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Articles 1 - 30 of 56
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Mass Spectrometry Image Creator (Msic): Ion Mobility / Mass Spectrometry Imaging Workflow In Python, Stephen Creger, Julia Laskin, Daniela Mesa Sanchez
Mass Spectrometry Image Creator (Msic): Ion Mobility / Mass Spectrometry Imaging Workflow In Python, Stephen Creger, Julia Laskin, Daniela Mesa Sanchez
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful characterization technique that enables identification of compounds in complex mixtures. Acquiring mass spectra in a spatially-resolved manner (i.e. over a grid), allows the data to be used to generate images that show the spatial distribution and relative intensities of every compound in a sample. These images can be used to monitor and identify biomarkers, explore the metabolism of compounds within tissues, and much more. However, the limitations of mass spectrometry can result in ambiguous compound identifications. Another characterization tool, ion mobility spectrometry (IM) can be integrated into existing MS routines to address this problem; …
Cost-Effective Paper-Based Diagnostic Using Split Proteins To Detect Yeast Infections, Zachary R. Berglund, Kevin V. Solomon, Mohit S. Verma, Moiz Rasheed, Zachary Hartley, Kevin Fitzgerald, Kok Zhi Lee, Janice Chan, Julianne Dejoie, Makayla Schacht, Alex Zavala
Cost-Effective Paper-Based Diagnostic Using Split Proteins To Detect Yeast Infections, Zachary R. Berglund, Kevin V. Solomon, Mohit S. Verma, Moiz Rasheed, Zachary Hartley, Kevin Fitzgerald, Kok Zhi Lee, Janice Chan, Julianne Dejoie, Makayla Schacht, Alex Zavala
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
The common yeast infection, vulvovaginal candidiasis, affects three out of four women throughout their lifetime and can be spread to their child in the form of oral candidiasis (thrush). This disease is caused by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, which is also a major cause of systemic candidiasis, a rarer but deadly disease with up to a 49% lethality rate. Current widely-used diagnostic methods include cell cultures, pH tests, and antibody detection, to assist effective treatment. Despite availability of various diagnostic methods, there is no inexpensive, rapid, and accurate way to detect C. albicans infection. This project aims to …
Polyrotaxane Variants And Their Effects On The Cholesterol Efflux In Patients Suffering From Niemann Pick Type C, Sydney Smith, Zach Struzik, David Thompson
Polyrotaxane Variants And Their Effects On The Cholesterol Efflux In Patients Suffering From Niemann Pick Type C, Sydney Smith, Zach Struzik, David Thompson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Niemann Pick type C disease (NPC) is a rare lysosomal storage disorder characterized by a progressive accumulation of cholesterol in the late endosomal/lysosomes compartment leading to cellular dysfunction and organ failure. Symptoms include ataxia, dysarthria, cognitive dysfunction, and seizures. Although average life expectancy is below 20, there are no FDA approved treatment available making it a serious unmet medical need. Clinical trials with 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) has shown promise in cholesterol normalization within NPC cells. However, HP-beta-CD treatment has been shown to cause ototoxicity in NPC patients at high dosages. Supramolecular complexes known as polyrotaxanes have been synthesized in hopes of …
Targeting Pro-Inflammatory Function Of Microglia Using Small Molecules To Combat Neurodegeneration, Gabrielle C. Williams, Priya Prakash, Gaurav Chopra
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 …
Tissue Clearing As A Mechanism To Identify Changes In Fibronectin Structure During Breast Cancer Metastasis, Maryam Nuru, Kelsey Hopkins, Luis Solorio
Tissue Clearing As A Mechanism To Identify Changes In Fibronectin Structure During Breast Cancer Metastasis, Maryam Nuru, Kelsey Hopkins, Luis Solorio
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
With metastasis accounting for approximately 90% of breast cancer deaths and an alarming number of over 300,000 new breast cancer cases to be diagnosed by the end of 2018, there is growing need to understand the process of breast cancer. Changes in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the tumor microenvironment play an essential role in this deadly tumor progression. Specifically, the glycoprotein fibronectin (FN), has been identified to be up-regulated in patients with worse clinical outcomes. During tumor progression fibronectin undergoes conformational changes that aid in metastatic dissemination. In order to analyze the dynamic changes in FN expression and evaluate …
Targeting Neuropeptides To Bone Fractures For Accelerated Healing, Nicholas A. Young, Jeffery J. Nielsen, Philip S. Low
Targeting Neuropeptides To Bone Fractures For Accelerated Healing, Nicholas A. Young, Jeffery J. Nielsen, Philip S. Low
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
