Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Split Catalytic Probes For The Detection Of Monkeypox Virus, Jaehyun Ahn

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the important role that diagnostic tests play in the healthcare system. To reduce the impact of infectious disease outbreaks, the development of rapid and cost-effective point-of-care-tests (POCTs) is crucial. With the dissemination of the Monkeypox (Mpox) virus, it became a necessity to produce POCTS that are inexpensive and easy to use. This work explored the construction of two colorimetric assays that aim to detect Mpox genetic signatures. One is based on the split-peroxidase-like deoxyribozyme probes (sPDz), while the other utilizes a cascade system of split RNA-cleaving deoxyribozyme (sDz) and peroxidase-like deoxyribozyme (PDz). Both rely on catalytic …

Using Wastewater-Based Epidemiology To Study Chlamydia Occurrence On A College Campus, Jessie E. Chin Quee

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, commonly affecting sexually active college-aged adults. Presently, opportunistic testing, self-testing, and information campaigns are methods to screen vulnerable populations and raise awareness about chlamydia. Chlamydia remains underdiagnosed and undertested due to a lack of participation by individuals who may have been exposed to it. Wastewater-based epidemiology is a rising biomonitoring tool that detects the presence of disease- and drug-specific biomarkers in a community's wastewater. In this study, wastewater-based epidemiology was used to detect the presence of C. trachomatis on the University of Central Florida campus. Wastewater samples were collected …

Modeling And Analysis Of Covid-19 And Dynamical Systems In Biology And Physics, Vladimir Grbic

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this paper, we study various examples of dynamical systems found in nature and extract the necessary concepts to build upon. Then, we develop and propose a new deterministic model for COVID-19 propagation. Our model should serve two purposes. First, we will approximate the infected and deceased individuals after a given time during the pandemic. Then, using a linearized subsystem describing infectious compartments about the disease- free equilibrium (DFE), we will determine the basic reproductive number (R0) by the next-generation matrix method.

Detection Of A Peptide Hormone - Somatostatin - Label-Free Split-Aptameric Probes, Charles A. Dowis

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Peptide hormones are important biomolecules that transduce downstream effects such as cell proliferation, regulation, and gene expression. Their levels have been upregulated in various disorders such as cancer, yet detection methods are lacking. We designed two split aptamer-based assays for the detection of a peptide hormone – Somatostatin (SST) – with different signal readouts: fluorescent readout based on light-up aptamers and the colorimetric readout of ABTS peroxidation from a G-quadruplex. We used an already selected split-aptamer –SSTA5–for SST for our designs and we had expected the developed detection systems to exhibit detection and quantification capabilities that would hopefully allow their …

Characterization Of The Physical And Chemical Effect Of Membrane Disruption And Protein Inhibiting Treatments On E. Coli, Khadijah Wright

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The increase in antibacterial resistance has placed the issue of microbial multi-drug resistance on a global stage (Gurunathan, 2019). This issue poses a threat to human and animal health as well as to the environment (Aslam et al., 2018). It affects not only the efficacy of treatment but also how those treatments are conducted (Friedman, Temkin, & Carmeli, 2016). As a result of this ongoing threat, new treatments that have potent effects on bacteria are necessary. One scientific response to this issue has been the development of multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs)(H. Wang et al., 2018). NPs have the ability to be …

Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis: Tuberculosis, Tnfα Inhibitors, And Crohn's Disease, Brent L. Cao

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Inflammation is often a protective reaction against harmful foreign agents. However, in many disease conditions, the mechanisms behind the inflammatory response are poorly understood. Often times, the inflammation causes adverse effects, such as joint pain, abdominal pain, fever, fatigue, and loss of appetite. Thus, many treatments aim to inhibit the inflammatory response in order to control adverse symptoms. Such treatments include TNFα inhibitors. However, a major risk associated with drugs inhibiting tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is serious infection, including tuberculosis (TB).

Anti-TNFα therapy is used to treat patients with Crohn’s disease, for which the risk of tuberculosis may be …

The Effect Of Mismatch Primers On The Efficiency Of Amplification In Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reactions, Molly C. Dawkins

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method used in many research protocols to amplify a small amount of a short segment of DNA to millions of copies. PCR is used for many taxonomic studies, as well as for some medical diagnostic procedures. Through PCR, short DNA primers bind to the template DNA to allow the thermostable DNA polymerase to copy the DNA. Often, researchers create universal primers to target a conserved region of DNA in multiple species, for example, the 16S rRNA gene in bacteria. The problem with these universal primers is that they do not always perfectly match the …

Development Of A Compact Broadband Optical Parametric Oscillator For Ultra-Sensitive Molecular Detection, Sean O. Crystal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Every gas molecule has a unique absorption spectrum that can be captured using optical spectroscopy to identify an unknown sample's composition. Frequency combs systems can provide an extremely broad mid-infrared spectrum that is very useful for molecular detection. A degenerate optical parametric oscillator (OPO) was built to generate the down-converted and shifted frequency comb spectrum. This system utilizes an ultra-short pulse 1.56µm pump laser and a never before used orientation patterned gallium-phosphide crystal. Periodically polled lithium niobate (PPLN), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Gallium Phosphide are all crystals used to accomplish this task. GaP, in comparison to PPLN, has (i) a …

Micro-Spectroscopy Of Bio-Assemblies At The Single Cell Level, Jeslin Kera

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In this thesis, we investigate biological molecules on a micron scale in the ultraviolet spectral region through the non-destructive confocal absorption microscopy. The setup involves a combination of confocal microscope with a UV light excitation beam to measure the optical absorption spectra with spatial resolution of 1.4 μm in the lateral and 3.6 μm in the axial direction. Confocal absorption microscopy has the benefits of requiring no labels and only low light intensity for excitation while providing a strong signal from the contrast generated by the attenuation of propagating light due to absorption. This enables spatially resolved measurements of single …