Life Sciences Commons^™

Ab Blood Type And Its Genetic Relationship To Alzheimer’S Disease, Mark Wadsworth, John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a debilitating disease that has increased the hardship of many lives. Many people above the age of 65 have been diagnosed with this genetically complex disease, which financially and emotionally burdens those diagnosed and their families. Earlier this year a study was released that found, using a dataset of individuals that have had strokes, that individuals with AB blood type are more at risk of developing cognitive impairment[1]. This study however was not looking at the genetics of AD. My objective in performing this study was to see if there is a genetic association between Alzheimer’s …

Byu Undergraduates Execute A Familial Study Of Non-Demented Individuals In High-Risk Alzheimer’S Disease Pedigrees, John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Successful enrollment in and completion of graduate programs requires a constellation of skills. Students must be prepared to plan and execute experiments, present their findings both verbally and in manuscript form and interact effectively with senior scientists in the field of their choice. In this MEG I will mentor four undergraduate students (Kevin Boehme, Lyndsay Staley, Kaitlin Bell and Mark Wadsworth) as they develop skills in study design, data analysis, manuscript preparation, presentation and networking while identifying genetic factors that protect individuals from Alzheimer’s disease.

Neofunctionalization Of Dual-Targeted Plant Organelle Dna Replication Proteins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Neofunctionalization is the process by which genes gain a new or modified function as a result of gene duplication and modification of one or more of the new genes. This exciting area of research helps explain the diversification of protein functions in cells. The number of documented examples has increased in recent years in all classes of organisms (Deng et al., 2010; Han et al. 2011; Cannela et al. 2014; Sakuma et al. 2013; Zhang et al. 2014). In some cases a protein that was previously thought to function in only one cellular compartment has been shown to also function …

2013-2014 Final Report : Ephedra (Each Person Has Essential Disciplinary Research Abilities) In Interdisciplinary Climate Change Studies, Richard Gill

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The central aim of this proposal was to provide opportunities for students from diverse academic backgrounds to work collaboratively on a number of federally funded projects that include Colorado Plateau grasslands, the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin sagebrush steppe, and the Uintah Mountains. This proposal funded a portion of the salary for 9 students from life sciences, and engineering. The mentoring environment and plan focused on allowing students with diverse interests and training to work together on complex problems with frequent interaction with faculty and graduate students. We have a novel undergraduate lab that integrates training in science across the …

Byu Undergraduates Explore The Flipped Classroom In Search Of The Best Pedagogy For Introductory Biology, Jamie Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This report will outline how effectively we met our academic and mentoring objectives.I have listed below both the academic and mentoring objectives put forth in the original proposal and have outlined how they were met or modified over the course of the past two years.

Academic Objective: To test two hypotheses about the causal mechanisms behind the flipped classroom.

Ab Blood Type And Its Genetic Relationship To Alzheimer’S Disease, Mark Wadsworth, John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a debilitating disease that has increased the hardship of many lives. Many people above the age of 65 have been diagnosed with this genetically complex disease, which financially and emotionally burdens those diagnosed and their families. Earlier this year a study was released that found, using a dataset of individuals that have had strokes, that individuals with AB blood type are more at risk of developing cognitive impairment[1]. This study however was not looking at the genetics of AD. My objective in performing this study was to see if there is a genetic association between Alzheimer’s …

Phylogenetic Relationships In The Neo-Tropical Lizard Family Corytophanidae, Greg Taylor, Jack Sites

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The focus of this project was 1) to determine sexual dimorphism in head and body structures in the lizard family Corytophanidae 2) analyze phylogenetic relationships between the species within the family, and 3) analyze the relationship with other lizard clades.

Association Of Tm2d3 Gene With Lateonset Of Alzheimer’S Disease In Cache County, Eleni Tukuafu, Dr. John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It is estimated that 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. It is currently the 6th leading cause of death in America, killing around 500,000 seniors every year. A 68% increase of death from Alzheimer’s disease was observed from the year 2000 to 2010. These numbers are expected to continue climbing.

