Life Sciences Commons^™

A Geospatial Based Decision Framework For Extending Marssim Regulatory Principles Into The Subsurface, Robert Nathan Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The Multi-Agency Radiological Site Survey Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) is a regulatory guidance document regarding compliance evaluation of radiologically contaminated soils and buildings (USNRC, 2000). Compliance is determined by comparing radiological measurements to established limits using a combination of hypothesis testing and scanning measurements. Scanning allows investigators to identify localized pockets of contamination missed during sampling and allows investigators to assess radiological exposure at different spatial scales. Scale is important in radiological dose assessment as regulatory limits can vary with the size of the contaminated area and sites are often evaluated at more than one scale (USNRC, 2000). Unfortunately, scanning is …

Chemical Tools To Characterize Membrane-Protein Binding Interactions Using Synthetic Lipid Probes, Meng Meng Rowland

Doctoral Dissertations

Signaling lipids such as diacylglycerol (DAG) and the phosphatidylinositol polyphosphates (PIP_ns) play crucial roles in numerous cellular pathways. However, characterization of their activities is hindered by the complexity of associated signaling pathways and of the membrane environment. To address this issue, we have developed lipid probes that are effective for characterizing biological events using different applications, including activity-based probing (PIP_ns and DAG) and microarray analysis (PIP_ns). The activity-based probes have been applied to label receptor targets in multiple cancer cell proteomes through photocrosslinking followed by click reactions. The probes were found to label several …

Development Of An Autonomous Mammalian Lux Reporter System, Daniel Michael Close

Doctoral Dissertations

Since its characterization, the definitive shortcoming of the bacterial luciferase (lux) bioluminescent reporter system has been its inability to express at a functional level in the eukaryotic cellular background. While recent developments have allowed for lux function in the lower eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae, they have not provided for autonomous function in higher eukaryotes capable of serving as human biomedical proxies. Here it is reported for the first time that, through a process of poly-bicistronic expression of human codon-optimized lux genes, it is possible to autonomously produce a bioluminescent signal directly from mammalian cells. The low background of …

Stem Cell Biology And Strategies For Therapeutic Development In Degenerative Diseases And Cancer, Angel A. Alvarez '98

Doctoral Dissertations

Stem cell biology is an exciting field that will lead to significant advancements in science and medicine. We hypothesize that inducing the expression of stem cell genes, using the embryonic stem cell gene nanog, will reprogram cells and dedifferentiate human mesenchymal stem cells into pluripotent stem cells capable of neural differentiation. The aims of initial studies are as follows:

Aim 1: Demonstrate that forced expression of the embryonic stem cell gene nanog induces changes in human mesenchymal stem cells to an embryonic stem cell-like phenotype.

Aim 2: Demonstrate that induced expression of nanog up-regulates the expression of multiple embryonic stem …