Life Sciences Commons^™

Presentation: Estrogen Levels Effects On Sex-Dimorphic Skills And Mood, Kathryn Szymanski

Kathryn Szymanski

No abstract provided.

Instances Of Influenza In The United States Visualized, Parth Patel

Publications and Research

The Tycho Project collects large data sets related to healthcare and in particular, instances and geographical information of diseases. We look at the instance counts and locations of Influenza from 1919-1951 across the United States. We hope to find seasonal and geographical insight to the spread of the disease.

Prenylation In The Moss Physcomitrella Patens, Noela Botaka, Susana Perez-Martinez, Liang Bao, Parul Singh, Mark Running

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Protein prenylation is a post-translational modification that involves the addition of lipid groups to the end of a target protein and is necessary for protein activity. Prenylation has important roles in the cell: targeting and localizing proteins to subcellular compartments and promoting protein-protein interactions. Recently, we have found Protein Prenyltransferase Alpha Subunit-like (PPAL), which shares structural similarities to known prenylation enzymes. However, the biochemical function of PPAL is still unknown. PPAL is present in a single copy in other plants examined to date but is present in two copies in moss. Knockouts in our lab of either PpPAL1 or PpPAL2 ...

A Crispr Platform For Rapid And Inducible Genome Editing In Human Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells, Lloyd Bartley

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 85% of lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death in the world. High mortality rate associated with NSCLC is partially attributed to the limited understanding of NSCLC as well as ineffective therapeutic treatments. The initiation and progression of NSCLC involves genetic changes leading to alterations in the control of tissue development and homeostatic maintenance. Better knowledge about these genetic abnormalities is imperative for developing new chemotherapeutic drugs for NSCLC. Recent research demonstrates that the expression of paraoxonase 2 (PON2), a lactonase/arylesterase with anti-oxidant properties, are markedly enhanced in ...

Impact Of Aerobic Compost Tea On Growth Of Lactuca Sativa Within A Peat-Based Growing Media, Ella Potts, Jessica Stoner, Alyx Shultz, Iin Handayani

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Compost and compost tea have been shown in practice to be valuable soil amendments across many horticultural applications; however, little rigorous quantitative work has been completed. Researchers designed a side-by-side trial with two replications to quantifiably study the impact of compost tea on the growth and vigor of soil-grown lettuce. A recycled poultry-litter-based aerobic compost tea was used for the treatment. Six lactuca sativa plants received each treatment or control. Researchers hypothesized the treatment plants would show more vigor and vegetative growth than control. The null hypothesis was treatment plants would be identical to control lettuce. Researchers failed to reject ...

Development Of A Pd-L1 Pet Imaging Biomarker, Caleb Jack Bridgwater

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Immunotherapy strategies are very promising treatments for cancer patients. Specifically, Immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy focusing on the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway shows long-lasting positive results in many cancer patients. Unfortunately, not all the patients can benefit from this highly effective treatment. Hence, there is a great need for predictive biomarkers. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining has been used as a way of predicting patient response, yet shows many problems. For example, IHC utilizes an invasive biopsy and sample fixing, which creates an incomplete and delayed picture of the patient’s biochemistry and the tumor microenvironment, consequently ignoring metastases.

The purpose of this study ...

Histone Deacetylation Is The Primary Epigenetic Mechanism For Silencing Of Tumor Suppressor Gene - Tissue Factor Pathway Inhibitor-2 In Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells, Alisha Deshmukh, Shirish Barve

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. With a survival rate of less than 5 percent, a therapeutic treatment is desperately needed to manage this disease. Many epigenetic mechanisms that underlay HCC are being identified. A frequently silenced pathway tissue factor pathway inhibitor-2 (TFPI-2) is a critical tumor suppressor gene. In HCC, inactivation of TFPI-2 leads to tumor growth. Recent research indicated Fas L plays a major role in apoptosis as part of HCC. For the purposes of this study, the phytochemical Curcumin was explored to observe its possible effects on the epigenetic mechanisms ...

37 - Degradation Of Cellulose Through Hydrogen Metabolism And Electron Bifurcation, Madison Prchal

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC)

Cellulose, one of the most abundant polymers on earth, is difficult to break down. Select anaerobic bacteria are capable of metabolizing cellulose into glucose, then splitting the components apart further through glycolysis to produce ATP. During glycolysis, NAD+ is reduced to NADH and cannot continue acting as an electron carrier until NADH returns to an oxidized state. Though a hydrogen producing pathway is the preferred method of electron carrier recycling, an overabundance of hydrogen can impede the cycle. Anerobic organisms in nature have developed efficient pathways to maximize metabolic energy yields when exposed to little hydrogen. Bacteria present in cellulose ...

