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Injectable Ct/Mri Contrast Agent For Gastrointestinal Tumor Tracking, Luna Zhang
Injectable Ct/Mri Contrast Agent For Gastrointestinal Tumor Tracking, Luna Zhang
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Gastrointestinal cancers remain to be of the most common and deadly cancers worldwide. Early detection and treatments are crucial for reducing mortality and improving patient outcome. Radiation therapy is a non-invasive localized tumor treatment method, and utilizes radiation to kill the cancerous cells and shrink tumors at specific sites. Precise localization at the target tumor site is therefore important before radiation therapy, especially for gastrointestinal tumor sites located in the moving bowel. Currently, invasive endoscopies along with ink tattoos are used for identifying tumor location, which often require sedation and bring much discomfort. Imaging tests, including CT and MRI, play …
Injectable Gelatin-Silk Fibroin Composite Hydrogels For In Situ Cell Encapsulation, Ryann D. Boudreau
Injectable Gelatin-Silk Fibroin Composite Hydrogels For In Situ Cell Encapsulation, Ryann D. Boudreau
Honors Theses and Capstones
Hydrogels are widely used tools for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Characterized as biofunctional, water-based polymer matrices with tunable mechanical properties, hydrogels have promising but limited applications in biomedical engineering, due to poor and static matrix strength. Here we plan to rectify this issue by introducing a new hydrogel made from a composite of gelatin and silk fibroin crosslinked by microbial transglutaminase (mTG) instantly and beta sheet formation gradually, respectively. This interpenetrating network (IPN) shows enhanced mechanical stiffness and strength compared to gelatin hydrogels, and is capable of encapsulating human cells with high viability demonstrated by the encapsulation of human …