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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Comparative Genomics Methods And Applications, Emily N. Alden
Comparative Genomics Methods And Applications, Emily N. Alden
Biomedical Sciences ETDs
Virtually all fields of biology have benefited from the advancements in comparative genomics technologies, specifically in the study of evolution. In this dissertation I develop and use comparative genomic technologies to investigate the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, assembly the first genome of the black lace domestic angelfish and identify germline genetic variants associated with altered breast cancer-specific survival. Our genome tiling array for the novel coronavirus presents a rapid and cost-effective method to sequence the entire viral genome and can be used to track the rapid evolution of viral variants in the population. The domestic angelfish is a member of the …
Comprehensive Sequencing With Surface Tagmentation Based Technology, Kuan Feng
Comprehensive Sequencing With Surface Tagmentation Based Technology, Kuan Feng
Biomedical Sciences ETDs
Next-generation sequencing technologies (NGS) have undergone extensive improvements since the invention of the 454 sequencing system in 2005. With tremendous progress in throughput, speed and a dramatic reduction in per-base cost, DNA sequencing is widely used in basic science as well as translational research. However, it is still a challenge to acquire a complete human genome. The long-range information is often missing due to the short length of NGS reads, which leaves many gaps in between scaffolds rather than an entire piece for each chromosome. Moreover, without the long-range information, haplotype-resolved genome sequencing and structural variant detection can be difficult, …
Developing Droplet Based 3d Cell Culture Methods To Enable Investigations Of The Chemical Tumor Microenvironment, Jacqueline A. De Lora
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 …
Validation Of The Pre-B Cell Receptor As A Therapeutic Target In B Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Michael F. Erasmus
Validation Of The Pre-B Cell Receptor As A Therapeutic Target In B Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Michael F. Erasmus
Biomedical Sciences ETDs
This dissertation is built upon the fundamental idea that the pre-B cell receptor (pre-BCR) is important to leukemia cell survival and a logical therapeutic target in B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). The pre-BCR is expressed early at a specific stage during B cell development where it plays a central role in survival of healthy B lymphocytes. This receptor is composed of the membrane heavy chain (mIgμ) associated with surrogate light chain components, 5 and VpreB. Through the use of advanced imaging modalities, in particular two-color single particle tracking (SPT), we showed that pre-BCRs formed transient, homotypic interactions. These …