Cell Biology Commons^™

Hgs-3 The Influence Of A Tandem Cycling Program In The Community On Physical And Functional Health, Therapeutic Bonds, And Quality Of Life For Individuals And Care Partners Coping With Parkinson’S Disease, Leila Djerdjour, Jennifer L. Trilk

SC Upstate Research Symposium

Purpose Statement: Several studies have shown that aerobic exercise can have a positive impact on alleviating symptoms experienced by individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite this evidence, the potential benefits of exercise for both PD patients and their care partners (PD dyad) remain unexplored. This research project investigates the effectiveness, therapeutic collaborations, and physical outcomes of a virtual reality (VR) tandem cycling program specifically designed for PD dyads.

Methods: Following approval from the Prisma Health Institutional Review Board, individuals with PD were identified and screened by clinical neurologists. The pre-testing measures for PD dyads (N=9) included emotional and cognitive status …

Investigating Optimal Laboratory Growth Conditions Of Gracilibacillus Halotolerans In Media Supplemented With Salt, Isaac Young

Annual Research Symposium

As interest continues to grow in the field of persister cells and their morphology, there arises an ever-evolving desire to further understand specific strains of bacteria that exemplify the qualities of seemingly anomalous survival regardless of anti-bacterial treatment. In the case of the Gracilibacillus halotolerans, a halotolerant extremophile extracted from the Great Salt Lake with known persistent characteristics, uncovering its optimal growth conditions was essential for future investigations. Identifying the optimal salinity for the growth of G. halotolerans will allow us to standardize our growth methods, uncover several mechanisms of saline tolerance, and add to future investigations of persistence with …

Effects Of Growth Rate On Peptidoglycan Crosslink Density Of E. Coli Using Fluorescent Labeling, Morgan Olszewski

Harrisburg University Research Symposium: Highlighting Research, Innovation, & Creativity

Peptidoglycan (PG) is a polymer composed of polysaccharides and crosslinked peptide chains found in bacterial cell walls. It helps to protect the cell from environmental stress and maintain cell morphology throughout its life cycle and further generations. The PG is made up of two sugars, N-acetyl muramic acid (NAM) and N-acetyl glucosamine (NAG). NAM and NAG are connected by glycosidic linkages to form repeated chains. The chains are formed in layers, which are interconnected via a polypeptide stem linked by a peptide bridge. During cell growth, continuous turnover of existing PG occurs by severing existing crosslinks, inserting new PG into …

International Conference On Cancer Health Disparities, Juhi Rais, Asif Jafri, Neelam Shivnath, Habiba Khan, Md Arshad

Research Symposium

Background: Biochanin A, an isoflavone that is mainly present in red clover, has potent chemopreventive properties against many cancers. Ovarian carcinoma is fifth most common and deadliest gynaecological malignancy that causes the highest mortality in females worldwide. Hence a substantial need for new therapies for combating this gynaecological malignancy arises.

Methods: The present study aimed to investigate anti-cancerous potentials of biochanin A on cultured human ovarian carcinoma PA-1 cells through the cell viability assay, cellular apoptosis, disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), involvement of ROS, cell cycle kinetics, and expression of apoptosis-related genes namely, p53, Bax, Bcl-2, Noxa and Puma. …

Identification Of Tectorigenin As A Natural Pro-Hypoxia Compound: Implications In Modulation Of Cellular Differentiation And Senescence, Mallika Khurana, Renu Wadhwa, Sunil Kaul

Research Symposium

Background: Hypoxia, a suboptimal level of oxygen, evokes stress response in cells and activated hypoxia signaling has been largely established as a pro-metastasis and pro-angiogenic factor for tumor cells. On the other hand, age-related neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by hypoxic environment, accumulation of molecular garbage and induction of premature senescence. Several recent studies have reported anti-stress impact of the intermittent induction of hypoxia signaling in these cells.

Methods: Screening of a phytochemical library using Hypoxia Responsive Element (HRE) driven luciferase as a reporter was carried out to identify hypoxia-modulating phytochemicals. Activation of HIF-1a (master regulator of hypoxia signaling) was validated …

Ethical Issues And Standards Of Responsible Research Conduct And Monitoring In An Adventist Institution Of Higher Learning - The Babcock Experience, Kayode O. Ogunwenmo, Godswill N. Anyasor, Grace O. Tayo

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Ethical issues and standards of responsible research conduct involving human participants are important considerations in any institution of higher learning and in particular Adventist institutions. Research conduct and ethics are reviewed and approved before they begin by the Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee (BUHREC)

Effects Of B4galnt1 Expression On Metastatic Phenotype And Response To Treatment In Osteosarcoma Cell Lines, Fatemeh Zareihajiabadi

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Paclitaxel On Cellular Migration And The Cytoskeleton, Ashley Salguero-Gonzalez

Thinking Matters Symposium

In a clinical setting, some patients are exposed to an anti-cancer chemotherapy agent, paclitaxel. Cancerous cells undergo rapid, continuous cell division without control. Chemotherapy treatments try to slow and stop the uncontrollable cell division cycles and eliminate cancerous cells in the process. Paclitaxel serves as a treatment for some types of cancers, including lung, melanoma, bladder, and esophageal. Because it targets the cytoskeleton, paclitaxel can also influence cell migration. This project utilizes a cellular migration assay and an immunohistochemistry assay to analyze the effects of paclitaxel on the movement of cells and on the cytoskeleton of neuroglia rat cells with …

Breaks In Longitudinal Elastic Fibers Of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries, Elham Zamani

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Breaks in Longitudinal Elastic Fibers of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries

