Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Comparison Of Immunohistochemistry Methods For Visualization Of Middle Eastern Respiratory Viral Antigen, Elena Carlos

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), caused by MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Although there have been less than 2,400 cases reported, the case fatality rate is 35%. Dromedary camels are the known host animal for the virus. However, they are difficult to manage experimental animals. In a recent study, alpacas proved to be a suitable experimental animal to further characterize MERS-CoV infection. Our work is part of a wider project focused on studying the efficacy of MERS-CoV antigen and RNA labeling in infected alpaca tissues, when these tissues are preserved in novel modular alcohol fixatives …

Blockade Of B2 –Gpi Decreases Hypoxic Tissue Damage, Jaymond Kelly

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Blockade of B2 –GPI decreases hypoxic tissue damage

Jaymond D Kelly, Noel Nieto, Anneliese Spence, Dr. Sherry D Fleming

Division of Biology, College of Arts and Sciences

Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer that develops in melanocytes, which are skin cells that control pigmentation. Growing melanoma tumors become hypoxic due to outgrowing their blood vessels and lacking oxygen. In other models of hypoxia, the immune system plays a role, in particularly C3 & IgM. C3 complement activation is a part of complement cascade that begins inflammation. It is central to complement activation when the antibody, IgM is present. …

Assessment Of The Potential Use Of Recombinant Baculovirus-Expressed Lassa Virus Nucleoprotein As A Serodiagnostic Antigen, Sahiba Grover

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Lassa virus is an arenavirus causing a disseminated systemic primary viral infection. This virus causes Lassa fever which is a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic in West Africa and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people each year. There is a possibility for the Lassa virus to be introduced into the US and used as a biological weapon with the potential to harm a large-scale population. Because of increasing international travel, a sizeable burden from the disease, and its potential use for biological warfare, it is necessary to develop sensitive diagnostic assays to accurately detect virus infections and mitigate …

Determining The Role Of Cdr20291_0493 Sporulation Initiation In Clostridium Difficile, Carolina Bueno

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Our lab focuses on the gene regulatory networks of Clostridium difficilesporulation and toxins virulence factors. Spores are the major reason of the disease transmission; this is why it is important to understand how this spores are formed so drugs can be targeted to formation. Our objective is to identify the gene regulatory networks that control sporulation. The candidate target gene we are studying is CDR20291_0493 in C. difficileR20291 strain. We want to understand the role of this gene in sporulation initiation of C.difficile. We first created a mutant of CDR20291_0493 mutant R20291Dto look for sporulation phenotype and …