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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Paper-Based Point-Of-Care Tools For Blood Testing, Xuefei Gao Jan 2020

Paper-Based Point-Of-Care Tools For Blood Testing, Xuefei Gao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Early detection of malignant disease is crucial for timely diagnosis and effective medical intervention, which significantly increases survival rates and reduce financial burden on patients. Biomarkers are becoming increasingly important in detection of malignant diseases, because they can be employed for indicating diseases, predicting risks and monitoring the progression of diseases. In addition, biomarkers show up at early stages of diseases in human tissues and fluids (e.g., blood, urine and saliva), which shows great promise for early disease detection. In this dissertation, paper-based lateral flow strips (PLFSs) have been developed for the detection of disease biomarkers, including protein biomarkers and …


Role Of Ciliary Proteins Adp Ribosylation Factor Like Gtpase 13b (Arl13b) And Bardet-Biedl Syndrome-8 (Bbs8) In Photoreceptor Outer Segment Morphogenesis, Maintenance, And Viability, Tanya L. Dilan Jan 2020

Role Of Ciliary Proteins Adp Ribosylation Factor Like Gtpase 13b (Arl13b) And Bardet-Biedl Syndrome-8 (Bbs8) In Photoreceptor Outer Segment Morphogenesis, Maintenance, And Viability, Tanya L. Dilan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Photoreceptor neurons are modified primary cilia with an extended ciliary compartment known as the outer segment (OS). The mechanisms behind the elaboration of photoreceptor cilia, OS morphogenesis, and maintenance remain poorly understood. In this work, we focused on dissecting the role of two ciliary proteins, the small GTPase ADP-ribosylation factor-like GTPase 13B (ARL13B) and Bardet-Biedl Syndrome-8 (BBS8) in the context of photoreceptor biology. Both BBS8 and ARL13B are linked to defects in ciliogenesis (cilia development) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (vision loss). ARL13B is implicated in regulating ciliary length, and BBS8 is part of the Bardet-Biedl Syndrome complex (BBSome); the BBSome is …


The Effects Of Membrane Physicochemical Properties On Huntingtin Membrane Association And Downstream Aggregation, Maryssa Beasley Jan 2020

The Effects Of Membrane Physicochemical Properties On Huntingtin Membrane Association And Downstream Aggregation, Maryssa Beasley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expanded glutamine repeat region (polyQ) within the huntingtin protein (htt). As a result of the expanded polyQ domain, htt associates into a variety of toxic aggregate species. The polyQ domain of htt is flanked at the N-terminal end by 17 amino acids (Nt17) that adopt an amphipathic α-helical structure in the presence of binding partners such as lipid membranes. In addition to comprising a lipid binding domain, the Nt17 amphipathic α -helix has been directly implicated in htt aggregation initiation via self-association with other Nt17 α -helices. Due to …


Evaluation Of Salmonella Enteritidis And Escherichia Coli O157:H7 Volatile Organic Compound Analysis For Food Safety Monitoring: A Preliminary Study, Jessica E. Lemley Jan 2020

Evaluation Of Salmonella Enteritidis And Escherichia Coli O157:H7 Volatile Organic Compound Analysis For Food Safety Monitoring: A Preliminary Study, Jessica E. Lemley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Food borne illness has the potential to impact every point of production from producers to consumers. Food product recalls are common due to the presence of food borne illness causing bacteria. Detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC) have the potential to reduce the number of illnesses and recalls through application of additional monitoring of food products like those most commonly recalled. The objective of this research was to 1) explore the use of closed-loop headspace analysis coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) on food borne illness causing bacteria and 2) examine the VOC profile of Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 in …


Characterization Of The Biochemical Properties Of Nudt8, A Novel Coa-Degrading Enzyme That Localizes To The Mitochondria, Evan W. Kerr Jan 2020

Characterization Of The Biochemical Properties Of Nudt8, A Novel Coa-Degrading Enzyme That Localizes To The Mitochondria, Evan W. Kerr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Coenzyme A (CoA) is a vital cofactor that is required for a variety of metabolic reactions including the TCA cycle and the synthesis and oxidation of fatty acids, amino acids and ketone bodies. The importance of CoA is underscored by its tight regulation, as prolonged elevations or inability to synthesize adequate amounts of this cofactor lead to severe metabolic dysfunction. Regulation of CoA biosynthesis has been extensively characterized, however less is known about regulation of CoA and its thioesters via degradation. Presently, two CoA-degrading enzymes, Nudt7 and Nudt19 have been identified as regulators of the peroxisomal pool of (acyl-)CoA in …


Protein/Peptide Characterization Using Mass Spectrometry And Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Ahmad Kiani Karanji Jan 2020

Protein/Peptide Characterization Using Mass Spectrometry And Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Ahmad Kiani Karanji

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Mass spectrometry (MS) based-techniques and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been used to characterize protein/peptide structure as well as their interactions with lipid vesicles and detergents. Chapter 1 introduces an introduction to the concepts and tools that were used in this work. In Chapter 2, the dominant gas-phase conformer of [M+3H]3+ ions of the model peptide Acetyl-PSSSSKSSSSKSSSSKSSSSK are examined with ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), gas-phase hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX), and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques. This section furthers the development of a protein structural prediction tool by providing information about gas-phase ion conformers of two model peptides having different solution conformational …


The Exploration Of Nanotoxicological Copper And Interspecific Saccharomyces Hybrids, Matthew Joseph Winans Phd Jan 2020

The Exploration Of Nanotoxicological Copper And Interspecific Saccharomyces Hybrids, Matthew Joseph Winans Phd

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Nanotechnology takes advantage of cellular biology’s natural nanoscale operations by interacting with biomolecules differently than soluble or bulk materials, often altering normal cellular processes such as metabolism or growth. To gain a better understanding of how copper nanoparticles hybridized on cellulose fibers called carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) affected growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the mechanisms of toxicity were explored. Multiple methodologies covering genetics, proteomics, metallomics, and metabolomics were used during this investigation. The work that lead to this dissertation discovered that these cellulosic copper nanoparticles had a unique toxicity compared to copper. Further investigation suggested a possible ionic or molecular mimicry …