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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Single-Fluorophore Sensors For Mechanical Force In Living Cells, Sarah Kricheff
Single-Fluorophore Sensors For Mechanical Force In Living Cells, Sarah Kricheff
Honors Scholar Theses
Mechanotransduction is the process by which a mechanical stimulus is converted to a cellular signal. This process is heavily influential of cell morphology, differentiation, and behavior. However, altered levels of mechanical stimuli are also found in many pathological contexts. For example, cancerous cells have stiffer surrounding tissue than healthy cells, and research suggests that this alters cell behavior and promotes metastasis. Despite these findings, the cellular processes behind these signaling alterations remain widely unknown. Understanding these cascades is critical, as involved proteins can give us a deeper understanding of the role of mechanotransduction, and certain proteins can potentially be targeted …
Identification And Analysis Of Feather Degrading Bacteria: A Search For Keratinase Genes, Nehal Navali
Identification And Analysis Of Feather Degrading Bacteria: A Search For Keratinase Genes, Nehal Navali
Honors Scholar Theses
Over two million tons of feather waste is generated annually by the poultry industry, the majority of which goes into landfills due to the difficulty of degrading its major component keratin. Although a portion of feather waste is eliminated via incineration or chemical treatment, the use of Feather Degrading Bacteria (FDB) has been proposed as a cheap and eco-friendly alternative. FDBs have been consistently isolated from the feather microbiome of birds and contain genes coding for the specialized protein keratinase which is able to degrade feathers. By doing so, feather waste, which is rich in nutrients, can be repurposed as …