Identification Of New Genes In Congenital Heart Defects, Naomi Siddiquee

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC)

Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most common form of cyanotic congenital heart disease, occurring in 1 in 3000 live births. TOF is a combination of four heart defects that affect normal blood flow. Shone’s Syndrome is another rare congenital heart disease consisting of left-sided obstructive heart lesions. Although the diagnosis of both diseases is confirmed by clinical evaluation and physical examination, their pathogenesis is unknown. This research aimed to identify and characterize new genetic variants in hereditary cardiac diseases, specifically Tetralogy of Fallot and Shone’s Syndrome. Exome sequencing identified 20 nucleotide variants in different genes among TOF ...

Mechanisms Mediating The Pro-Fibrotic Effects Of Estradiol, Haley Fulton

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC)

Scleroderma is a connective tissue disease which promotes fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. Scleroderma patients have upregulated production of fibrotic extracellular matrix proteins and upregulated serum estradiol levels compared to control subjects. Estradiol effects eukaryotic transcription and gene expression when it enters the nucleus via one of its nuclear hormone receptors. Estrogen receptor one/ estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) is present on the nuclear membrane and binds the ligand estrogen. These experiments were designed to study the various isoforms of ESR1 and determine if gene expression of ESR1 was greater in fibroblasts and human skin stimulated with estradiol than ...

Effects Of Evolution On Laboratory Sublines Of Myxococcus Xanthus Dk1622, Mackenzie Ryan, Francesca Scribano, Kimberly Murphy

Celebration of Learning

Microbes have served as effective models for studying evolution because of their ability to be easily replicated, stored, and manipulated. Myxococcus xanthus is a soil bacterium that has served as a model organism in many laboratories. The unique social and motile behaviors exhibited by this bacterium make it ideal for phenotypic assays. A wild-type strain of M. xanthus, DK1622, has been distributed to laboratories across the United States and therefore we now have DK1622 sublines. The genomes of a number of these sublines have been sequenced and their social and motile phenotypes have been analyzed. When nine of these sublines ...

Identification Of Microbiota Associated With The Ectosymbiotic Community Structure Of The Appalachian Brook Crayfish (Cambarus Bartonii), Matthew M. Cooke 6268927, Luke T. Fischer, Taylor Griffin, Sherrie Jeffers

Montview Liberty University Journal of Undergraduate Research

Microbes play a significant role in ecosystems, effecting the vital functions of other organisms, interspecies relationships, and population sizes. Based upon previous research (Skelton et al., 2016), it has been hypothesized that crayfish symbionts (branchiobdellidans) play a significant role in regulating the amount of microbiota associated with the host. A growing body of knowledge is known regarding both the condition of gill fouling and the annelid worm’s symbiotic relationship with the crayfish (Skelton et al., 2016; Skelton et al., 2016). However, there is little to no evidence available concerning the bacteria’s role in the process (Skelton et al ...

_Chemosensory Role Of A Reproductive Hormone- Associating Gnrh Neurons With Taste And Olfactory Systems In Teleost Fish Format 2.Pptx, Gabriel Mchugh

Gabriel McHugh

Determining If Host Serum Igg Titer Is Associated With Toxoplasma Gondii Virulence, Riley E Byrd

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that causes the disease toxoplasmosis in animals and humans. One third of the world’s human population is chronically infected with this parasite (1). Toxoplasma gondii has two infectious forms: oocysts shed in the feces of felids (domestic and wild cats) and tissue cysts in chronically infected animals (Figure 1). Humans may become infected via ingestion of food or water contaminated with oocysts, the consumption of tissue cysts in undercooked meats, or vertical transmission from the mother to the fetus. Previous studies have found that T. gondii strains from South America are genetically diverse ...

Ameliorating Ocean Acidification: A Model Relating Pco2, Irradiance And Leaf Area Index Of Zostera Marina (Eelgrass) In Padilla Bay, Wa, Tyler Tran

Graduate Student Symposium

In nearshore, soft-sediment habitats of the Salish Sea, eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) meadows have been identified as potential mitigators of ocean acidification (OA) because their photosynthetic activity can decrease pCO2, increase pH and provide refuge for organisms sensitive to OA. The diurnal light cycle controls photosynthetic production of eelgrass and therefore, along with tidal cycles, exerts strong controls on variations in pCO2 in nearshore environment. In this study, we investigate the carbon uptake rates for eelgrass under varying light, ambient pCO2 conditions and eelgrass densities (leaf area index). The magnitude of changes predicted based on experimentally derived photosynthetic rates, measured ...

