Pathogenic Microbiology Commons^™

The Investigation Of Surface Structures On Various Pathogens And Their Interactions With The Human Immune System, Carmen M. Villalobos

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

The cell surface is the first interface the host immune system encounters and

its investigation has led to a better understanding of cellular biology and types of

pathways that pathogens target in a host cell. The cell surface has evolved to include

many functions such as manipulation of the cytoskeleton, cell signaling, membrane

trafficking, adhesion, and integration into host tissue. The pathogens of interest are

the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans, and the parasite, Giardia lamblia and we

investigate the consequences of drug treatments on the cell surface, leading to

promising new targets.

Iron-Containing Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Chrionic Biofilm Infections In Cystic Fibrosis, Leisha M. A. Martin

Nanoscience and Microsystems ETDs

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic disease resulting in the morbidity and mortality of Caucasian children and adults worldwide. Due to a genetic mutation resulting in malfunction of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein, CF patients produce highly viscous mucus in their respiratory tract. This leads to impairment of the mucociliary clearance of inhaled microbes. In addition to reduced microbial clearance, anoxic environmental conditions in the lungs promote biofilm-mode growth of the pathogenic bacterial species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chronic infections of P. aeruginosa begin in early childhood and typically persist until respiratory failure and death result. The …

Application Of Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms For Rapid Identification Of Mrsa Pfge Strain Types, Michael L. Bernauer

Biomedical Informatics

Introduction: Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is a molecular typing method used in epidemiologic surveillance of MRSA. PFGE relies on electrophoretic migration of restricted DNA fragments, resulting in characteristic fingerprints which can be used to classify organisms. Current methods of analysis, such as Gel Compar II and BioNumerics rely on unsupervised hierarchical clustering algorithms to group organisms based on pairwise similarity. These methods are labor intensive, often requiring a significant amount of user intervention and oversight. This study presents an automated approach to PFGE typing to reduce the amount of user involvement and time required for analysis.

Methods: A total of …