Alzheimer’S Disease And The P.V236e Variant In The Apoe Gene, Alton Chad Sorensen, John Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I was interested in trying to validate the findings of the publication by Medway et al. concerning the SNP rs199768005 using data from the Cache Country data set. Unfortunately, of the 4703 people from our data set, only 10 were carriers. Using R statistical analysis, I found that the p-value for this SNP with an association to protect for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) was not significant. It was similarly not significant in its association with Any AD. I also ran other models to include for factors such as education or age in conjunction with this SNP and its association with AD …

Anatomical Variation Of The Ulnar Collateral Ligament And Implications For Joing Stability And Surgical Rehabilitation, Jakob Gamboa, Dr. Jonathan Wisco

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 1974, the first ulnar collateral ligament reconstructive surgery was performed on Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher, Tommy John. The damaged ligament of the medial elbow was repaired with tendons from the pitcher’s body. Since then, the surgery has been colloquially termed “Tommy John’s Surgery”, and the alarming increase of the rates of the procedure has now become a concern, being recently called an “epidemic” by the American Sports Medicine Institute¹. The procedure possesses risk of complications, and can lead to shortened careers, decreased performance over time², and can carry a heavy financial toll on individuals and …

Testing The Effect Of Antioxidants On The Pathogenesis Of Alzheimer’S Disease Through The Rage/Nf-Kb Inflammatory Pathway, Harrison Snyder, Jonathan Wisco

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts (RAGE) is known to have a role in inflammatory processes. When produced in excess it induces oxidative stress by activating a number of ligand enzymes, resulting in the generation of excessive cytosolic reactive oxidant species. This oxidative stress then stimulates Nuclear Factor Kappa-B (NF-kB), which regulates immune response and inflammation. When RAGE is incorrectly regulated, inflammation occurs in otherwise healthy tissue, a process implicated in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. RAGE is found throughout the body and is seen in greater concentration in inflamed tissues; it has also been found in the brain tissue …

Ligament Microstructure Analysis, Michael Gillespie, Jonathan Wisco

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Due to the relatively poor fiber contrast of tendons in comparison with muscles, the anatomical, and therefore, functional relationship of muscle attachments to bones via tendons has not been well mapped. We were interested in mapping the 3D gross anatomical structure of tendons using a MicroScribe 3D digitizer (GoMeasure3D, Amherst, VA), with the goal to compare fibrous architecture between tendons of various types of muscles and muscle classes. We developed a stain made of blue dye and powdered sugar to increase fiber visibility, thus allowing for 3D digitization. This technique was applied to human cadaveric calcaneal tendon and quadriceps tendon.

Analyzing Structural Differences In Quadriceps Femoris Tendon Fibers Using Microscribe Technology, Nathaniel Hainsworth, Jon Wisco

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Not all tendons and ligaments are created equally. Many have different structural characteristics based on functionality or need for stability. This turns out to be true even between different portions of the same tendon. This project’s purpose was to analyze and compare structural differences between tendon fibers of the patellar portion and quadriceps portion of the quadriceps femoris tendon. We hypothesized that there are significant structural differences between these two portions because they act very different biomechanically, as well as different in the amount of tension/strain put on each portion. We mapped individual tendon fibers of both portions using MicroScribe …

Analysis Of Hmgcr As A Genetic Modifier For Alzheimer’S Disease, Brian Davis, Dr. John S. K. Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that occurs predominantly later in life and represents the fourth most common cause of death in the developed world. Given the absence of curative treatment, discovering the factors related to the development of AD and the conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD is one of the most urgent medical mysteries affecting the aging population. The search for the identification of genes contributing to AD led to the identification of 695 candidate genes of which a surprising number are directly involved in lipid metabolism at the level of transport, synthesis, storage, …

