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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Anti-Infective Mechanism-Based Drug Discovery Via Sortase A, Huong Chau, Alice Matsuda, Leepakshi Johar
Anti-Infective Mechanism-Based Drug Discovery Via Sortase A, Huong Chau, Alice Matsuda, Leepakshi Johar
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Sortase A is a transmembrane protein prominent in gram-negative bacterial strains. It is a virulence factor that anchors other proteins, which facilitate MRSA infections. In the long term, we plan to utilize this protein to create anti-infective drugs as antibiotic resistance continues to become a global health issue. Starting with five NIH drug candidates, we decided to first study Sortase A with B12 due to its historical past of ancient civilizations using natural sources of B12 to treat infections. Our senior design is further centered around understanding how vitamin B12 interacts with Sortase A in vitro, particularly the binding affinity …
Cervis: Cervical Cancer Early Response Visual Identification System, Julia Lanoha, Claire Hultquist, Rosie Mcdonagh, Hallie Mcnamara
Cervis: Cervical Cancer Early Response Visual Identification System, Julia Lanoha, Claire Hultquist, Rosie Mcdonagh, Hallie Mcnamara
Bioengineering Senior Theses
The goal of CERVIS is to make a substantial, positive impact in the cervical cancer screening space through the development of a minimally invasive, cost effective solution that enables women in low-resource settings to test for cervical cancer on a frugal and effective platform. In the developed world, there are a variety of options that can aid in early detection, including Pap smears. However, due to the high cost and laboratory requirements that accompany this procedure, women in low-resource settings rarely have access to this preventative care or regular screenings for cervical cancer. Using new research about the changes in …
Effects Of Glycation On Blood Protein Interactions With Nanomaterials: A Biophysical And Cytotoxicity Study, Karl Baumgartner, Madeline Eiken
Effects Of Glycation On Blood Protein Interactions With Nanomaterials: A Biophysical And Cytotoxicity Study, Karl Baumgartner, Madeline Eiken
Bioengineering Senior Theses
When engineered nanoparticles (NPs) enter into a biological system, the proteins and biomolecules in the system adsorb to the NP surface to form a “protein corona” (PC). The PC greatly influences NP transformations, biological interactions, and cell response. Further complicating the development of NPs for biomedical applications, disease states alter the population of proteins and changes the biophysical features of individual proteins through posttranslational modifications. Here-in, we aim to understand how glycation of the PC, as in uncontrolled diabetes, alters the NP-PC interaction and toxicity by conducting biochemistry and cell toxicity experiments. We focus upon 40 and 80 nm citrate-coated …
Microfluidic Chip For High Efficiency Microinjection Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Delaney Gray, Alex Hadsell, Jessica Talamantes
Microfluidic Chip For High Efficiency Microinjection Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Delaney Gray, Alex Hadsell, Jessica Talamantes
Bioengineering Senior Theses
The terrestrial nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, is an invaluable model organism for the study of molecular and cellular processes due to their small size, rapid generation time, easy cultivation, and invariant cell number. Additionally, 40% of genes known to be associated with human disease have clear orthologs in the C. elegans genome. In C. elegans genetics research, microinjection of genetic material into the worms is critical. Although an established technique, manual microinjection is tedious, low-throughput, and requires an expert researcher. This thesis details a novel microfluidic device designed to perform high-throughput microinjection. This two-layer, PDMS-based chip integrates microfluidic elements to …
Assessment Of Hand Gestures Using Wearable Sensors And Fuzzy Logic, Angel Cardenas, Ryan Messersmith, Will Newcomb
Assessment Of Hand Gestures Using Wearable Sensors And Fuzzy Logic, Angel Cardenas, Ryan Messersmith, Will Newcomb
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Hand dexterity and motor control are critical in our everyday lives because a significant portion of the daily motions we perform are with our hands and require some degree of repetition and skill. Therefore, development of technologies for hand and extremity rehabilitation is a significant area of research that will directly help patients recovering from hand debilities sustained from causes ranging from stroke and Parkinson’s disease to trauma and common injuries. Cyclic activity recognition and assessment is appropriate for hand and extremity rehabilitation because a majority of our essential motions are cyclic in their nature. For a patient on the …
Noninvasive Screening Of A Fecal Biomarker For Human Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Nec), Daniela Campa, Kyle Sullivan
Noninvasive Screening Of A Fecal Biomarker For Human Necrotizing Enterocolitis (Nec), Daniela Campa, Kyle Sullivan
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a disease that predominantly affects preterm infants. Of the 10% of preterm neonates that develop NEC, about one in four cases results in death. The pathophysiology presents as inflammation of intestinal epithelial cell lining and subsequent tissue death, sometimes resulting in intestinal perforations. The underlying mechanisms have yet to be comprehensively identified. Diagnosis--the rate limiting step in reducing critical disease-onset-to-treatment time--is based on relatively nonspecific signs, impeding early and accurate diagnosis. This project, a collaborative effort between Santa Clara and Stanford Universities, aims to improve current diagnostic methods by identifying the first verifiable and useful fecal …
Nebuflask: Advancing Usability Of Nebulizers To Increase Patient Compliance, Murray Bartho, Michael Breshock, Megan Nolte
Nebuflask: Advancing Usability Of Nebulizers To Increase Patient Compliance, Murray Bartho, Michael Breshock, Megan Nolte
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Nebulizers are ubiquitous in the world of medicine. Any patient diagnosed with asthma, pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), or any other severe lung disease often use a nebulizer in order to deliver medication to the lungs. Although these technologies are quite common, they are surprisingly outdated. The most commonly used nebulizers today are bulky, loud, awkward to carry around, and must be plugged into an outlet. These aspects of the nebulizer make it a nuisance to use in general and almost impossible to use outside of the home or clinic. The ultrasonic and mesh nebulizers do address …
High-Throughput, Portable Microfluidic Aptamer Assay, Atticus Mccoy, Matthew Curtin
High-Throughput, Portable Microfluidic Aptamer Assay, Atticus Mccoy, Matthew Curtin
Bioengineering Senior Theses
Aptamer-based assays are a powerful platform for sensing a wide variety of biochemical targets, including drugs, disease biomarker, and biomolecules. However, aptamer assays often lack rapid identification and high-throughput screening. Performing an aptamer-based assay on a microfluidic device is a promising solution to increase throughput, portability, and sensitivity. In this paper, we present a microfluidic device capable of running aptamer-based assays. Our device utilizes normally-closed valves and a central micropump to move fluids throughout the chip. One chip could theoretically be scaled up to run multiple assays, and multiple of these microfluidic devices could be run in parallel to increase …