Physics Commons^™

Electrochemical And Spectroscopic Characterization Of Cerium Salts And Nanoceria Material, Emily Velarde, Wei Zhou

Symposium of Student Scholars

The nanoscale form of cerium oxide, nanoceria (nano-CeO_x), has drawn great attention in recent years in electrochemical, nanomaterial research and medicinal studies due to its antibacterial properties, UV absorption, and its biochemical function as possible radical scavenger. Many new synthesis methods have achieved uniform and biocompatible nanoceria particles, and our lab has created cerium oxide particles that shows UV/Vis. absorption and X-ray patterns similar to the commercial nanoceria and nanoceria made in other research laboratories with novel synthetic methods.

This study focuses on charactering and comparing electrochemical properties of cerium inorganic salts and synthesized nanoceria. Preliminary results …

Using The Marcus Inverted Region And Artificial Cofactors To Create A Charge Separated State In De Novo Designed Proteins, Eskil Me Andersen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To create an efficient de novo photosynthetic protein it is important to create long lived charge separated states. Achieving stable charge separation leads to an increase in the efficiency of the photosynthetic reaction which in turn leads to higher yields of end products, such as biofuels, electrical charge, or synthetic chemicals. In an attempt to create charge separated states in de novo proteins we hypothesized that we could engineer the free energy gaps in the proteins from excited primary donor (PD) to acceptor (A), and A back to ground state PD such that the forward electron transfer (ET) would be …

Mechanism Of Action Of Dihydropteridine Reductase, Gabriela Arias De La Rosa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Human dihydropteridine reductase is an enzyme that transfers a hydride from NADH to reduce quinonoid 7,8-dihydropterin (qBH₂) to 5,6,7,8-tetrahydropterin (BH₄), which is a cofactor important in the production of neurotransmitters.DHPR deficiency causes a drastic form of the neurological genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) that does not benefit from a phenylalanine-free diet.From site-directed mutagenesis studies, mostly on Rat DHPR, we know that certain residues are important for cofactor binding, substrate binding, and hydride transfer; however, there are still some questions about how DHPR works, particularly, because there is not a crystal structure of the tertiary complex: What is …

Advanced Raman Spectroscopy Detection Of Oxidative Damage In Nucleic Acid Bases: Probing Chemical Changes And Intermolecular Interactions In Guanosine At Ultralow Concentration, Francesca Ripanti, Claudia Fasolato, Flavia Mazzarda, Simonetta Palleschi, Marina Ceccarini, Chunchun Li, Margherita Bignami, Enrico Bodo, Steven E.J. Bell, Filomena Mazzei, Paolo Postorino

Bioelectrics Publications

DNA/RNA synthesis precursors are especially vulnerable to damage induced by reactive oxygen species occurring following oxidative stress. Guanosine triphosphates are the prevalent oxidized nucleotides, which can be misincorporated during replication, leading to mutations and cell death. Here, we present a novel method based on micro-Raman spectroscopy, combined with ab initio calculations, for the identification, detection, and quantification of oxidized nucleotides at low concentration. We also show that the Raman signature in the terahertz spectral range (<100 >cm(-1)) contains information on the intermolecular assembly of guanine in tetrads, which allows us to further boost the oxidative damage detection limit. Eventually, we …