Life Sciences Commons^™

Snake Venom Peptides And Toxin Targeting The Main Protease Of Sars-Cov-2, Breauna Strawder, James Stewart, Mohammad A. Halim

Symposium of Student Scholars

The corona virus began to spread in Wuhan, China which caused it to spread worldwide creating a global pandemic in the beginning of 2020, infecting over 243 million and killing over 4.5 million people worldwide. Significant efforts were made to produce vaccines against the virus, which led the recognition of a few vaccines that has been approved by FDA. These vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which all have efficacy against Covid-19. Despite having vaccines, COVID-19 is still present and infecting millions and killing thousands of people every day. Multiple therapeutic options would allow us to slow down or …

Binding Affinity And Interaction Of Sars-Cov-2 Epitopes With Major Histocompatibility Complex, Sareena Kandavalli, James Stewart, Mohammed A. Halim

Symposium of Student Scholars

SARS CoV-2 has been affecting the world since 2019. It caused 245 million cases of infection and around 5 million deaths worldwide. The most important strategies for the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are inactivated or weakened virus, replicating or non-replicating viral vector-based approaches, DNA, RNA, virus particle like approaches and epitope-based approaches. The epitope-based approach is rapid, accurate, cost-effective, and reliable against pathogens. By presenting epitopes (antigen peptides) on antigen-presenting cells (APCs), the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), also recognized as the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system in humans, plays an essential role in triggering T-cell immune responses. The focus …

Cell Penetrating Peptide Inhibiting The Main Protease Of Sars-Cov-2, Adam Ashley, James Stewart, Mohammad Halim

Symposium of Student Scholars

As of October 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 244 million people and killed about 5 million people. The current FDA approved vaccines are effective; however, they lose their effectiveness after a few months of receiving both doses of the vaccine, and it is recommended to get a booster shot six months after receiving the second dose of the vaccine. Therefore, new highly effective, long lasting antiviral agents and strategies are needed to create an alternative treatment for SARS-CoV-2 and the different variants. Previous studies have shown that cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) have led to greater efficiency of intracellular delivery. However, …

60. Epfl Genes And Their Role In Flower Development In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Rachael Deboe

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Flowers are composed of four floral organ types: sepals, petals, stamens, and a pistil. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the ERECTA family leucine rich repeat receptor like kinases (LRR-RLKs) have been shown to regulate plant morphology. Epidermal Patterning Factor-Like (EPFL) genes encode for small secretory proteins that are ligands for ERECTA Family (ERf) receptors. It is suspected that EPFL’s act as a signal to coordinate proper lateral organ number, patterning, and spacing. ERf mutants have significant defects in flower development, including difficulty forming anther lobes and pistils, yet little is known about how individual EPFL ligands contribute to ERf signaling. In order …

Conserved Regions Mediate Interactions Between Canonical Nox Domains, Akua Acheampong

Symposium of Student Scholars

NAPDH oxidase (NOXes) are membrane-bound enzymes that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a role in immune response and signaling. Misregulation of NOXes is implicated in various human pathologies. NOXes contain a catalytic core comprised of a heme-containing transmembrane (TM) domain and a cytoplasmic dehydrogenase (DH) domain that binds FAD and NADPH. Several conserved regions at the interface of the TM and DH domains in eukaryotic NOXes have been suggested to mediate enzyme function and activity. In 2017, researchers successfully purified SpNox, a bona fide NOX homolog from Streptococcus pneumoniae and verified its NOX properties. SpNox’s robust activity in …

Assessing Selective Plasmids For Bradyrhizobium Sp. Doa9 And Mesorhizobium Loti, Aiden J. Wilcox, Rebecca Meaney, Bogumil Karas

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

The Cofactor Specificity Of Nqo2, Shujun Dong

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

NQO1 and NQO2 are closely related quinone reductases, which are FAD-linked enzymes that catalyze the 2-electron reduction of quinones. Whereas NQO1 has a well-defined role in cellular detoxification of quinones, NQO2’s function is less clear; it uses the conventional cofactors NADH/NADPH inefficiently compared to smaller nicotinamide cofactors, which are often present in low cellular amounts. This unique cofactor specificity suggests that NQO2 may have non-enzymatic functions, such as a role in intracellular signalling.

