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High Functional Diversity Of Contaminated Soils From Liberty State Park, Nina M. Goodey

Sustainability Seminar Series

Urban brownfields present an opportunity to study the functioning of degraded ecosystems. We investigated the soils of Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, which once supported a major rail yard and port facility with docks for shipping cargo to New York City. ICP-MS and pyrolysis-GC-MS studies were used to show that our study site is contaminated with heavy metals and organic contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. We used fluorescence spectroscopy to measure soil enzymatic function at multiple locations within the brownfield and found the following types of sites: 1.) hotspots with high heavy metal concentrations and high extracellular …

Soil Microbial Response To Metal Contamination In A Vegetated And Urban Brownfield, Jay Prakash Singh, Bhagyashree P. Vaidya, Nina Goodey, Jennifer Krumins

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The ubiquity of urban brownfields presents not only a challenge for environmental managers but also an opportunity to study the functional aspects of degraded ecosystems that are in close contact with human habitation. In this study, we investigate the soil microbial community response to heavy metal contamination at Liberty State Park (LSP), an urban brownfield in Jersey City, NJ, USA. Heavy metal contamination of the soils at LSP is heterogeneous, varying widely across site and among metals. We collected soils along a previously mapped gradient of metal contamination at LSP and sampled soil from a local and uncontaminated reference site …

The Effects Of Active Site And Allosteric Residues On Catalysis And Inhibitor Selectivity In The Bacillus Stearothennophilus Dihydrofolate Reductase, Tyler Eck

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In drug discovery, building a comprehensive picture of the binding events between a drug and its enzyme target can be useful, especially in the development of new drugs or predicting the effect of a drug on a similar target from the same protein family. It is well known that a drug's selectivity is influenced by its interactions with amino acid residues within the active site, but contributions from residues situated away from (distal to) the active site are less well understood. Using a novel predictive approach PAnPredictor that employs sequence alignments, we have previously predicted residue positions in the dihydrofolate …

Indole-3-Glycerol Phosphate Synthase Ligand Binding Interactions, Oshane Thomas

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase (IGPS) catalyzes the irreversible ring closure of 1-(ocarboxyphenylamino)- 1-deoxyribulose 5- phosphate (CdRP) into indole-3-glycerol phosphate (IGP) during the fourth step in tryptophan biosynthesis. Analysis of the crystal structure of IGPS from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MtIGPS) hinted the importance of Lys119 for binding or catalysis. Lys110 from sulfolobus sulfataricus IGPS (ssIGPS) that aligns with Lys119 from MtIGPS, was proposed to be a general acid for the proton transfer that initiates the ring closure and decarboxylation of CdRP. To study the importance of Lys119 in the chemical mechanism for MtIGPS, an amino acid change was made at this position to …

Light Addressable Electrode For Neurotransmitter Sensing, Irina Michelle Terrero Rodríguez

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Electrochemical sensors are important for a variety of applications. However, they suffer from physical constraints, as each electrode requires a dedicated wire. Although arrays of 500 electrodes have been reported, achieving high-density electrochemical measurements is still difficult.

In a light-addressable electrode, electrochemical processes occur only when the electrode is illuminated. Light-addressable electrodes could potentially solve many of the drawbacks of traditional electrode arrays, as light is used to spatially confine the redox process to only a small part of the electrode and only one connection is needed. It could also allow for new imaging techniques.

Light-addressable electrodes require a semiconductor …

Environmental Forensic Characterization Of Former Rail Yard Soils Located Adjacent To The Statue Of Liberty In The New York/New Jersey Harbor, Diane Hagmann, Michael A. Kruge, Matthew Chi-Hymn Cheung, Maria Mastalerz, José Luis Gallego, Jay Prakash Singh, Jennifer Krumins, Xiaona N. Li, Nina M. Goodey

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Identifying inorganic and organic soil contaminants in urban brownfields can give insights into the adverse effects of industrial activities on soil function, ecological health, and environmental quality. Liberty State Park in Jersey City (N.J., USA) once supported a major rail yard that had dock facilities for both cargo and passenger service; a portion remains closed to the public, and a forest developed and spread in this area. The objectives of this study were to: 1) characterize the organic and inorganic compounds in Liberty State Park soils and compare the findings to an uncontaminated reference site (Hutcheson Memorial Forest); and 2) …

Inhibition Of Hsv-1 Binding By Egcg-Stearate, Valerie Paschalis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) is the causative agent of oral herpes, and is able to establish lifelong latent infection along with painful, recurring symptoms. Epigallocatechin-3- gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant polyphenol derived from green tea (Camellia sinensis), whose anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-cancer, and antiviral properties have been widely studied. Although EGCG is not chemically stable and has poor hydrophobicity, lipophilic derivatives of EGCG have shown increased stability as well as increased antiviral efficacy against HSV. Previous studies have demonstrated that EGCG stearate (EGCG-S), a derivative of EGCG esterified at the 4’ position with stearic acid, is able to …