Assessment Of Biodiversity On Mount Timpanogos With A Focus On Flies, Diptera: Agromyzidae, Samantha Smith, Dr. Riley Nelson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Mount Timpanogos, with an elevation of 3,582 meters, is home to an amazing array of insect species. Through much previous effort, many have studied the insects found in American Fork Canyon leading up to Mount Timpanogos. They have still barely scratched the surface of the abundant biodiversity on the mountain. Varied temperature regimes can cause changes in insects’ life cycle and the length of their feeding period, making the collections at different elevations of Mount Timpanogos during different years of particularly great value (Petitt et al 1991). Thus the value of collections along Mount Timpanogos is two-fold; both to study …

Association Of Rare Genetics Variants To The Protection Of Alzheimer’S Disease In The Cache County Data Set, Josue David Gonzalez Murcia, John Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the top 10 causes of death in the world and the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, with 5.5 million people diagnosed with the disease. Alzheimer’s cannot be cured, prevented or slowed. Most research with Alzheimer’s disease has been done on SNPs that have a relatively high frequency in the population this has helped facilitate researchers in finding a broad genetic pathway in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (Naj et al. 2011; Harold et al. 2009). Our research will focus on a very rare SNP, with a much lower frequency than previously …

Investigation Of Visual Systems In A New Species Of Firefly, Yelena Pacheco, Dr. Seth Bybee

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Fireflies are well known for their bioluminescent flashes causing them to be a particular group of interest concerning insect vision research. Their flashes are used for both sexual communication and as an aposematic warning to predators. Bioluminescent fireflies are known to use either a yellow-green flash or a yellow-orange flash to communicate between sexes in order to find a mate. There have been many studies concerning flash patterns’ role in sexual communication among fireflies; however, the understanding of firefly vision as a whole allows for many more untouched research possibilities. As a member of the Bybee lab I had the …

Expanding The Freshwater Aquatic Invertebrate Identification Guide Cd, Sarah Brown, C. Riley Nelson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Freshwater Aquatic invertebrate Identification Guide (FAIIG) was a computer program created by the C. Riley Nelson lab in 2006 to help students with the identification process of various aquatic invertebrates throughout Utah. It has been used in Bio 100 classes at Brigham Young University to help students successfully identify various aquatic invertebrate specimens from rivers and streams in Utah. The goal of this project was to work on expanding the FAIIG program to include aquatic invertebrates in North America west of the Mississippi River. As well as expanding the breadth of content, we also worked on improving the information …

Assembling Benchmark Datasets For Machine Learning Classification, Parker Hollingsworth, Stephen Piccolo

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Machine learning classification is a type of artificial intelligence that learns from data and makes predictions. There are many different algorithms that can be used to develop predictive models for machine learning. Generally the algorithm looks for patterns in the data and uses those patterns to make predictions on an additional data set. This type of artificial intelligence is being used increasingly in the biomedical community to predict disease diagnosis and prognosis. Although machine learning has shown to provide promising results, it is far from perfect. The accuracy of the predictive model often depends on arbitrary decisions made by researchers. …

Association Of Rs75932628 (R47h) With Vascular Dementia In The Cache County Study, Emily Sears, Dr. John Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Vascular dementia (VaD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by atherosclerosis, or inadequate blood flow to the brain as a result of the build-up of fat deposits, dead cells, or other cell debris on the inside of arteries. It shortens the lifespan of those affected, and severely impairs their quality of life. VaD is the second most common form of dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for 20-30% of dementia cases. Thus far the risk factors that have been determined are non-specific to the brain: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar (Roman et. al 2003). There has not been …

Presenilin E318g Variant And Alzheimer’S Disease Risk: The Cache Country Study, Ariel Hippen, John Kauwe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly and the third most common cause of death in the United States. A vast number of genes regulate Alzheimer’s disease, including Presenilin 1 (PSEN1). It is possible that novel variants in the PSEN1 gene have an effect on Alzheimer’s disease status. A recent study suggested that one of these variants, PSEN1 E318G, significantly affects Alzheimer’s disease status in a large case-control dataset, particularly in connection with the APOEε4 allele [1].