Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Defying The Darkness: Countering Cancer With Light, Travis Hankins

Honors Theses

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) accounts for upwards of 15% of reported breast cancer cases. This subtype of breast cancer poses a greater threat to those diagnosed as compared to other types of breast cancer due to the lack of treatment options available. Additionally, TNBC grows and spreads faster, tends to be more aggressive, and has a greater chance of recurrence than its counterparts. Altogether, TNBC cases generally have a worse prognosis over other types of breast cancer. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently being researched as a way to treat TNBC. Photodynamic therapy agents are light-activated materials used for localized disease …

Making Inexpensive Drugs For The Treatment Of Human African Trypanosomiasis, Lou V A M. Gore Ms

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect the world’s poorest population; mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. According to the WHO, more than one billion people are affected by NTDs. The connection between these areas is the lack of proper sanitation, and the persistence of the diseases, trap the affected countries in the poverty and disease cycle.

African sleeping sickness, a prevalent NTD, is a parasitic infection caused by two parasites from the Trypanosoma brucei species and is transmitted by the tsetse fly or congenitally. The disease is manifested by fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and aching …