Microbiology Commons^™

The Changing Tumor Microenvironment Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Mackenzie Hansen, Kim O'Neill, Qin Zhou, Yoko Derose, Magdalena Kovacsovics, Benjamin Brintz, Benjamin L. Witt, Siwen Hu-Lieskovan

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death in the United States, and non-small cell (NSCLC) is the most common type. An increasingly prevalent treatment in the last few years for NSCLC has been immunotherapy. However, for immunotherapy to be the most effective, we need to have a better understanding of how the immune system interacts with cancer in all stages. Specifically, we need to know where the immune cells reside, how they interact with each other, and how these populations change as the disease progresses. To define the tumor microenvironment, we stained 27 whole tumor slides with …

Targeting Hsp90: A Novel Approach To Combat Synovial Sarcomas, Peyton Worley, Jared Barrott, Matt Kirkham, Drake Heithoff

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

Synovial sarcomas are rare muscle cancers that have very few targeted therapies. HSP90 is a protein upregulated in this form of cancer and many others. A screening of this cancer was done in vitro, using FDA-approved drugs, showing that HSP90 could be a promising treatment option. A novel HSP90 inhibitor was applied to human and mouse synovial sarcoma cell lines and was analyzed after receiving a drug treatment for HSP90.

Carbon-Infiltrated Carbon Nanotube Surfaces Affect Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Biofilm Development, Jenny Finlinson, Lucy C. Bowden, Bradford K. Berges

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2024

• ~30% of surgical implant failure is caused by infection1

• 10-23% of all implant-associated bone and joint infections are caused by gram-negative bacteria2

• Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a gram-negative bacterium, forms biofilms (bacterial communities encased in a matrix) that are extremely difficult to treat

Engineering And Characterization Of Antibodies Against Cancer Biomarker Thymidine Kinase 1, Joshua Bennett, Kiara V. Whitley, Christopher J. Haynie, Kim O'Neill

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2023

Engineered antibodies used in immunotherapies have been increasingly successful due to their ability to uniquely target cells expressing specific cancer antigens Thymidine Kinase 1 (TK 1 is a DNA salvage enzyme typically found in the cytosol However, in certain types of cancer, TK 1 is surface expressed, making it a unique cancer biomarker By identifying antibodies with a high binding affinity for TK 1 we can target cancer cells expressing TK 1 on their surface Using cell sorting and a yeast display library expressing 109 human single chain antibody fragments, we have isolated ten unique single chain antibodies scFvs that …

Overcoming Detrimental Potato Fungi In Potato Fields With The Secondary Metabolites Of Naturally Occurring Steptomyces, Hansan Jones, Jacob Anderson, Erik Kemp, Brad Geary, Matthew Madsen, Ryan Stewart

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

• Fungal disease Silver scurf can cause 13% water loss and give poor aesthetic appeal, both of which reduce farmers profits (1,2).
• Pythium leak can result in up to 50% total loss of potatoes in storage (3)
• Streptomyces is the right candidate to mitigate or eliminate these losses because of its ability to survive in soil (4) and its history as a proven biocontrol for other plant pathogens (5).

Potential Regulation Of Breast Cancer Invasion By Thymidine Kinase 1, Eliza E. Bitter, Rachel M. Morris, Toni O. Mortimer, Kai Barlow, Abigail Schekall, Michelle H. Townsend, Jonathan Skidmore, Brett E. Pickett, Kim L. O'Neill

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and is largely treatable within the early stages of the disease. However, patient mortality drastically declines as the tumor begins to invade other tissues and metastasize, making aggressive phenotypes especially problematic to treat. Such treatment typically requires an aggressive and decisive multidisciplinary approach. The recent expansion of immunotherapy as a viable treatment option has greatly improved treatment outcomes, especially with aggressive breast cancer phenotypes. Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is a DNA salvage pathway enzyme that is highly expressed during S phase and involved in cell cycle repair. Past studies indicated that …

The Role Of Cd5 In Cd4+ T Cell Metabolism, Joshua Bennett, Kiara Whitley, Claudia Freitas Phd, Christopher Haynie, Carlos Moreno, Scott Weber

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

T cells serve a key role in the immunological response in the adaptive system. Different receptors present on the T cell have certain roles and are able to either inhibit or stimulate signaling which consequently regulates the function and metabolism of the cell. CD5 is an inhibitory co receptor expressed on the surface of T cells known to regulate thymocyte selection and TCR signaling . Our goal is to better understand the effects of CD5 regulation in metabolism. Using metabolic flux assays, we found that CD5KO naïve T cells have increased glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration in comparison to wild type …

Genes Critical For Flagellar Motility In Agrobacterium Fabrum, Audrey Memmott, Joel Griffitts

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

The flagellum contains 24 structural proteins that are vital for bacterial motility and virulence (Liu). Additionally, these structural proteins must be assembled in the correct order and orientation for a bacterium to be motile via its flagellum (Armitage). Our current knowledge regarding the flagellum is limited, however, because the majority of it comes from studies focused on Escherichia coli. To increase existing knowledge regarding the flagellum and the genes vital for its functionality, we attempted to define all the genes vital for flagellar motility in A. fabrum by analyzing motility when specific genes are disrupted.

You Are What You Eat At Any Age: Carbon And Nitrogen Analysis Of Mummies From An Ancient Egyptian Necropolis, Stephen Funk, R. Paul Evans

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2019

The BYU Egypt Project at Fag el-Gamus necropolis and adjacent Seila Pyramid has studied over 700 mummies excavated over the past 30 years. The necropolis includes an open area with densely located vertical burial shafts and a hill with horizontal burial shafts. The chronological and dietary history of the mummies was assessed using stable isotopy and 14C analysis of accessible biological samples.

Discovery Of Geographical Gene Variants In Related Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Bacteriophages, Emilee Carr, Elise Melhado, Emily Loertscher, Trever Thurgood, Ruchira Sharma, Julianne H. Grose

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2019

Antibiotic resistant bacterial strains are a major crisis in the world due to the difficult nature of curing individuals afflicted with them. Phage therapy has been proposed as an alternate treatment for these bacterium. In Dr. Julianne Grose's lab, bacteriophages were against the bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To isolate, environmental samples were utilized in enrichment cultures that were ultimately used in serial dilutions, plaque purification, electron microscopy, DNA isolation, sequencing, and genome annotation. The P. aeruginosa phage, TF17, infects a bacterial strain that is highly related to a strain that causes fatalities as an opportunistic infection in patients with cystic fibrosis. …