Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Impact Of Angiogenic And Osteogenic Factors In The Presence Of Biodegradable Piezoelectric Films, Jayla Millender

University Scholar Projects

One of the most common causes of bone graft rejection is lack of a vascular network connecting the graft to the existing native tissue – allowing for nutrient flow. Under current grafting techniques, the existing blood vessel network in the patient slowly invades the implant in order to supply the injured site with its necessary nutrients. The purpose of this research is to determine if a synthetic bone graft with a stable microvascular network can be developed in vitro. I hypothesize that the use of indirect angiogenic factors such as sonic hedgehog homolog and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in combination with the …

Impact Of Angiogenic And Osteogenic Factors In The Presence Of Biodegradable Piezoelectric Films, Jayla Millender

Honors Scholar Theses

One of the most common causes of bone graft rejection is lack of a vascular network connecting the graft to the existing native tissue – allowing for nutrient flow. Under current grafting techniques, the existing blood vessel network in the patient slowly invades the implant in order to supply the injured site with its necessary nutrients. The purpose of this research is to determine if a synthetic bone graft with a stable microvascular network can be developed in vitro. I hypothesize that the use of indirect angiogenic factors such as sonic hedgehog homolog and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in combination with the …

Rapid Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Platform For Direct Clinical Samples, Terrance Zhang

Honors Scholar Theses

Infectious diseases and septicemia are two of the major causes of death in the U.S., necessitating rapid treatment of septic patients with proper, efficacious antibiotics. Unfortunately, the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria are continuously being aggravated by an abuse in antibiotic prescription at a clinical and agricultural level. It is known that antibiotic resistance evolves through the sequential accumulation of multiple mutations in bacteria, which is accentuated by prolonged exposure of bacteria to ineffective antibiotics when implementing traditional septicemia treatment. The goal of this project is to develop a novel, easy-to-use AST platform for rapid antimicrobial susceptibility profiling to …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi S. Patel

University Scholar Projects

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi Patel

Honors Scholar Theses

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

Effect Of Silk-Based Hydrogel Topography On Intestinal Epithelial Cell Morphology And Wound Healing In Vitro, Marisa E. Boch

University Scholar Projects

Recent advances in the field of biomaterials have suggested that cells cultured on substrates resembling the native tissue mechanical properties, matrix and growth factor composition, and topography can adopt phenotypes that more closely resemble the in vivo tissue compared to cells cultured on non-mimetic constructs. Understanding the effect of culture substrate on in vitro tissue formation is important for bioengineering applications that include mechanistic studies of healthy tissue function and development of disease models. In this work, Caco-2 adenocarcinoma cells were seeded on flat and crypt-like topographies of 3D-printed cytocompatible hydrogels derived from silk fibroin protein. Silk hydrogels were selected …

Effect Of Silk-Based Hydrogel Topography On Intestinal Epithelial Cell Morphology And Wound Healing In Vitro, Marisa E. Boch

Honors Scholar Theses

Recent advances in the field of biomaterials have suggested that cells cultured on substrates resembling the native tissue mechanical properties, matrix and growth factor composition, and topography can adopt phenotypes that more closely resemble the in vivo tissue compared to cells cultured on non-mimetic constructs. Understanding the effect of culture substrate on in vitro tissue formation is important for bioengineering applications that include mechanistic studies of healthy tissue function and development of disease models. In this work, Caco-2 adenocarcinoma cells were seeded on flat and crypt-like topographies of 3D-printed cytocompatible hydrogels derived from silk fibroin protein. Silk hydrogels were selected …

Engineering A Fluorescent Protease Sensor For In Vivo Protein Detection, Thomas C. Kinard

Honors Scholar Theses

This report details the results of an ongoing project to engineer a mutant form of Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) variant mCherry that acts as a real-time in vivo protease sensor. The sought-after mutant only becomes fluorescent when exposed to Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) Protease, this system’s model protease. This will be accomplished via the insertion of the TEV Protease Recognition Site (TEV-PRS) in such a position that, before cleavage, will prevent the protein from folding to fluorescent conformation, but upon cleavage, will allow for fluorescent conformation to occur. The cylindrical structure of the protein, composed of beta-pleated sheets, contains “loops” …

