Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

The Biological Activity Of Dual-Responsive Glycopolymers For Intracellular Codelivery Of Antigen And Lipophilic Adjuvant, Micaela Shields

Honors Theses

Subunit vaccines present themselves as an attractive alternative to traditional approaches to vaccines, which utilizes whole organisms to trigger an immune response. While these traditional approaches have proven themselves reliable within the history of vaccinations, they generally deliver subpar robust cellular-mediated immunity and pose many safety risks. Composed of proteins and /or peptides, subunit vaccines are safer and more precise alternatives to traditional approaches. However, the pharmacokinetic properties of the macromolecules that make up these vaccines hinder the subunit vaccine’s level of immunogenicity [d1] Examples of this hindrance include but are not limited to aggregation at the injection site and …

The Antler: The Design And Development Of An Independent Shower Support Stand For Those Living With Lower Extremity Limb Loss, Kylie Wright

Honors Theses

While we do not often think about it, taking a shower is a privilege. Standing in the hot water, cleaning off after a long day outdoors, and taking a moment to simply relax is an experience that most people in the U.S. have participated in. However, about 1.4 million Americans do not have this luxury3. Lower extremity amputees have long been advised to shower while seated for their safety. This population is unable to experience the simple independence that accompanies standing in the shower. Despite the growing rate of amputations each year, no products are currently available on the market …

Developing New Crutch Tip Design For Overall Increased Stability And Improved Movement On Different Terrains, Lauren Skinner

Honors Theses

Crutches are a mobility assistive device that are often used in various situations, such as post- surgical rehabilitation and recovery after injury. The current crutch tip design that is used on today’s crutches are often unstable and do not provide quality movement on different terrains, such as snow, ice, mud, and wet surfaces. These problems would be solved with a new tip design that could be attached to existing crutches or manufactured with the crutch itself. The team’s solution to this problem is a crutch tip with modular parts. The tip would attach to the shaft of the crutch like …

Immunomodulatory Biomaterials For Cancer Immunotherapy, Larry Donnell Stokes Jr

Honors Theses

Cancer immunotherapy has become an effective treatment in the toolbox of oncologists. Immunotherapy offers a less toxic alternative to standard cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and can have prolonged curative effects to decrease cancer recurrence. Today, many drugs and biological agents have been developed that target the immune system and elicit an antitumor/cancer response. These agents are known collectively as cancer immunotherapies. While immunotherapies have radically improved treatment outcomes for many cancer patients, there are drawbacks to using these treatments. Immunotherapy treatments have poor clinical responses in patients with tumors that lack immunogenicity. Some of the treatments also pose a …

Surface-Eroding Drug Delivery Films For Sequential And/Or Intermittent Release Of Psychoactive Drugs, Jason Price

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT JASON BLAKE PRICE: Surface-Eroding Drug Delivery Films for Sequential and/or

Intermittent Release of Psychoactive Drugs For patients with psychiatric diseases, adherence to medication schedules, medication

errors, and abuse are common issues. Promising new forms of therapy for these patients, such as micro-dosed lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), where patients receive 10-20% of a full dose every third day, present further drug delivery challenges. Sequential or intermittent release of drugs from an implanted device could ensure long-term drug compliance, automate drug dosing during the life of the implant, and eliminate potential for abuse and medication errors. To this end, we generated …