The goals of this research project include: 1) examining whether cofactor specificity is conserved in amniote NQO2 enzymes and 2) re-constructing ancient enzymes along the evolutionary pathway …

Synthesis Of Nucleotide Prodrugs As Potential Antiviral Agents, Mohammed Attaelmanan

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

Investigating Dha Levels In Rat Brain Tissues In Relation To Maternal Thc Exposure Using Maldi-Ims, Aleksandra (Ola) Doktor

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research focuses on investigating whether maternal exposure to THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) has an effect on lowering DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) levels in female and male offspring, and if an omega-3 rich diet, containing DHA, is able to recover DHA levels following a THC caused deficiency. To study this, DHA levels in rat brain tissues from 21-Day-Old offspring were compared across four different groups of maternal rats, vehicle rats with a controlled diet (veh/ct), vehicle rats with an omega-3 rich diet (veh/n3), THC treated rats with a controlled diet (thc/ct), and THC treated rats with an omega-3 rich diet (thc/n3) using MALDI-IMS …

Expression And Purification Of Proteins For A Structural Determination: Orf8, Paivy1, Paivy2, Sarah Fashinasi, Avery Moss

Symposium of Student Scholars

Protein purification is a crucial procedure in order to analyze the behavior, structure, and function of a select protein. The Orf8 protein is an increasingly mutable accessory protein found within the SARS-CoV2 virus, however the complex and unpredictable nature of this protein has been met by its inability to be purified thus far. By purifying the model proteins, PaIVY1 and PaIVY2, we believe that we can denote a sound purification method to apply to the Orf8 protein. In our procedure, we transformed BL21(DE3)pLysS cells and inoculated them in LB media. The cells were then placed into a centrifuge to isolate …

Investigating The Sars-Cov-2 Orf 8 Accessory Protein: Expression, Purification, And Structural Determination, Laney Hedgeman, Caroline Salha

Symposium of Student Scholars

Abstract

In order to provide insight into potential therapeutic breakthroughs for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), more research must be done to understand the structure and function of its proteins. The open reading frame 8 (ORF 8) accessory protein is particularly unstable on its own outside of the viral envelope but can be stabilized when bound to the small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) protein. The stable ORF 8-SUMO protein complex can be expressed and purified using familiar techniques and later characterized with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, thus allowing us to gain knowledge about the role it plays …

Bioanalytical Determination Of Glucose Concentration In Sports Drinks Using Uv/Vis Spectroscopy, Laney Hedgeman, Brianna Bond

Symposium of Student Scholars

Abstract

The purpose of our project is to indirectly monitor the enzymatic activity of glucose oxidase as it reacts with the glucose present in sports drinks through the quantitative analysis of the generated ferricyanide. As glucose oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of beta-D-glucose in the presence of oxygen, D-glucono-1,5-lactone is produced along with hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide is used in a subsequent reaction with ferrocyanide catalyzed by horse radish peroxidase to produce water and the chromophore ferricyanide. This compound absorbs in the ultraviolet/visible spectrum at 420 nm, which can be quickly measured using Ultraviolet/Visible Spectroscopy. Since the molar ratio of …

Safety Of Silver Oxide Coated Biomaterials In Mice, Michael Klug, Darien L. Seidman, Rahyan Mahmoud, Destiny Morot, Lei Yu, Jeffrey D Hettinger, Renee M Demarest

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

It has been demonstrated that silver oxide coatings designed by our collaborators are able to prevent E. coli and P. aeruginosa attachment to biomaterials in vivo. These findings demonstrate that such coatings show promise in preventing the development of biofilm on biodevices. However, it is unknown if the use of silver oxide in this fashion is toxic in vivo. The goal of this project was to determine whether our silver oxide coatings are safe to use in vivo. To assess the toxicity of our silver oxide formula, mice were implanted with either silver oxide coated titanium discs or uncoated titanium …

