Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

A Ph-Sensitive Delivery System For The Prevention Of Dental Caries Using Salivary Proteins, Yi Zhu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dental caries remains one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. Salivary proteins such as histatins have demonstrated biological functions directly related to tooth homeostasis and prevention of dental caries. However, histatins are susceptible to the high proteolytic activities in the oral environment. Therefore, pH-sensitive chitosan nanoparticles (CNs) have been proposed as potential carriers to target major oral diseases that occur under acidic conditions (e.g. dental caries and dental erosion). Four different types of chitosan polymers were investigated and the optimized CNs successfully loaded histatin 3 and released it selectively under acidic conditions. Through loading the survival time of histatin …

Genetic Engineering Studies Of Escherichia Coli And Microalgae For Expression Of Hydrolytic Enzymes And Development Of High Throughput Screening Technique, Shreyas S. Yedahalli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The field of biochemical engineering has made substantial progress through major advances in genetic and metabolic engineering with applications in various sectors such as energy, food science, pharmaceuticals, etc. The hosts used for this work are constantly broadening. A host particularly important for energy applications are microalgae. The potential to enhance microalgae genetically for energy applications is not well explored and was therefore investigated in this thesis. Non-photosynthetic micro-organisms and photosynthetic microalgae offer a potential approach to enhance sustainable biochemical production. In this study expression vectors for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) …

Fermentative Processes Requiring Low Solubility Feed Gases: An Investigation Into Gas-Dependent Microorganisms, Eric W. Doerr

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Two bioprocesses were separately investigated based on their common interest of using gaseous substrates that have low solubility. The first process involved the development of a mixed culture using two organisms capable of utilizing glycerol and carbon monoxide separately to increase biobutanol production, while the second process involved an investigation of different production media used in aerobic xanthan production of Xanthomonas campestris with pressurization effects. It was determined that Clostridium pasteurianum should be used with an organism like Clostridium carboxidivorans or Eubacterium limosum in order for butyrate uptake at 3 g/L to occur with a minimum 0.1 g/L butyrate production. …

The Application Of The Ultrafine Technology In Improving The Biocompatibility And Osteo-Inductivity Of Dental Implants, Nicholas Y. Hou

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Dental implants are very effective medical devices. However, although stable, the conventional titanium implants are not very bioactive which in some instances could reduce their efficacy. This thesis described the research progress of using polymeric ultrafine-particles with bioactive additives to enrich the surface of titanium substrate, thereby increasing the biocompatibility and osteo-inductivity of the biomaterial. During this doctoral project, three different types of polymers were examined, initially the conventional polyester, and later the novel epoxy as well as the epoxy/polyester hybrid polymers. Physical characterizations confirmed that all of the coating powders were ultrafine particles, and homogeneous surfaces were constructed from …

Plasmonic Optical Sensors: Performance Analysis And Engineering Towards Biosensing, Peipei Jia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing for quantitative analysis of chemical reactions and biological interactions has become one of the most promising applications of plasmonics. This thesis focuses on performance analysis for plasmonic sensors and implementation of plamonic optical sensors with novel nanofabrication techniques.

A universal performance analysis model is established for general two-dimensional plasmonic sensors. This model is based on the fundamental facts of surface plasmon theory. The sensitivity only depends on excitation light wavelength as well as dielectric properties of metal and dielectrics. The expression involves no structure-specified parameters, which validates this formula in broad cases of periodic, quasiperiodic …

Effect Of Plant Hormones On The Production Of Biomass And Lipid In Microalgae, Malihe Mehdizadeh Allaf

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Limited fossil fuel reserves, increasing demand for energy in all parts of the world are some driving forces to look for new sources of transportation fuels. Among different options available, microalgae are currently attracting wide interests as an alternative and renewable fuel source.

Microalgae are single cell photosynthetic organisms that are known for rapid growth and high energy content and as a part of photosynthesis; they produce oil that can be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production. Some algae strains could contain lipid up to 80% of the dry biomass. The amount of lipid production is in direct relation …