Life Sciences Commons^™

A Chemical Genetics Approach To Understand The Regulation Of Cryptosporidium Sexual Differentiation, Md Mahmudul Hasan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Cryptosporidium species are eukaryotic intracellular parasites belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa. C. hominis and C. parvum cause diarrhea in humans which is self-limiting in immunocompetent adults but can have severe consequences in immunocompromised individuals and malnourished children. In developing countries, Cryptosporidium is one of the leading causes of moderate to severe diarrhea in children under five years of age. There is an urgent need for novel therapeutics against this parasite as the current treatment option is inadequate to treat the most vulnerable population to Cryptosporidium infection. Better understandings of the biology of Cryptosporidium would greatly enhance our capability to design …

Genetic And Functional Approaches To Understanding Autoimmune And Inflammatory Pathologies, Abbas Raza

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Our understanding of genetic predisposition to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases has been enhanced by large scale quantitative trait loci (QTL) linkage mapping and genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, the resolution and interpretation of QTL linkage mapping or GWAS findings are limited. In this work, we complement genetic predictions for several human diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) and systemic capillary leakage syndrome (SCLS) with genetic and functional data in model organisms to associate genes with phenotypes and diseases.

Focusing on MS, an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS), we experimentally tested the effect of three of the GWAS …

Pharmacological Inhibition Of Hif-1 Alpha And Its Effects On Dendritic Cell Metabolic Reprogramming, Warrick Sahene

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Dendritic cells (DCs) are antigen presenting cells (APCs), a subtype of immune cells that present cellular information to T cells in the immune system. Hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) is an important transcription factor that facilitates dendritic cell metabolism by upregulating glycolysis in activated DCs. In this project, we examined the effects of HIF-1 alpha inhibition on metabolic processes of dendritic cells. Using techniques such as flow cytometry, western blotting, and extracellular flux analyzers, we used a selective inhibitor of HIF-1 alpha to test the hypothesis that HIF-1 alpha promotes glycolytic dependent processes such as glucose production, survival, …