcc 15381),
2017
Iowa State University
Genome Sequence Of The Psychrophilic Deep-Sea Bacterium Moritella Marina Mp-1 (Atcc 15381), Kumar Babu Kautharapu, Laura R. Jarboe
Laura R. Jarboe
Moritella marina MP-1 is a bacterial species known for its production of docosahexaenoic acid. We present the draft genome sequence of the type strainMoritella marina MP-1 (ATCC 15381), having 4,636,778 bp with a G+C content of 40.5% and consisting of 83 contigs.
Hybrid Thermochemical Processing: Fermentation Of Pyrolysis-Derived Bio-Oil,
2017
Iowa State University
Hybrid Thermochemical Processing: Fermentation Of Pyrolysis-Derived Bio-Oil, Laura R. Jarboe, Zhiyou Wen, Dong Won Choi, Robert C. Brown
Laura R. Jarboe
Thermochemical processing of biomass by fast pyrolysis provides a nonenzymatic route for depolymerization of biomass into sugars that can be used for the biological production of fuels and chemicals. Fermentative utilization of this bio-oil faces two formidable challenges. First is the fact that most bio-oil-associated sugars are present in the anhydrous form. Metabolic engineering has enabled utilization of the main anhydrosugar, levoglucosan, in workhorse biocatalysts. The second challenge is the fact that bio-oil is rich in microbial inhibitors. Collection of bio-oil in distinct fractions, detoxification of bio-oil prior to fermentation, and increased robustness of the biocatalyst have all proven effective ...
Engineering Ethanologenic Escherichia Coli For Levoglucosan Utilization,
2017
Iowa State University
Engineering Ethanologenic Escherichia Coli For Levoglucosan Utilization, Donovan S. Layton, Avanthi Ajjarapu, Dong Won Choi, Laura R. Jarboe
Laura R. Jarboe
Levoglucosan is a major product of biomass pyrolysis. While this pyrolyzed biomass, also known as bio-oil, contains sugars that are an attractive fermentation substrate, commonly-used biocatalysts, such as Escherichia coli, lack the ability to metabolize this anhydrosugar. It has previously been shown that recombinant expression of the levoglucosan kinase enzyme enables use of levoglucosan as carbon and energy source. Here, ethanologenic E. coli KO11 was engineered for levoglucosan utilization by recombinant expression of levoglucosan kinase from Lipomyces starkeyi. Our engineering strategy uses a codon-optimized gene that has been chromosomally integrated within the pyruvate to ethanol (PET) operon and does not ...
Growth Condition Optimization For Docosahexaenoic Acid (Dha) Production By Moritella Marina Mp-1,
2017
Iowa State University
Growth Condition Optimization For Docosahexaenoic Acid (Dha) Production By Moritella Marina Mp-1, Kumar Babu Kautharapu, John A. Rathmacher, Laura R. Jarboe
Laura R. Jarboe
The marine organism Moritella marina MP-1 produces the polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). While the basic metabolic pathway for DHA production in this organism has been identified, the impact of growth conditions on DHA production is largely unknown. This study examines the effect of supplemental carbon, nitrogen and salts, growth temperature and media composition and pH on DHA and biomass production and the fatty acid profile. The addition of supplemental nitrogen significantly increased the overall DHA titer via an increase in biomass production. Supplemental glucose or glycerol increased biomass production, but decreased the amount of DHA per biomass, resulting ...
Flow Cytometry Is A Promising And Rapid Method For Differentiating Between Freely Suspended Escherichia Coli And E. Coli Attached To Clay Particles,
2017
Iowa State University
Flow Cytometry Is A Promising And Rapid Method For Differentiating Between Freely Suspended Escherichia Coli And E. Coli Attached To Clay Particles, Xiao Liang, Michelle L. Soupir, Shawn M. Rigby, Laura R. Jarboe, Wei Zhang
Laura R. Jarboe
Aim: A standard procedure does not exist to distinguish between attached and unattached micro-organisms. In this study, we compared two methods to quantify between Escherichia coli attached to clay particles and E. coli freely suspended in solution: flow cytometry (attachment assay and viability assay) and settling (or centrifugation followed by settling). Methods and Results: Methods were tested using three environmental strains collected from swine facilities (A, B and C) and one purchased modified pathogenic strain (ATCC 43888); four clay particles: Hectorite, Kaolinite, Ca-Montmorillonite, Montmorillonite K-10; and a range of surface area ratios (particle surface area to E. coli surface area ...
Tin Dioxide-Carbon Heterostructures Applied To Gas Sensing: Structure-Dependent Properties And General Sensing Mechanism,
2017
University of Aveiro
Tin Dioxide-Carbon Heterostructures Applied To Gas Sensing: Structure-Dependent Properties And General Sensing Mechanism, Catherine Marichy, Patricia A. Russo, Mariangela Latino, Jean-Philippe Tessonnier, Marc-Georg Wilinger, Nicola Donato, Giovanni Neri, Nicola Pinna
Jean-Philippe Tessonnier
Carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) exhibit unique electrical properties, which are also influenced by the surrounding atmosphere. They are therefore promising sensing materials. Despite the existence of studies reporting the gas-sensing properties of metal oxide (MOx) coated nanostructured carbon, an incomplete understanding of their sensing mechanism remains. Here we report a systematic study on the preparation, characterization, and sensing properties of CNT and RGO composites with SnO2 coating. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was applied to the conformal coating of the inner and outer walls of CNTs with thin films of SnO2 of ...
A Systems Biology Approach Toward Understanding Seed Composition In Soybean,
2017
Iowa State University
A Systems Biology Approach Toward Understanding Seed Composition In Soybean, Ling Li, Manhoi Hur, Joon-Yong Lee, Wenxu Zhou, Zhihong Song, Nick Ransom, Cumhur Yusuf Demirkale, Daniel S. Nettleton, Mark E. Westgate, Zebulun Wayne Arendsee, Vidya Vaancheeswaran Iyer, Jacqueline V. Shanks, Basil Nikolau, Eve Wurtele
Jacqueline V. Shanks
Background The molecular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms that regulate the complex metabolic network of soybean seed development determine the ultimate balance of protein, lipid, and carbohydrate stored in the mature seed. Many of the genes and metabolites that participate in seed metabolism are unknown or poorly defined; even more remains to be understood about the regulation of their metabolic networks. A global omics analysis can provide insights into the regulation of seed metabolism, even without a priori assumptions about the structure of these networks. Results With the future goal of predictive biology in mind, we have combined metabolomics, transcriptomics, and ...
Mixed-Surface, Lipid-Tethered Quantum Dots For Targeting Cells And Tissues,
2017
Iowa State University
Mixed-Surface, Lipid-Tethered Quantum Dots For Targeting Cells And Tissues, Yanjie Zhang, Amanda Haage, Elizabeth M. Whitley, Ian C. Schneider, Aaron R. Clapp
Ian C. Schneider
Quantum dots (QDs), with their variable luminescent properties, are rapidly transcending traditional labeling techniques in biological imaging and hold vast potential for biosensing applications. An obstacle in any biosensor development is targeted specificity. Here we report a facile procedure for creating QDs targeted to the cell membrane with the goal of cell-surface protease biosensing. This procedure generates water-soluble QDs with variable coverage of lipid functional groups. The resulting hydrophobicity is quantitatively controlled by the molar ratio of lipids per QD. Appropriate tuning of the hydrophobicity ensures solubility in common aqueous cell culture media and while providing affinity to the lipid ...