In patients over the age of 65 especially, bone fractures represent a significant disease burden. Non-invasive drug therapies are not available for bone fractures which represents a problem for this population. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide (PACAP), two neuromodulator peptides in the glucagon superfamily, have demonstrated positive regulation of osteoblast proliferation and activity. Using acidic oligopeptides, we have developed ligands that target to and accumulate at fracture sites. These targeting ligands can be synthesized in sequence with bone anabolic peptides to minimize off target effects and increase potency at the fracture site to create safer and …
Temporal Resolution Of Cell Death Signaling Events Induced By Cold Atmospheric Plasma And Electroporation In Human Cancer Cells, Danielle M. Krug, Prasoon K. Diwakar, Ahmed Hassanein
Temporal Resolution Of Cell Death Signaling Events Induced By Cold Atmospheric Plasma And Electroporation In Human Cancer Cells, Danielle M. Krug, Prasoon K. Diwakar, Ahmed Hassanein
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Cancer treatment resistance and their invasive and expensive nature is propelling research towards developing alternate approaches to eradicate cancer in patients. Non-thermal, i.e., cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) and electroporation (EP) applied to the surface of cancerous tissue are new methods that are minimally invasive, safe, and selective. These approaches, both independently and synergistically, have been shown to deplete cancer cell populations, but the signaling mechanisms of death and their timelines of action are still widely unknown. To better understand the timeframe of signaling events occurring upon treatment, human cancer cell lines were treated with CAP, EP, and combined CAP with …
Finding Human Proteins That Bind To A Lassa Virus Protein, Maria Alejandra Pardo Ruge, Veronica J. Heintz, Douglas J. Lacount
Finding Human Proteins That Bind To A Lassa Virus Protein, Maria Alejandra Pardo Ruge, Veronica J. Heintz, Douglas J. Lacount
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Viral hemorrhagic fevers are severe illnesses caused by many different viruses. Lassa Virus is one of these important pathogens in Western Africa, causing hemorrhagic fever and eventually death without early medical treatment. There is no vaccine and there is little information on host-pathogen interactions. Therefore, the interaction between viral proteins and host targets is useful to understand Lassa virus’s lifecycle and pathology, and to develop ways to prevent infection. In this project, we study the nucleoprotein of Lassa virus (NP), which has been reported to have anti-interferon (IFN) activity through elimination of double stranded RNA (dsRNA). These features could be …
Determining The Structure Of Phospholipase C Epsilon, Hannah O'Neill, Monita Sieng, Elisabeth Garland-Kuntz, Angeline Lyon
Determining The Structure Of Phospholipase C Epsilon, Hannah O'Neill, Monita Sieng, Elisabeth Garland-Kuntz, Angeline Lyon
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
The phospholipase C (PLC) epsilon subfamily of PLC enzymes are found at highest concentration within the cardiovascular system. Improper functioning of the enzyme, whether due to overstimulation or changes in expression, has far-reaching effects within the human body Stunted heart valve development and cardiac hypertrophy and are two such examples. The mechanisms by which PLC epsilon activity is regulated in these processes remain unknown, as does the physical structure of the enzyme. In this study, we seek to determine the structure of a PLC epsilon fragment that retains enzymatic activity and is amenable to crystallization. Mutagenesis of PLC epsilon cDNA …
Fret Biosensors: Engineering Fluorescent Proteins As Biological Tools For Studying Parkinson’S Disease, Nathan J. Leroy, Jacob R. Norley, Saranya Radhakrishnan, Mathew Tantama
Fret Biosensors: Engineering Fluorescent Proteins As Biological Tools For Studying Parkinson’S Disease, Nathan J. Leroy, Jacob R. Norley, Saranya Radhakrishnan, Mathew Tantama
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with over 200,000 new cases each year. In general, the cause of the disease is unknown, but oxidative stress inside of neurons has been associated with the disease’s pathology for some time. Currently, techniques to study the onset of PD inside of neurons are limited. This makes treatments and causes difficult to discover. One solution to this has been fluorescent protein biosensors. In short, these proteins can be engineered to glow when a certain state is achieved inside a cell. The present research discusses the engineering of a genetically-encoded fluorescent protein (FP) …
Synthesis Of Hydroxybenzylidene-Indolinones, Schiff Bases And N-Substituted Analogs And Their Effects On Bacterial Physiology., Catherine Eliana Cabrera, Neetu Dayal, Moloud Aflaki, Herman Sintim
Synthesis Of Hydroxybenzylidene-Indolinones, Schiff Bases And N-Substituted Analogs And Their Effects On Bacterial Physiology., Catherine Eliana Cabrera, Neetu Dayal, Moloud Aflaki, Herman Sintim