216— Loss Of Function Mutation For Tp53 Does Not Rescue The Chaf1bNt2 Small-Eye Phenotype In Danio Rerio, Alex Parks

GREAT Day Posters

In Zebrafish, the chromosome assembly factor 1b (chaf1b) gene is in part responsible for the development of the eye. In homozygous chaf1bt24412 mutants retinal cell death is promoted through cell-death promoting activity of the gene, tumor suppressor protein p53 (tp53), resulting in a small-eye phenotype. Another allele chaf1bnt2, was found to also result in the small-eye phenotype when in a homozygous state. We found that knockdown of Tp53 protein via morpholino antisense oligonucleotide injection of 1-2 cell stage embryos failed to rescue retinal cell death of chaf1bnt2 homozygous mutants as detected by TUNEL labeling. Because morpholinos may fail to fully …

Using The Lambert Function To Map Enzyme Kinetics, Melissa Gouge

ONU Student Research Colloquium

In an academic setting, enzyme kinetics are introduced by analysis of the initial rates using the Michalis-Menten model. To better understand enzyme kinetics, a complete time course analysis will provide a larger set of information. The use of the integrated form of the rate equation allows for a beginning glance at the mechanism of reaction. With this, the Lambert Ω function can be used to analyze the integrated rate equations. There are two different branches of the Lambert Ω function, a negative branch and a positive branch. For each branch there is a unique expanded series approximation used for analysis …

Project Alien, Rebecca Mccallin, Madelyn Hoying, Alex Evans, Matthew Nestler, Karli Rae Sutton, Garett Craig, Lucia Secaia Del Cid, Alexander Guy, Rachel Fernandez, Amanda Trusiak, Paige Aley, Ingabire Gakwerere, Nina Dorfner, Maria Mosbacher, Mary Flavin, Selvin Hernandez, Audrey Steen, Benjamin Kazimer

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Project ALIEN is a comprehensive plan to send humans to Mars to look for life on the Martian surface while exploring the viability and adaptability of terrestrial microbes in Martian atmospheric conditions. ALIEN will use a ballistic capture trajectory to get to Mars and stay in aerostationary orbit for a 30-day surface mission, during which two surface crewmembers will perform a variety of experiments to achieve the mission’s goals of Martian microbial discovery within brines of the Gale Crater and terrestrial microbe adaptability and viability to Martian conditions. Experimentation is based on the presumption that Martian microbes are metabolically similar …

Mediation Of The Uncoupled Enos Pathway Following Oxidative Stress Using Tetrahydrobiopterin And Nitric Oxide Donor Drugs To Restore Tetrahydrobiopterin Concentration, Brianna Munnich

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Presentation Location: Warming House, Olivet Nazarene University

Abstract

The eNOS pathway, found in the endothelium of blood vessels, is a key regulator of nitric oxide levels in the circulatory system. The pathway is controlled through several positive and negative feedback loops [2]. The cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is a major control point in this pathway and under conditions of stress can be reduced into the dihydrobiopterin (BH2) [2,6,7,8,9]. When the reduced form is predominant, the pathway produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) rather than nitric oxide, causing stress and damage to the vessels [6,7,8,9]. In this study, different treatments were studied …

Analysis Of Heavy Metal In Hair Samples Using Icp Oes, Emma Suvacarov

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Exposure to heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic can negatively affect the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs. Such heavy metals can be excreted from the hair as metabolic products during its growth process thus hair analysis is thought to be a reliable indicator for the environmental accumulation of heavy metals. Our research aims to develop a methodology to quantify heavy metal concentrations found in biological samples using Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy. Current research involves preparing hair samples for analysis and creating calibration curves for heavy metals through a process that is accurate, precise, and easily …