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Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Global Identification Of Human Modifier Genes Of Alpha-Synuclein Toxicity, Ishita Haider
Global Identification Of Human Modifier Genes Of Alpha-Synuclein Toxicity, Ishita Haider
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Alpha-synuclein is a small lipid binding protein abundantly expressed in the brain. Lewy body or Lewy-like pathology, primarily composed of misfolded alpha-synuclein, is a pathological feature shared by several neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD). Both missense mutations and increased copy numbers of the SNCA gene, encoding the alpha-synuclein protein, have been genetically linked to autosome dominant PD. Other genetic variations affecting the expression of the SNCA gene have been associated with sporadic PD. Although the physiological function of alpha-synuclein is not well understood, its localization to plasma and vesicular membranes at the presynaptic terminals suggests a role in neurotransmission. …
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 …
Characterizing Basal-Like Triple Negative Breast Cancer Using Gene Expression Analysis: A Data Mining Approach, Qamar Alsabi
Characterizing Basal-Like Triple Negative Breast Cancer Using Gene Expression Analysis: A Data Mining Approach, Qamar Alsabi
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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by the absence of expression of the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Therefore, TNBC is unresponsive to targeted hormonal therapies, which limits treatment options to nonselective chemotherapeutic agents. Basal-like breast cancers (BLBCs) represent a subset of about 70% of TNBCs, more frequently affecting younger patients, being more prevalent in African-American women and significantly more aggressive than tumors of other molecular subtypes, with high rates of proliferation and extremely poor clinical outcomes. Proper classification of BLBCs using current pathological tools has been a major challenge. Although TNBCs have …
Studying The Material Properties Of The Embryonic Chicken Heart, Kyra Burnett
Studying The Material Properties Of The Embryonic Chicken Heart, Kyra Burnett
Honors Theses
Congenital heart disease is the number one cause of birth defects in the United States, affecting approximately 40,000 newborns each year. Research has shown that serious structural defects of the heart can occur due to abnormal looping. Looping refers to the positional and morphological changes of the early embryo heart and is divided into different phases. Although progress has been made in identifying the genetic processes behind heart looping, the forces involved with the developmental process are still not fully understood. In this research, the chicken embryo heart was used as the experimental model and certain material properties were characterized. …
The Molecular Genetics Learning Progressions: Revisions And Refinements Based On Empirical Testing In Three 10th Grade Classrooms, Amber Nicole Todd
The Molecular Genetics Learning Progressions: Revisions And Refinements Based On Empirical Testing In Three 10th Grade Classrooms, Amber Nicole Todd
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In the past few decades, there has been a large push for increasing scientific literacy (AAAS, 1989; AAAS, 1993; Achieve, 2013; NRC, 1996; NRC, 2012), especially in areas that are rapidly advancing, like molecular genetics. Much research has been done on student understandings of molecular genetics and the consensus is that the concepts are difficult both to learn and teach (Fisher, 1992; Horwitz, 1996; Kindfield, 1992; Lewis & Kattmann, 2004; Marbach-Ad & Stavy, 2000; Stewart et al., 2005; Venville & Treagust, 1998; etc.). Two learning progressions in molecular genetics have been produced (Duncan et al., 2009; Roseman et al. 2006), …