Modeling The Adaptive Immune Response To Mutation-Generated Antigens, Rory J. Geyer

University Scholar Projects

Somatic mutations may drive tumorigenesis or lead to new, immunogenic epitopes (neoantigens). The immune system is thought to represses neoplastic growths through the recognition of neoantigens presented only by tumor cells. To study mutations as well as the immune response to mutation-generated antigens, we have created a conditional knockin mouse line with a gene encoding, 5’ to 3’, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), ovalbumin (which is processed to the immunologically recognizable peptide, SIINFEKL), and cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), or, YFP-ovalbumin-CFP. A frame shift mutation has been created at the 5’ end of the ovalbumin gene, hence YFP should always be expressed, …

Modeling The Adaptive Immune Response To Mutation-Generated Antigens, Rory J. Geyer

Honors Scholar Theses

Somatic mutations may drive tumorigenesis or lead to new, immunogenic epitopes (neoantigens). The immune system is thought to represses neoplastic growths through the recognition of neoantigens presented only by tumor cells. To study mutations as well as the immune response to mutation-generated antigens, we have created a conditional knockin mouse line with a gene encoding, 5’ to 3’, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), ovalbumin (which is processed to the immunologically recognizable peptide, SIINFEKL), and cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), or, YFP-ovalbumin-CFP. A frame shift mutation has been created at the 5’ end of the ovalbumin gene, hence YFP should always be expressed, …

Detection Of Sk2 Channels On Hippocampal Neurons, Jamie L. Maciaszek

Master's Theses

Calcium-activated small conductance potassium channels (SK) are crucial for synaptic plasticity, sleep, and learning and memory (Hammond, Bond et al. 2006; Cueni, Canepari et al. 2008; Lin, Lujan et al. 2008). Despite the recent progress on SK channel physiology, the precise spatial organization of SK channels in neurons has remained unknown. Such knowledge is critical as the subcellular distribution of SK channels is an important determinant of neuronal excitability. Currently, there are no techniques to image ion channel distribution quantitatively at the nanometer scale in living cells. Here, it is demonstrated that integration of natural toxins with single molecule atomic …

An Open-Source Sandbox For Increasing The Accessibility Of Functional Programming To The Bioinformatics And Scientific Communities, Matthew Fenwick, Colbert Sesanker, Jay Vyas, Michael R. Gryk

UCHC Articles - Research

Scientists are continually faced with the need to express complex mathematical notions in code. The renaissance of functional languages such as LISP and Haskell is often credited to their ability to implement complex data operations and mathematical constructs in an expressive and natural idiom. The slow adoption of functional computing in the scientific community does not, however, reflect the congeniality of these fields. Unfortunately, the learning curve for adoption of functional programming techniques is steeper than that for more traditional languages in the scientific community, such as Python and Java, and this is partially due to the relative sparseness of …

Automation Of Orthodontic Wire Tester For Performing Three Point Bending Tests, Adithya Venkatesan

Master's Theses

Abstract

Understanding the biomechanical factors in orthodontics is important in order to improve the overall effectiveness of actual clinical treatment. An accurate method to study the threedimensional (3D) force systems and the resulting movements of teeth during orthodontic treatment is needed along with the understanding of the material properties of any orthodontic wire. Until recently, most of the orthodontic biomechanics literature was limited to twodimensional experimental studies. Recent advances in threedimensional computer modeling have also been developed but have been limited to the manual control of tooth movement. Overall, there is very little published evidence in the literature on the …

Effect Of Prostaglandin E2 On Mechanical Stresses Applied By Mc3t3-E1 Osteoblast-Like Cells On A Soft Hydrogel Substrate, Abhijit Deb Roy

Master's Theses

Osteoblasts are sensitive to mechanical stimuli and release Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) when exposed to a fluid shear stress. The exact mechanism by which these cells sense mechanical stress is not well established. A study of the stresses applied by the osteoblasts, under the influence of PGE2, on a hydrogel provided information regarding intercellular-communication via changes in the substrate surface pattern.

A digital image correlation program was developed using the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm to analyze images and compare the deformations between pairs of images. Comparisons of images before and after the addition of PE2 to the media showed differences in the …