Effects Of Environmental Enrichment On Behavior In A Domestic Goat Herd, Stephanie Peramas

Senior Honors Projects

Animal welfare is one of the most important parts of animal management. Apart from other measures of good animal welfare, like being in good health, animal behavior can be indicative of the animal’s internal state and is often one of the first signs of improper welfare. Stereotypies, or stereotypic behavior, are commonly viewed as a symptom of improper animal welfare. Unenriched, or barren, environments associated with farmed livestock have long been associated with inducing stereotypic behavior. The addition of precise enrichment to the animals’ environment is a common remedy for stereotypic behavior. With respect to stereotypic goat behavior, few ...

Improving Habitat Restoration For Native Pollinators In San Francisco, Tyrha Delger

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

By looking at how these three species are conserved inside and outside of San Francisco, how an urban environment might affect habitat conservation, and lessons learned from other cities’ restoration projects, we can improve urban habitat conservation projects.

Urban Biogeography Of Fungal Endophytes In Metrosideros Excelsa Across San Francisco, Emma Gibson

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Trees in cities confer health and psychological benefits to the city's inhabitants, so the urban forest is a major component of human health in urban settings. Previous studies have shown that environmental factors can impact endophytic (within-plant) microbial communities of forest trees, but the effects that urban environmental factors may have on these communities are not well understood. Here, we characterized asymptomatic fungal communities in 30 individual Metrosideros excelsa trees from 6 distinct sites using culturing and molecular methods. We found high community diversity both within and among sites, and several patterns within these communities. For example, we found ...

Plant Biodiversity In The Face Of Climate Change: What Will Become Of Coastal Endemic Species?, Nila Le

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

How will longitudinally constrained coastal flora fare in the face of rapid anthropogenic climate change and disturbance? Coastal communities pose a unique problem for climate change and its associated risks. Species that are concentrated along the coast are naturally vulnerable to the influence of harsh abiotic ecology, such as coastal erosion and high salt concentrations. In addition, analogous to montane species-habitat interactions, coastal communities may be “pushed” off the coast edge as a result of tracking preferred climate in the face of climate variability and sea level rise. This can be problematic for species that cannot disperse quickly enough to ...

Emergence Of Zoos In The U.S. And A Search For The Exotic, Austin M. Hutchinson

Student Scholar Showcase

The emergence of zoos in twentieth century America had many factors that contributed to their mission, success, and overall exotic nature. Zoos have been a part of human civilization for centuries, but it would not be until 1876 when the first zoo would appear in the United States. Individuals craved excitement and the use of exotic animals from all over the world became an important component of what zoos would become. This era coincides with the European colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa, known as the Scramble for Africa. Animals were brought from the so-called “Dark Continent” to be put on display ...

Sirna Knock-Down Of Vav1 In Breast Cancer Cells: Effects On Pi3kinase And Akt, Tajai Sion-Milligan

Student Scholar Showcase

One in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Approximately 25-30% of these breast tumors will overexpress Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2), associated with a worse prognosis and decreased survival rate. Stimulation of HER2 results in activation and production of many signaling molecules, ultimately resulting in increased cell division. Two of the downstream molecules activated are PI₃Kinase and, further downstream, the molecule Akt. Typically, overproduction and/or overactivation of PI₃Kinase can lead to oncogenesis. A molecule that may have a significant role in PI₃Kinase formation is VAV1 ...

Creating A Predictive Model For Flowering Of Virginia Orchid, Cypripedium Pubescens, Emily Horton

Student Scholar Showcase

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Effects Of Gene Mutation And Light Intensity On Arabidopsis Thaliana Development, Carolanne Bekus

Student Scholar Showcase

The completion of sequencing Arabidopsis thaliana’s genome has led to the next crucial challenge of determining gene function in these plants. A. thaliana is a model organism often compared to commercial crops. The discovery of gene function within these plants will aid in giving insight on how gene function can affect commercial crop production. Presented here is an analysis comparing wild-type Columbia (Col-O), to single gene mutants when knocking-out transcriptional factors VPI/ABI3-like 1 (val1) and basic region/leucine zipper motif (bZIP). These single gene mutations may affect several traits that in turn can result in morphological changes and ...