Elham Zamani1, Majid Jadidi1

1 Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE

Introduction: Elastin is a major protein in the body with half-life >50 years. It is thought that elastic fibers are formed before the postnatal period. In the femoropopliteal artery (FPA), the main artery in the leg, longitudinal elastic fibers are present in External Elastic Lamina (EEL). Our team has studied more than 1000 cadaveric human FPA and has noticed that there are big breaks in their longitudinal elastic fibers in some subjects. Our goal in this work …

Regenerative Medicine Therapy: Adipose Derived Extracellular Vesicles In Viral Myocarditis, David Gorelov, Damian N. Di Florio, Gary R. Salomon, Angita Jain, Nick E. Saikaili, Danielle J. Beetler, Swikriti Shrestha, Ming Tian, Joy Wolfram Phd, Delisa Fairweather Phd, Katelyn Bruno Phd, Judith D. Ochrietor Phd

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Objective: Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, is an autoimmune heart disease that can be caused by viruses, bacteria and toxins. Myocarditis can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and heart failure. Currently there are no disease-specific therapies for treating myocarditis or preventing progression to DCM. Adipose Extracellular Vesicles (AEVs) are lipid bilayer nanoparticles that are released into the outside environment of adipocytes and provide promising regenerative potential for inflammatory diseases like myocarditis.

Methods: Lipoaspirate was obtained from women and men and AEVs isolated from the lipoaspirate using tangential flow filtration. We injected wild type male BALB/c mice with 250uL AEVs …

Targeting Pro-Inflammatory Function Of Microglia Using Small Molecules To Combat Neurodegeneration, Gabrielle C. Williams, Priya Prakash, Gaurav Chopra

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells that are responsible for maintaining homeostasis in healthy conditions. During injury or infection, resting microglia get activated and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1b, IL-1a, IL-6, etc. along with reactive oxygen species like nitric oxide (NO) to combat neuroinflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Inflammation is characterized by the activation of resident-immune cells in the brain called microglia that respond to the eat-me signals released by the toxic amyloid beta peptides as well as the dying neurons in the microenvironment. Recent studies have shown that activated microglia induce neuronal death by secreting …

Semaphorin3a Increases Focal Adhesion Formation To Shift The Relationship Between Cell Migration And Substratum Concentration Through A Rock-Dependent Mechanism, Frances V. Compere, Scott Gehler

Celebration of Learning

Cell migration is essential for many life processes, including wound healing, embryonic development and cancer metastasis. Cells move across a surface by interacting and forming adhesions with the molecules in their environment, specifically the extracellular matrix. Past studies have shown that there is an optimal level of cell-substratum adhesive strength that allows for the most cell migration and spreading (DiMilla et al., 1993; Gaudet et al., 2003). The mechanism by which this works is not well understood, however. Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) has been shown to increase the expression of integrin receptors, which help mediate the formation of the adhesions between …

Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The field of regenerative medicine seeks to create replacement tissues and organs, both to repair deficiencies in biological function and to treat structural damage caused by injury. Scaffoldings mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM), the structure to which cells attach to form tissues, have been developed from synthetic polymers and also been prepared by decellularizing adult tissue. However, the structure of ECM undergoes significant remodeling during natural tissue repair, suggesting that ECM-replacement constructs that mirror developing tissues may promote better regeneration than those modeled on adult tissues. This work investigated the effectiveness of a method of viewing the extracellular matrix of developing …

Electrophoresis Staining: A New Method Of Whole Mount Staining, Mitchell G. Ayers, Sarah Calve, Zhiyu Li

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Advances in tissue clearing techniques have allowed almost a ten-fold increase in the viewing depth of confocal microscopy. This allows for intact cellular structures to be rendered in 3D. However, viewing tissues to this depth is often limited to endogenous fluorescence as passive diffusion of antibodies via whole mount staining can take weeks. Our lab is developing a new method involving electrophoresis as a driving force that will promote active antibody binding deep into tissue, reducing the amount of time needed to stain for cellular structures. Due to the inherent charge within antibodies, they are able to be directionally forced …

Phenotypic Variation In The Model Organism, Danio Rerio, Rachel D. Champaigne, Kim H. Brown

Student Research Symposium

Model organisms are used to study evolutionary conserved traits. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are used a model organism because of their highly fecundity, external fertilization, and robust nature, making them highly adaptable to environmental and genetic variation. In an effort to limit data variation that lies outside of topic interest, phenotypic measures of variation must be performed, understood, and taken into consideration for future studies. A common measurement of phenotypic variation in fish is in the maximum (Ucrit) swimming speeds. Inter and intra-strain variation in zebrafish Ucrit swimming speeds will be observed in a swim tunnel. Baseline values will …

Two Modifications, One Protein: The Multiple Roles The Histone Acetyltransferase, Pcaf, Plays In Post Translational Modifications., Ronald Shanderson

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Investigating Mitochondrial Protein Trafficking In Crithidia Fasciculata, Jeremiah Arnold

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Phosphorylation Regulates Myosin Driven Organelle Movements, Peter Andrew Duden

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

Cytoplasmic streaming in plant cells is the continuous flow of cytoplasm and organelles throughout the cell, with the first observation of cytoplasmic streaming being publicized in 1774. However, the mechanism of cytoplasmic streaming remained unclear until components of the cytoskeleton were researched. Research now supports that the motive force generating cytoplasmic streaming is the interaction of myosin XI motor proteins with organelles while sliding along actin filaments. From this, a key topic of interest is how myosin driven organelle movement is regulated. Our research focuses on whether phosphorylation affects the regulation of myosin XI motor proteins. Specifically, the goal of …