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Full-Text Articles in Biotechnology

Novel Approaches Towards Improved Purity In High Yield Transcription Reactions, Elvan Cavac Jun 2021

Novel Approaches Towards Improved Purity In High Yield Transcription Reactions, Elvan Cavac

Doctoral Dissertations

High yields of RNA (e.g., mRNA, gRNA, lncRNA) are routinely prepared following a two-step approach: high yield in vitro transcription using T7 RNA polymerase, followed by extensive purification using gel or chromatic methods. In high yield transcription reactions, as RNA accumulates in solution, T7 RNA polymerase rebinds and extends the encoded RNA (using the RNA as a template), resulting in a product pool contaminated with longer than desired, (partially) double stranded impurities. Current purification methods often fail to fully eliminate these impurities which, if present in therapeutics, can stimulate the innate immune response with potentially fatal consequences. This study establishes …


Direct Quantification Of Deubiquitinating Enzyme Activity In Single Intact Cells, Nora Safabakhsh Aug 2018

Direct Quantification Of Deubiquitinating Enzyme Activity In Single Intact Cells, Nora Safabakhsh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Challenges in drug efficacy occur during the treatment of most types of cancer due to the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment. This has led to the development of personalized medicine. Due to the clinical success of the proteasome inhibitors Bortezomib and Carfilzomib in treatment of multiple myeloma, interest has shifted towards molecularly-targeted chemotherapeutics for ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are an essential part of this pathway which have been found to promote Bortezomib resistance in multiple myeloma patients. Unfortunately, there is a lack of specific, high throughput biochemical assays to characterize DUB activity in patient samples before and after …


Developing Droplet Based 3d Cell Culture Methods To Enable Investigations Of The Chemical Tumor Microenvironment, Jacqueline A. De Lora Jul 2018

Developing Droplet Based 3d Cell Culture Methods To Enable Investigations Of The Chemical Tumor Microenvironment, Jacqueline A. De Lora

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Adaptation of cancer cells to changes in the biochemical microenvironment in an expanding tumor mass is a crucial aspect of malignant progression, tumor metabolism, and drug efficacy. In vitro, it is challenging to mimic the evolution of biochemical gradients and the cellular heterogeneity that characterizes cancer tissues found in vivo. It is well accepted that more realistic and controllable in vitro 3D model systems are required to improve the overall cancer research paradigm and thus improve on the translation of results, but multidisciplinary approaches are needed for these advances. This work develops such approaches and demonstrates that new droplet-based cell-encapsulation …


Experimental Demonstration Of Bindingless Signal Delivery In Human Cells Via Microfluidics, Fang-Tzu Chuang Jul 2014

Experimental Demonstration Of Bindingless Signal Delivery In Human Cells Via Microfluidics, Fang-Tzu Chuang

Fang-Tzu Chuang

The cellular signal transduction is commonly believed to rely on the direct “contact” or “binding” of the participating molecule reaction that depends positively on the corresponding molecule concentrations. In living systems, however, it is somewhat difficult to precisely match the corresponding rapid “binding,” depending on the probability of molecular collision, existing in the cellular receptor-ligand interactions. Thus, a question arises that if there is another mechanism (i.e., bindingless) that could promote this signal communication. According to this hypothesis, we report a cellular model based on the examination of intracellular calcium concentration to explore whether the unidentified signal delivery in cells …