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
c-di-AMP is a global stress response regulator involved in some processes of biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance. It has become a candidate target for the development of new antibacterial treatments. Previous studies have shown that hydroxybenzylidene-indolinones can act as c-di-AMP synthase inhibitors. They also act as antibacterial and anti-biofilm inhibitors and re-sensitize resistant bacteria to methicillin and vancomycin. In this project, potent analogs of these compounds, including Schiff bases and N-substituted compounds, have been synthetized. The objective of this work is to explore the effect of these modifications on their biological activity. Base-catalyzed condensation and acid-catalyzed reactions were performed in …
Development Of Self-Assembling Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery Applications, Young Chan Kim, Craig Sweet, Helen Margaret Flynn, David H. Thompson
Development Of Self-Assembling Nanoparticles For Drug Delivery Applications, Young Chan Kim, Craig Sweet, Helen Margaret Flynn, David H. Thompson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world, and occurs in nearly four percent of all men. Although many cases are diagnosed as early stage cancer and the tumor can be removed by surgery, reoccurrence rates are high making treatment difficult and thus one of the most expensive cancers. To address this problem, drugs are injected intravesically after tumor removal to kill any residual cancer that may cause reoccurrence. While this was a significant improvement over surgery alone, high toxicity along with short residence times in the bladder limited its effectiveness. To combat these shortcomings, we will …
Effects Of Stroma On Er+ Breast Cancer Cell Metastasis, Shipeng Xu, Luis Solorio, Sarah Calve
Effects Of Stroma On Er+ Breast Cancer Cell Metastasis, Shipeng Xu, Luis Solorio, Sarah Calve
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Breast cancer is one of the most wide-spread diseases among women in America. If the cancer is local, it is easily controlled by surgical resection. However, if the cancer cells metastasize, patient survival is significantly reduced. 70% of breast cancers can be targeted through estrogen receptors (ER) on the membrane, with compounds such as tamoxifen. However, tamoxifen shows unreliable outcomes on different patients and it is believed that the ineffectiveness of tamoxifen is related to the epithetical-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of cancer cells. To address this problem, we are designing a system that stimulates metastasis activation with the aim of incorporating …
Three-Dimensional Microfluidic Tumor Vascular Model For Investigating Breast Cancer Metastasis, Anastasiia Vasiukhina, Brian H. Jun, Luis Solorio, Pavlos P. Vlachos
Three-Dimensional Microfluidic Tumor Vascular Model For Investigating Breast Cancer Metastasis, Anastasiia Vasiukhina, Brian H. Jun, Luis Solorio, Pavlos P. Vlachos
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Metastasis is one of the primary reasons for the high mortality rates in female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. It involves the migration of cancer cells into the circulatory system allowing for the dissemination of cancer cells in distal tissues. Understanding the major processes that occur in cells and tissues during metastasis can help improve currently existing therapeutic methods. In order to understand such mechanisms, developing physiologically relevant tissue models is crucial. Advancements in microfluidics have led to the fabrication of 3D culture models with shear stress gradients and flow control that can recapitulate aspects of the tumor microenvironment in …
Computational Drug Design: A Multitargeted Approach In Bladder Cancer, Travis C. Lantz, Joydeb Majumder, Gaurav Chopra
Computational Drug Design: A Multitargeted Approach In Bladder Cancer, Travis C. Lantz, Joydeb Majumder, Gaurav Chopra
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Cancer is a complex, robust disease with multiple redundant disease pathways which lead to tumor development, growth, and eventually even death. Despite known redundancies, cancer therapeutics continue to be developed against a single protein target. Initial disease regression occurs followed by relapse in a drug resistant disease state. In response, combinational drug clinical trial targeting multiple pathways began, and have failed due to increased toxicity caused by adverse drug interactions. Development of a single drug that differentially targets multiple disease pathways will result in a more potent therapeutic while inducing minimal toxicity. This was done computationally through in-lab software packages, …
Development Of Standard Criteria To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Helmets At Decreasing The Risk Of Concussions, Daniel Y. Shyu, Goutham N. Sankaran, Kevin G. Mciver, Nicolas Leiva, Eric A. Nauman
