Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Comparison Of Electrically Mediated And Liposome-Complexed Plasmid Dna Delivery To The Skin, Loree C. Heller, Mark J. Jaroszeski, Domenico Coppola, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

BACKGROUND: Electroporation is an established technique for enhancing plasmid delivery to many tissues in vivo, including the skin. We have previously demonstrated efficient delivery of plasmid DNA to the skin utilizing a custom-built four-plate electrode. The experiments described here further evaluate cutaneous plasmid delivery using in vivo electroporation. Plasmid expression levels are compared to those after liposome mediated delivery.

METHODS: Enhanced electrically-mediated delivery, and less extensively, liposome complexed delivery, of a plasmid encoding the reporter luciferase was tested in rodent skin. Expression kinetics and tissue damage were explored as well as testing in a second rodent model.

RESULTS: Experiments …

Metabolic Engineering Of A Thermophilic Bacterium To Produce Ethanol At High Yield, A. Joe Shaw, Kara K. Podkaminer, Sunil G. Desai, John S. Bardsley, Stephen R. Rogers, Philip G. Thorne, David A. Hogsett, Lee R. Lynd

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report engineering Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum, a thermophilic anaerobic bacterium that ferments xylan and biomass-derived sugars, to produce ethanol at high yield. Knockout of genes involved in organic acid formation (acetate kinase, phosphate acetyltransferase, and L-lactate dehydrogenase) resulted in a strain able to produce ethanol as the only detectable organic product and substantial changes in electron flow relative to the wild type. Ethanol formation in the engineered strain (ALK2) utilizes pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase with electrons transferred from ferredoxin to NAD(P), a pathway different from that in previously described microbes with a homoethanol fermentation. The homoethanologenic phenotype was stable for >150 generations …

Nanoengineered Templates For Controlled Delivery Of Bioactive Compounds, Nalinkanth Ghone Veerabadran

Doctoral Dissertations

The significance of any drugs, therapeutic proteins, or any bioactive compounds, is based not only on their effects on diseases but also on how specifically, how readily, how controllable and how prolonged their effects on the disease without having any side effects. Thus the techniques involved in the drug encapsulation and its controlled release for a longer duration of time form one of the important processes of drug reformulation. In recent years nanoparticles have created overwhelming attention for delivering drugs by nanoencapsulation. The smaller size of nanoparticles has longer circulation time and higher cellular uptake when compared with larger size …

Writing Research Proposal: Literature Review And Database Search, Mamoudou H. Dicko Prof.

Pr. Mamoudou H. DICKO, PhD

Modeling Electric Fields In Microfluidic Devices, Micah Fincher

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Highly Similar Arabidopsis Homologs Of Trithorax Atx1 And Atx2 Encode Proteins With Divergent Biochemical Functions, Abdelaty Saleh, Raul Alvarez-Venegas, Mehtap Yilmaz, Oahn-Le, Guichuan Hou, Monther Sadder, Ayed Al-Abdallat, Yuannan Xia, Guoqinq Lu, Istvan Ladunga, Zoya Avramova

Nebraska Center for Biotechnology: Faculty and Staff Publications

Gene duplication followed by functional specialization is a potent force in the evolution of biological diversity. A comparative study of two highly conserved duplicated genes, ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX-LIKE PROTEIN1 (ATX1) and ATX2, revealed features of both partial redundancy and of functional divergence. Although structurally similar, their regulatory sequences have diverged, resulting in distinct temporal and spatial patterns of expression of the ATX1 and ATX2 genes. We found that ATX2 methylates only a limited fraction of nucleosomes and that ATX1 and ATX2 influence the expression of largely nonoverlapping gene sets. Even when coregulating shared targets, ATX1 and ATX2 may employ different …

Il-21 Limits Peripheral Lymphocyte Numbers Through T Cell Homeostatic Mechanisms., Shrimati Datta, Nora E. Sarvetnick

Journal Articles: Regenerative Medicine

BACKGROUND: IL-21, a member of the common gamma-chain utilizing family of cytokines, participates in immune and inflammatory processes. In addition, the cytokine has been linked to autoimmunity in humans and rodents.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To investigate the mechanism whereby IL-21 affects the immune system, we investigated its role in T cell homeostasis and autoimmunity in both non-autoimmune C57BL/6 and autoimmune NOD mice. Our data indicate that IL-21R knockout C57BL/6 and NOD mice show increased size of their lymphocyte population and decreased homeostatic proliferation. In addition, our experimental results demonstrate that IL-21 inhibits T cell survival. These data suggest that IL-21 acts …

A Versatile Imaging System For In Vivo Small Animal Research, Jianguo Qian

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

In vivo small animal imaging has become an essential technique for molecular biology studies. However, requirements of spatial resolution, sensitivity and image quality are quite challenging for the development of small-animal imaging systems. The capabilities of the system are also significant for carrying out small animal imaging in a wide range of biological studies. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a high-performance imaging system that can readily meet a wide range of requirements for a variety of small animal imaging applications. Several achievements have been made in order to fulfill this goal.;To supplement our system for parallel-hole single …

Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the United States, with 80 million people suffering from some form of heart disease each year. One major limitation is the inability of the heart to repair the damaged tissue. Stem cell therapy holds enormous promise to repair and regenerate the damaged myocardium, but there are many technical difficulties that must first be overcome. One such difficulty is the present lack of ability to track and assess transplanted stem cells over time in vivo. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that in vivo bioluminescence imaging is a safe and useful …