Life Sciences Commons^™

Fall 2014

Scientia

CSH progress notes; Alumna entrepreneur finds success at the intersection of chemistry and law; Lions, lycopods and laboratories: CSH students thrive in summer internships; Fielding a team for a mission to Mars; Professor Craig Klugman on the medical humanities; Lab Notes

How Do Management Treatments Affect Invasive Cattail (Typha X Glauca) And Pore Water Nutrient Concentrations?, Yarency Rodriguez

DePaul Discoveries

Invasive species are problematic for wetland managers, but little is known about how common management treatments influence nutrient cycling or plant responses. This study tested three experimental treatments (mowing, herbiciding, and harvesting (i.e., removal of aboveground biomass)) on several response variables: wetland soil porewater nutrient content (NO₃^-, NH₄⁺, PO₄^-), native plant and invasive-Typha density, and light attenuation through the plant canopy. Seventeen days post-treatment, herbiciding resulted in higher porewater phosphate concentrations (55.63 µg-P/L) than harvesting (8.95 µg-P/L). After 24 days, herbicide had higher porewater phosphate concentration (72.03 µg-P/L) than all …

Investigating The Viability Of Two Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia Isolates After Air-Drying, Samantha Lane, Joanna Brooke

DePaul Discoveries

Abstract

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a water-borne infectious bacterium that is found in both clinical (hospitals) and non-clinical environments. This human pathogen is commonly recovered from respiratory tract infections. A recent study at a hospital in Taiwan suggested that dry patient charts can serve as a vehicle of transmission of this bacterium⁷. As S. maltophilia is not commonly isolated from dry surfaces, this current study tested the hypothesis that this pathogen can remain viable for some time on a dry surface. This study was designed to determine how long S. maltophilia could remain viable after air-drying by observing …

Modifying Antibody Dna For Site-Specific Binding, Madeline Gemoules

DePaul Discoveries

Humanized antibody plasmid DNA was modified to allow the distance between the Fc fragment and antigen binding sites of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to be studied. Specific variable heavy (VH) and variable light (VL) genes were inserted into heavy and light chain plasmids so that dye molecules can be easily attached to the expressed protein, and further inspection of antibody structure and function can be conducted via single molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). First, VH and VL genes were inserted into humanized antibody plasmids through the technique of ligation. The ligation product was then transformed into Escherichia coli cells, …

Single-Molecule Fluorescence Studies Of Glycosylated And Aglycosylated Antibodies, Irina Timoshevskaya

DePaul Discoveries

Antibodies are Y-shaped, flexible proteins whose structures can be studied using Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) at the single-molecule level. Dye molecules must be attached to these proteins so as to carry out FRET studies of antibodies. In order to label the binding sites of an antibody, dye molecules were attached to a small molecule, or hapten, which the antibody binds to. Evidence for this binding was provided by ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. To label the stem region of a humanized immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody, the DNA for this antibody was mutated to introduce a cysteine residue to which dyes can …

Soil And Leaf Lead Concentrations In The Lincoln Park Area, Agnes Kalat

DePaul Discoveries

Lead contamination in urban plants and soils has been a common occurrence as a result of human activities. The first objective of this experiment was to study the relationship between lead in soils and leaves: what is the source of lead in leaves found in urban trees? More specifically, does lead enter plants predominantly from the soil? It was hypothesized that if accumulation of lead occurred in the soil there would be a significant positive correlation between leaf and soil metal content. The second objective was to test if lead soil hotspots were associated with lead sources that have been …

Cortical Degeneration And Contusion Size Is Attenuated In Calpain-1 Knockout Mice Following A Controlled Cortical Impact (Cci), Stacey Seidl

DePaul Discoveries

Recent research has indicated that calcium-activated neutral proteases, calpains, are essential mediators of cell death in chronic and acute neurodegenerative disorders. Calpain activation has also been linked to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)-induced pathology. Specifically, two isoforms of calpain exist in the brain, calpain-2 and calpain-1, yet the specific roles of each enzyme following TBI are not well understood. Using calpain-1 knockout mice (KO), the current study examined the specific role of calpain-1 in neural degeneration following the controlled cortical impact (CCI) rodent model of TBI. Both Calpain-1 KO and wild type mice received a unilateral CCI over the forelimb sensorimotor …

Transplantation Of Adult Bone Marrow Stem Cells Enhances Behavioral Recovery Following A Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi), Daniel J. Clark

DePaul Discoveries

A potential treatment for millions of new cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be through the transplantation of genetically modified adult bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) in the form of neurospheres. This study examined behavioral recovery in the controlled cortical impact (CCI), a rodent model of TBI, after neurosphere transplantation. Rats received a unilateral CCI over the forelimb sensorimotor cortex. Seven days post-CCI, neurospheres or vehicle control were injected within the cortex or striatum. Forelimb deficits were assessed with two behavioral tests for two months. The test results indicated striatal neurosphere transplants significantly reduced deficits in both behavior tests …

Depression In Youth With Asthma: Asthma Severity, Exposure To Violence And Poverty, Draycen D. Decator

DePaul Discoveries

Youth with asthma have increasingly been the subjects of studies examining the effects of their chronic illness. The results of these studies have been mixed. A possible explanation for these inconsistent findings is that there are additional factors influencing these youth such as poverty and disease severity, and previous studies have not accounted for these differences. The current study was designed to help determine if there was a possible confounding variable (i.e., poverty) which strongly predicts depressive symptoms, and if asthma severity and exposure to violence moderate this relationship. Additionally, the current study looked for main effects between poverty, depressive …

Spring 2014

Scientia

Q&A with Dean Koocher; Proud graduate discovers love of learning at DePaul; Intrepid biologist inspires lifelong lessons; Student organization spotlight: Psi Chi; Smart phones and synthetic bone capture Associate Professor Gabriela Gonzalez Aviles' interest; All for DePaul; Lab notes