Development Of Standard Criteria To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of Helmets At Decreasing The Risk Of Concussions, Daniel Y. Shyu, Goutham N. Sankaran, Kevin G. Mciver, Nicolas Leiva, Eric A. Nauman
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
In many sports, such as American football, accumulations of mild traumatic brain injuries have been suggested as a possible link to neurodegeneration and future mental disorders. With head impacts occurring at all levels of competition and in different sports, it is critical to develop an accurate method for quantifying the effects of head impacts and determining the efficacy of helmets. This study examines the derivation of different dimensionless numbers and ascertains the critical factors needed to predict the effects of head impacts, specifically the resulting accelerations from an impact. Given a known force of impact, parameters such as peak translation …
Cartilage Engineering: Optimization Of Media For Chondrogenic Differentiation In Vitro, Evan Surma, Sherry L. Harbin, Hongji Zhang, Stacy Halum
Cartilage Engineering: Optimization Of Media For Chondrogenic Differentiation In Vitro, Evan Surma, Sherry L. Harbin, Hongji Zhang, Stacy Halum
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Lower back pain from intervertebral disc injury affects around 84% of the population at some point in their life, which at its worst may cause total immobilization. This pain can only be temporarily relieved by spinal fusion or intervertebral disc replacement; however, both of these cause loss of natural motion in patients by removing damaged fibrocartilage discs. While these techniques help mitigate pain briefly, no permanent solution exists currently to both relieve pain and preserve natural motion. My work may be a solution by eventually providing patient-specific implants that resemble native tissue in the regeneration process that could be absorbed …
Ball Pressure Correlations With Peak Impact Force And The Potential For Cumulative Mtbi When Heading A Soccer Ball, Nicolas Leiva, Daniel Y. Shyu, Josh Auger, Eric Nauman
Ball Pressure Correlations With Peak Impact Force And The Potential For Cumulative Mtbi When Heading A Soccer Ball, Nicolas Leiva, Daniel Y. Shyu, Josh Auger, Eric Nauman
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Soccer is a unique sport in which athletes use their heads as tools for gameplay, which may ultimately cause cumulative traumatic brain injuries. Due to rising popularity of soccer in the United States alongside the increased occurrence of CTE and mTBI in other contact sports, there is a growing concern over how to keep the repetitive forces caused by heading, as low as possible. Different variables that can affect the peak force felt when heading a soccer ball can be simulated and compared with in-game data, however, this has never been properly tested before. In the present study two size …
Nanobubbles Provide Theranostic Relief To Cancer Hypoxia, Christopher M. Long, Pushpak N. Bhandari, Joseph Irudayaraj
Nanobubbles Provide Theranostic Relief To Cancer Hypoxia, Christopher M. Long, Pushpak N. Bhandari, Joseph Irudayaraj
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Hypoxia is a common motif among tumors, contributing to metastasis, angiogenesis, cellular epigenetic abnormality, and resistance to cancer therapy. Hypoxia also plays a pivotal role in oncological studies, where it can be used as a principal target for new anti-cancer therapeutic methods. Oxygen nanobubbles were designed in an effort to target the hypoxic tumor regions, thus interrupting the hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) regulatory pathway and inhibiting tumor progression. At less than 100nm, oxygen nanobubbles act as a vehicle for site-specific oxygen delivery, while also serving as an ultrasound contrast agent for advanced imaging purposes. Through in vitro and in vivo studies, …
The Role Of Osteocyte Estrogen Receptor Beta (Erβ) In Regulating The Skeletal Response To Mechanical Loading, Julia P. Townsend, Russell P. Main
The Role Of Osteocyte Estrogen Receptor Beta (Erβ) In Regulating The Skeletal Response To Mechanical Loading, Julia P. Townsend, Russell P. Main
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Estrogen’s biological functions are mediated by estrogen binding to estrogen receptors (ER). Understanding what role both ERα and ERβ have in bone maintenance and formation can contribute to possible treatment of osteoporosis. This study examined osteocyte specific deletion of ERβ in mice. The cross of ERβ-floxed mice with DMP1-8kb-Cre mice provided both experimental knockout mice as well as littermate control mice. At 24 weeks of age the left tibiae of all mice were mechanically loaded five days per week for two weeks to induce bone formation. Analysis of cortical bone was conducted using microcomputed tomography (microCT) to measure load-induced changes …
Leveraging Smart Infusion Pump Data For Workflow, Patient Care And Usability Improvement In Human Factors, Yan Ni Ding, Denny Yu, Poching Delaurentis, Kang-Yu Hsu, Joon Hong Kim
