Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Measuring The Effects Of High-Altitude Flight And Upper Atmospheric Radiation On Muscle Cells, Annelise Dykes

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

There are several physiological barriers to long-term space travel, including the effects of launch, landing, and microgravity on muscle cells. A payload capsule was designed to maintain cell growth during a high altitude balloon flight to model some of these physiological processes. Murine muscle cells (strain C2C12) were cultured and launched in a capsule on a balloon satellite in November 2016. Cells were monitored for changes due to temperature, flight motion, radiation, and gravity differences by quantifying cell characteristics before and after the flight using physical measurements and cell viability. Instruments were selected to monitor flight data, and a payload …

Engineering Of Polyketide Biosynthetic Pathways For Bioactive Molecules, Siyuan Wang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study is focused on engineering of natural product biosynthetic pathways for efficient production of pharmaceutically important molecules or generation of new bioactive molecules for drug development.

Plant natural products are an important source of therapeutics, such as paclitaxel (anticancer) and artemisinin (anti-malarial). Production of plant natural products relies on conventional plant cultivation and solvent extraction, which is time-consuming and cost-ineffective. This work built a biosynthetic platform in Escherichia coli using seven biosynthetic genes from plants and bacteria, which were used to make valuable compounds such as the strong antioxidant resveratrol and anti-inflammatory agent curcuminoids. Through different combinations of these …

Investigation Of The Tailoring Steps In Pradimicin Biosynthesis, Kandy L. Napan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research focused on the investigation of the late steps in the biosynthetic pathway of the novel antifungal and antiviral pradimicins A-C. Pradimicins were first isolated from the soil bacterium Actinomadura hibisca. These bioactive molecules are assembled by a type II polyketide biosynthetic pathway. Although the biosynthetic gene cluster of pradimicin has been identified, the functions of the biosynthetic genes and how they work collaboratively to form the final structures of pradimicins remain unknown. This research aims to functionally characterize the enzymes involved in the late steps of the biosynthetic route.

The early biosynthetic steps of pradimicins have been …

Investigating Biosynthetic Steps Of An Angucycline Antifungal, S. Gabrielle Gladstone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The species of bacterium Streptomyces sp. SCC-2136 which has the American Type Culture Collection index 55186 naturally produces two chemical compounds, labeled Sch 47554 and Sch 47555. These compounds were previously reported to posess antifungal activity. This thesis sets out to confirm the mechanism by which the bacterium produces these compounds; specifically which genes are responsible for producing the enzymes that make and shape the molecules.

The genes and enzymes that were characterized are the minimal polyketide synthase, the ketoreductase that specifically acts on the ninth carbon, the first-ring aromatase, the subsequent ring cyclase, and two oxygenases. Also elucidated …