Engineering Commons^™

Functionalized Plasmonic Nanostructures For Ultrasensitive Single Cell Analysis, Priya Rathi

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ultrasensitive detection and quantification of soluble, secreted and cell surface-bound proteins is critical for advancing our understanding of cellular systems, enabling effective drug development, novel therapies, and bio-diagnostics. However, exiting technologies are largely limited by their sensitivity, making the detection and quantification of low-abundant proteins extremely challenging. This forms a major barrier in various fields of biology and biomedical sciences. In this work, we introduce novel cellular analysis methodologies based on plasmon-enhanced fluorescence for analyzing cell structure and probing surface and secreted proteins from cells. In the first part, we introduce plasmon-enhanced expansion microscopy and demonstrate the effectiveness of employing …

Dei Without Equity: Lab Coat Culture And Persistent Racism In Bioengineering Laboratories, Janet Canady

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From biased algorithms to discriminatory devices to medical racism, it is clear that biomedical products are created in ways that reproduce racial disparities in access and use. Yet the most common solutions recommended by biomedical research institutions emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion practices that research has already proven ineffective and sometimes harmful. In fact, labs rarely scrutinize whether and how their research products reflect racial bias, assumptions, or ideals. In this paper, I shift the focus to consider how bioengineering laboratories function as a site in which racial processes contribute to product outcomes. I ask, what are the racial dynamics …

Midfoot And Ankle Movement Dysfunction In People With Diabetes Mellitus And Peripheral Neuropathy, Hyo Jung Jeong

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People with diabetes mellitus and peripheral neuropathy (DMPN) have midfoot and ankle musculoskeletal problems, including limited joint mobility and weakness and atrophy of foot intrinsic and calf muscles. Impaired foot structures and function could lead to midfoot and ankle movement dysfunction, measured by a heel rise task. A repeated movement dysfunction during weightbearing tasks (e.g., heel rise, walking) could cause excessive stress on the plantar tissue, which is a leading cause of plantar ulceration in people with DMPN. Understanding heel rise performance and the underlying mechanisms could help prevent the sequence of events associated with plantar ulcer development in people …

Pathophysiology And Proteogenomics Of Post-Infectious And Post-Hemorrhagic Hydrocephalus In Infants, Albert M. Isaacs

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Post-infectious (PIH) and post-hemorrhagic (PHH) hydrocephalus occur as sequalae of neonatal sepsis or intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) of prematurity, respectively. Together, PIH and PHH represent the most common form of infantile hydrocephalus, the most common indication for neurosurgery in children globally, and the leading cause of neurological morbidity and mortality worldwide. The lack of understanding of the pathophysiology of PIH and PHH, particularly with regards to the host central nervous system response to the antecedent infection and hemorrhage, perturbation of differentiating neural stems in the ventricular (VZ) and subventricular (SVZ) zones, and damage to periventricular white matter (PVWM) tracts carrying sensorimotor …

Phantoms To Placentas: Mr Methods For Oxygen Quantification, Kelsey Meinerz

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Molecular oxygen (O2) is vital for efficient energy production and improper oxygenation is a hallmark of disease or metabolic dysfunction. In many pathologies, knowledge of tissue oxygen levels (pO2) could aid in diagnosis and treatment planning. The gold standard for pO2 measures in tissue are implantable probes, which are invasive, require surgery for placement, and are inaccessible to certain regions of the body. Methods for determining pO2 both non-invasively and quantitatively are lacking. The slight paramagnetic nature of O2 provides opportunities to non-invasively characterize pO2 in tissue via magnetic resonance (MR) techniques. As such, O2 can be treated as a …

Joint Estimation Of Perceptual, Cognitive, And Neural Processes, Katherine Heisey

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Humans are remarkable in their ability to perform highly complicated behaviors with ease and little conscious thought. Successful speech comprehension, for example, requires the collaboration of multiple sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes to focus attention on the speaker, disregard competing cues, correctly process incoming audio stimuli, and attach meaning and context to what is heard. Investigating these phenomena can help unravel crucial aspects of human behavior as well as how the brain works in health and disease. However, traditional methods typically involve isolating individual variables and evaluating their decontextualized contribution to an outcome variable of interest. While rigorous and more …

Wheelchair Propulsion For Everyday Manual Wheelchair Users: Repetition Training And Machine Learning-Based Monitoring, Pin-Wei Chen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upper limb pain and injuries are prevalent among manual wheelchair users and can restrict their participation and daily activities. Due to the high repetition and force in wheelchair propulsion, chronic wheelchair propulsion has been linked to the risk of upper limb pain and injury. Prevention of upper limb pain and injury is a high priority in wheelchair-related research. Decades of research in wheelchair propulsion biomechanics have led to clinical practice guidelines (CPG). Unfortunately, a decade after the publication of the CPG, CPG-recommended propulsion is still uncommon. Hence, for the first aim, a randomized controlled trial pilot study with two groups …

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain the body. MS is the most common progressive neurologic disease of young adults, affecting approximately 2.3 million people worldwide. It is estimated that more than 700,000 individuals are affected by MS in United States. While MS has been studied for decades, the cause of it is still not definite and a fully effective treatment for MS is not yet available. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used extensively in MS diagnosis and …

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain the body. MS is the most common progressive neurologic disease of young adults, affecting approximately 2.3 million people worldwide. It is estimated that more than 700,000 individuals are affected by MS in United States. While MS has been studied for decades, the cause of it is still not definite and a fully effective treatment for MS is not yet available.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used extensively in MS diagnosis and …

Radiolabeled Nanohydroxyapatite As A Platform For The Development Of New Pet Imaging Agents, Stacy Lee Queern

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging utilizes drugs labeled with positron emitters to target and evaluate different biological processes occurring in the body. Tailoring medicine to the individual allows for higher quality of care with better diagnosis and treatment and is a key purpose for advancing research into developing new platforms for PET imaging agents. A PET nuclide of high interest for the development of these agents is 89Zr. This can be attributed to the long half-life of 3.27 days and low positron energy of 89Zr.

In this work, we developed a production method for 89Zr using Y sputtered coins that …