Analysis Of Downstream Signaling Of Tlrs After U0126 Inhibition, Brandy Frazier

Student Scholar Showcase

Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) is a pathogenic bacterium which causes the disease tularemia. F. tularensis is thought to be able to enter and multiply inside of liver cells because it interacts with toll-like receptors (TLRs). Examining the signaling pathway downstream of the TLRs will allow for better understanding of how this disease works and possible treatment strategies. In this study I propose to examine how molecular inhibitors affect signaling downstream of TLRs in HepG2 cells treated with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from E. coli. Mitogen-activated protein kinase is a cellular molecule in signaling cascades that directs cellular response mechanisms. MAPK can be ...

Eating Crickets? Nutrient Mineral Content Of Two Cricket Species And Chapul Cricket Protein Bars Using Mp-Aes, Nathan Hopkins

Student Scholar Showcase

Global agriculture is beset by numerous challenges which must be surmounted to feed a developing world, from combating climate change to the cultivation of sustainable food products. This, in addition to protein and nutrient deficiencies in the developing world, makes considering alternative protein sources, such as a crickets, an attractive option. Crickets use a fraction of the land and water that protein sources like beef cattle do, and can be cultivated in urban environments in stacked boxes. This research investigation aims to quantify the nutrient mineral content (Iron, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium) of two cricket species (Acheta domesticus & Gryllodes ...

Elemental Analysis Of Beer Manufactured In Virginia Satellite Breweries, Jennifer Wiliams

Student Scholar Showcase

Financial incentives from the state and wider distribution potential have lured many west coast brewers to open satellite breweries in Virginia. Quality control is crucial for any brewery and especially important in satellite breweries that need to imitate the standard set by the parent brewery. Zinc, magnesium, iron, sodium manganese, and calcium are trace elements found in wort and are essential for enzymes that catalyze fermentation reactions. These elements protect against cell stress, play a crucial role in flocculation, and can affect the flavoring and coloration of beer. Barley, water, and hops are the sources of these elements in beer ...

Growing The Zombie Ant Fungus In The Lab: Optimizing Conditions For Stalk Formation In Host And Culturing In Media, Brianna Santamaria

Brianna Santamaria

Association Of Vasp Polymorphisms And Infectious Disease Burden In Global Populations And Identification Of Candidate Resistance Haplotypes In Sub-Saharan Africa, Melinda Phun, Blake Rosenn, Danny Glenn, Dhanushi Rupasinghe, James Church, David Zuzga, Shaohua Fan, Sarah Tishkoff

HON499 projects

Enteric pathogens employ numerous strategies to breach the intestinal epithelial barrier. One critical target of these pathogens is the host cell cytoskeleton. Pathogens may induce cytoskeletal remodeling to disrupt tight junctions and increase the permeability of the epithelium to gain access to underlying tissue. Alternatively, the cytoskeletal machinery may be directly co-opted to facilitate the attachment, invasion, or intracellular motility of these pathogens. The vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP) is a processive actin polymerase that induces membrane remodeling through the polymerization of actin cytoskeletal filaments. Interestingly, VASP is regulated by a variety of pathogens to induce cytoskeletal remodeling in host cells. If ...

Regulation Of Trophoblast Invasion By Pyruvate Kinase Isozyme M2 (Pkm2), Juan Mejia, Parker Hall, Kelsey Hirschi, Paul R. Reynolds, Juan Arroyo

All Student Publications

The Pyruvate kinase isozymes M2 (PKM2) protein is a metabolic enzyme that regulates the final step of glycolysis. This enzyme is present in highly proliferating cells such as those present in embryonic tissues, cancer and in the placental trophoblast. We recently studied PKM2 protein in the human placenta at term. Our results demonstrated upregulated placental PKM2 during preeclampsia (PE) where trophoblast invasion is decreased and hypoxia is present. Our objective was to determine the cytosolic and nuclear PKM2 expression pattern and determine PKM2 regulation of trophoblast cell invasion. Trophoblast cells were cultured in normoxic and hypoxic conditions and real time ...

Povidone-Iodine Vapor Kills Mrsa, Benjamin Ogilvie, Jon Mitton, Jordan Tucker, Dennis L. Eggett, Richard A. Robison

All Student Publications

Povidone-iodine is an antiseptic that is frequently used to clean skin prior to surgery. Current FDA regulations require that hospitals dispense povidone-iodine from single-use bottles, rather than large, multi-use containers, to prevent microbial contamination. This results in hospitals generating lots of product waste. However, if povidone-iodine vapor can kill microbes, then multi-use containers may be safe to use, since any bacteria that contaminated the inside of the container would soon die. The purpose of this research was to determine whether vapor from povidone-iodine could kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a common cause of hospital-associated infections.

In summary, this experiment demonstrated ...