Leveraging Smart Infusion Pump Data For Workflow, Patient Care And Usability Improvement In Human Factors, Yan Ni Ding, Denny Yu, Poching Delaurentis, Kang-Yu Hsu, Joon Hong Kim
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Infusion pumps are medical devices that deliver fluids like medication, and nutrients in a precise, timely, and controlled manner that is critical to patient care. It is widely used in clinical settings especially in hospitals, nursing homes and sometimes at home. Smart infusion pumps technology are supposed to be reduce nurses’ workload, but due to the recurring number of alarms which disrupt the workflow of the infusion process, most nurses prefer to use the traditional infusion pumps or work-around the safety features of the smart pumps. Thus, the aim of this research is to leverage Smart Infusion Pump data to …
Analyzing Sports Training Data With Machine Learning Techniques, Rehana Mahfuz, Zeinab Mourad, Aly El Gamal
Analyzing Sports Training Data With Machine Learning Techniques, Rehana Mahfuz, Zeinab Mourad, Aly El Gamal
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
In the sports industry, there has not been enough effort in analyzing the personalized monitoring data of athletes collected during training sessions. This research is an attempt to find meaningful patterns in the Purdue Women’s Soccer training data that could help the coach design more efficient training sessions. We are specifically interested in studying this problem as an unsupervised learning problem. Our initial attempt is to cluster the players as well as drills into groups using k-means, c-means and spectral clustering algorithms, combined with feature transformation and reduction steps. These basic algorithms serve as a benchmark to measure performance improvements …
Assembly Of Nucleic Acid-Based Nanoparticles By Gas-Liquid Segmented Flow Microfluidics, Matthew L. Capek, Ross Verheul, David H. Thompson
Assembly Of Nucleic Acid-Based Nanoparticles By Gas-Liquid Segmented Flow Microfluidics, Matthew L. Capek, Ross Verheul, David H. Thompson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
The development of novel and efficient mixing methods is important for optimizing the efficiency of many biological and chemical processes. Tuning the physical and performance properties of nucleic acid-based nanoparticles is one such example known to be strongly affected by mixing efficiency. The characteristics of DNA nanoparticles (such as size, polydispersity, ζ-potential, and gel shift) are important to ensure their therapeutic potency, and new methods to optimize these characteristics are of significant importance to achieve the highest efficacy. In the present study, a simple segmented flow microfluidics system has been developed to augment mixing of pDNA/bPEI nanoparticles. This DNA and …
Pathway By Which Vagus Nerve Stimulation Of B Fibers Affects Heart Rate, Kelsey Wasilczuk, Matthew Ward, Pedro Irazoqui
Pathway By Which Vagus Nerve Stimulation Of B Fibers Affects Heart Rate, Kelsey Wasilczuk, Matthew Ward, Pedro Irazoqui
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Heart failure (HF) affects over 5 million adults in the United States. Many HF patients have a high resting heart rate, which is correlated with a high mortality rate. In recent years, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has become an increasingly researched therapy to reduce the resting heart rate of HF patients. However, current dosage given during VNS is increased incrementally at the doctor’s office until side effects present themselves in a patient. In addition, the means by which the therapy works is not completely understood. To better understand the therapy’s mechanisms, the right cervical vagus nerve of several Long Evans …
Characterization Of Left-Ventricular Thrombus Formation Using High Frequency Ultrasound, Kelsey A. Bullens, Arvin H. Soepriatna, Pavlos P. Vlachos, Craig J. Goergen
Characterization Of Left-Ventricular Thrombus Formation Using High Frequency Ultrasound, Kelsey A. Bullens, Arvin H. Soepriatna, Pavlos P. Vlachos, Craig J. Goergen
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Heart failure is a leading cause of death in the United States, and cardiac thrombus, a common morbidity associated with heart failure, significantly increases a patient’s risk of embolic events. The objective of this project is to characterize left-ventricular (LV) thrombus development using high frequency ultrasound imaging in a murine model. C57BL/6J wild-type mice (n=6) were injected intraperitoneally with iron dextran five times a week for six weeks to increase oxidative stress in the heart. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) was subcutaneously injected daily during the second week to initiate stem cell migration and stimulate endothelial cell activation, thus increasing the …
Real-Time Temperature And Heat Flux Measurements For Lyophilization Process Design And Monitoring: Part 1, Evan T. Liechty, Nicholas J. Huls, Andrew D. Strongrich, Alina A. Alexeenko
