Engineering Commons^™

Photodynamic Therapy To Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer In Vitro, Hunter S. Warren

All Theses

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most resilient form of breast cancer, being one of the leading causes of death for women and making up 7% of all cancer deaths. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers a minimally invasive solution to TNBC as a passive-targeting treatment that reduces the need for other well established yet harsh treatments that can be taxing on the patient. PDT involves the use of a high-energy red light on the area of a tumor injected with photosensitizers (PS) that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tumor, triggering cell death. The PS tetra(hydroxyphenyl)chlorin (m-THPC) was used …

An In Vivo Biocompatibility Analysis Of A Novel Tissue Regeneration Matrix Using A Pig Model, Shamar Thomas

All Theses

The goal of this project is to develop an injectable bead scaffold to promote tissue regeneration in the void created by lumpectomy and to alleviate post lumpectomy problems by preventing local recurrence and minimizing surgical-related infections. Microbeads were synthesized from collagen type I and crosslinked with tannic acid to form the basis for this injectable therapeutic. Tannic acid acts as a therapeutic anticancer agent. The action mechanisms of tannins in breast cancer cells have been studied with studies showing tannins to be cytotoxic to cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. Tannic acid induces apoptosis in breast cancer cells via caspase …

A Digital Healthcare Application For Patient Monitoring And Assessment, Brandon Shumin

All Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic strained our healthcare resources and exacerbated the existing issues of primary care shortages and burnout rates for healthcare professionals. Due in part to these factors, telehealth has seen more wide-spread use during this time. However, current asynchronous telehealth applications require stable Internet to function fully. Since many medically underserved populations in the United States lack Internet access in their homes, an application that offers patient monitoring and assessment could extend their access to medical resources. This work proposes such a digital healthcare application for iOS devices and evaluates it based on the system requirements of availability, data …

Development Of A New Affinity Membrane For Rapidly Purifying Non-Antibody Proteins, Friendship Edioma

All Theses

This thesis project describes the modification and evaluation of a new affinity membrane for rapid chromatographic purification of non-antibody proteins. The affinity membrane utilizes Im7/CL7 coupling technology developed by Dr. Vassylyev's lab at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB), licensed by TriAltus Bioscience. The behavior of the membrane was evaluated using purified CL7-tagged Cas9 as my model protein for static and dynamic binding capacity analysis.

Chapter one provides an overview on biopharmaceutical drug production process development. I discuss how protein drugs are produced, isolated, and purified from the cell supernatant after upstream phases are completed. Despite increasing demands for biologics, …

Variations In Surgeon-Applied Loads During Passive Range Of Motion Following Total Knee Replacement With Relevance To Computational Modeling, Cj Bakle Ii

All Theses

Total knee replacement (TKR) is generally considered a successful treatment for musculoskeletal disorders of the knee. However, as many as 20% of patients report some dissatisfaction in their physical function after TKR. And approximately 50% of early revisions needed to address conditions related to component alignment and soft tissue tension to stabilize the knee. During TKR, surgeons manually perform passive range of motion (ROM) assessments to gain feedback perceived as tension in ligaments and other soft tissues. Such assessments are highly subjective and rely on the surgeon's perception of soft tissue tension rather than quantitative objective means. The variability in …

Investigations Of External Resources And The Impact Of Imaging On Patient Flow In The Emergency Department, Marisa Shehan

All Theses

The problems associated with Emergency Department (ED) crowding are numerous, varied, and complex. Though overcrowded Emergency Departments are frequently attributed to overcrowded hospitals, crowding is also impacted by bottlenecks in patient flow. While discrete-event simulation (DES) is commonly used to model ED flow, external resources are typically excluded from these models due to their complexity and the limited amount of known information for these processes. Instead, external resources such as consults, labs, and imaging are modeled using estimation and/or educated guesswork. In this study, the impact of imaging on patient flow was assessed through data analysis of specific imaging factors, …

Pharmacists' And Patients' Perceptions Of Role Of Pharmacist In Discharge Process, Ravi Teja Vempati

All Theses

The objective of this study was to identify the perceptions of both patients and pharmacists about the pharmacist's role in the hospital discharge process. In order to do this, observations were conducted with the patients and interviews were conducted with both patients and pharmacists. During the interviews, both the patients and pharmacists were asked about the pharmacist's role in the hospital discharge process. The interviews were qualitatively analyzed using the in vivo technique. Four high-level themes emerged from this study: Current role of a pharmacist in the hospital, Ideal role of a pharmacist in the discharge process, Pharmacists' perceptions of …