Real-Time Temperature And Heat Flux Measurements For Lyophilization Process Design And Monitoring: Part 1, Evan T. Liechty, Nicholas J. Huls, Andrew D. Strongrich, Alina A. Alexeenko
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Lyophilization is a common method used to preserve pharmaceutical and biological products. Accurately measuring temperature during the three stages of lyophilization: freezing, primary drying, and secondary drying, is important to ensure product consistency and to reduce operating costs. Wireless temperature sensors were evaluated to determine if temperature is monitored accurately and to determine if wireless temperature sensors offer advantages over traditional temperature measurement technologies. These sensors contain three capacitors to monitor temperature as the solvent is sublimated. A Millrock Technology REVO lyophilizer was used for testing. Water and 5% w/v sucrose solution were distributed in 3 mL fill volume increments …
Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee
Mechanical Reliability Of Implantable Polyimide-Based Magnetic Microactuators For Biofouling Removal, Christian G. Figueroa-Espada, Qi Yang, Hyowon Lee
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Hydrocephalus is a neurological disorder that typically requires a long-term implantation of a shunt system to manage its symptoms. These shunt systems are notorious for their extremely high failure rate. More than 40% of all implanted shunt systems fail within the first year of implantation. On average, 85% of all hydrocephalus patients with shunt systems undergo at least two shunt-revision surgeries within 10 years of implantation. A large portion of this high failure rate can be attributed to biofouling-related obstructions and infections. Previously, we developed flexible polyimide-based magnetic microactuators to remove obstructions formed on hydrocephalus shunts. To test the long-term …
Design And Development Of A Plasmid Vector For Protein Expression And Purification, Mahima Grover, Craig Sweet, David H. Thompson
Design And Development Of A Plasmid Vector For Protein Expression And Purification, Mahima Grover, Craig Sweet, David H. Thompson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Production and isolation of proteins are difficult, costly and time-consuming processes. The aim of this project is for the development of plasmids, which allow for streamlined production and isolation of proteins. To allow for modular insertion of varying segments of DNA we are using ‘recursive directional ligation by plasmid reconstruction’. This technique uses type II restriction endonucleases, which cut downstream from their recognition site allowing multiple insertions without losing a restriction site. Using this process, we can ligate multiple DNA sequences together and express them to be able to construct a scar less fusion protein. In order to accomplish this, …
Analyzing Mutations Of Spt7 Protein That Disrupt Interaction With Sf3b Subunits, Arryn T. Harris, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake, Edwin C. Acosta
Analyzing Mutations Of Spt7 Protein That Disrupt Interaction With Sf3b Subunits, Arryn T. Harris, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake, Edwin C. Acosta
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Proper transcription, the process of converting DNA to RNA, is crucial for the health and viability of an organism. This process is regulated by many proteins, such as co-transcriptional activators; one being the protein complex known as Spt-Ada-Gcn5-acetyltransferase, or SAGA. While much is known about the roles of SAGA in cell processes, how SAGA’s subunits promote functionality is still unknown. The focus of this study is to analyze the purpose of SAGA’s SF3B subunits. These subunits are also found in the spliceosome, the compound responsible for generating mature RNA. SAGA has no known functions relating to this process, so the …
Quantification Of Analyte Concentration From A Paper-Based Lateral Flow Assay Device Using Reflective Sensors, Megan Z. Chiu, Jacqueline Linnes
Quantification Of Analyte Concentration From A Paper-Based Lateral Flow Assay Device Using Reflective Sensors, Megan Z. Chiu, Jacqueline Linnes
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Paper-based point-of-care (POC) diagnostics is a growing field in global health due to the extreme portability, accuracy, affordability, and ease of use of these tests. Advancements in recent years have led to more accurate detection and improved functionality using multistep molecular diagnostics. Many such assays utilize lateral flow detection strips for visualization of diagnostic results by eye, which limits the results to qualitative Yes/No readouts. This project focused on combining recent developments in paper-based POC diagnostics to develop and optimize an in-house built quantitative paper-based diagnostic reader for lateral flow detection in low-resource settings. Initially different sensors, including photocell sensors, …