Workshop On Convergence In Biological Engineering, 2019 Utah State University
Workshop On Convergence In Biological Engineering, Keith Roper
Funded Research Records
No abstract provided.
Application Of Micro-Scale 3d Printing In Pharmaceutics, 2019 Utah State University
Application Of Micro-Scale 3d Printing In Pharmaceutics, Andrew Kjar, Yu Huang
Biological Engineering Faculty Publications
3D printing, as one of the most rapidly-evolving fabrication technologies, has released a cascade of innovation in the last two decades. In the pharmaceutical field, the integration of 3D printing technology has offered unique advantages, especially at the micro-scale. When printed at a micro-scale, materials and devices can provide nuanced solutions to controlled release, minimally invasive delivery, high-precision targeting, biomimetic models for drug discovery and development, and future opportunities for personalized medicine. This review aims to cover the recent advances in this area. First, the 3D printing techniques are introduced with respect to the technical parameters and features that are …
Investigation Of The Biosynthetic Process Of Indigoidine, 2019 Utah State University
Investigation Of The Biosynthetic Process Of Indigoidine, Yi Chen
All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023
Indigoidine is a natural blue dye with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. It has also been used as an indicator for gene expression based on its distinctive blue color. Similar to the industry blue dye indigo, indigoidine has a promising potential to be applied in industry as a blue dye. However, the indigoidine production level in the original microorganisms was very low. Heterologous expression of the responsible synthetase gene in Escherichia coli can facilitate the fast and large-scale production of indigoidine. Also, a good understating of the working mechanism of the synthetase is favorable for the industrial application.
In our previous …
Discovery And Engineering Of An Endophytic Pseudomonas Strain From Taxus Chinensis For Efficient Production Of Zeaxanthin Diglucoside, 2019 Utah State University
Discovery And Engineering Of An Endophytic Pseudomonas Strain From Taxus Chinensis For Efficient Production Of Zeaxanthin Diglucoside, Ozkan Fidan, Jixun Zhan
Biological Engineering Faculty Publications
Background
Endophytic microorganisms are a rich source of bioactive natural products. They are considered as promising biofertilizers and biocontrol agents due to their growth-promoting interactions with the host plants and their bioactive secondary metabolites that can help manage plant pathogens. Identification of new endophytes may lead to the discovery of novel molecules or provide new strains for production of valuable compounds.
Results
In this study, we isolated an endophytic bacterium from the leaves of Taxus chinensis, which was identified as Pseudomonas sp. 102515 based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence and physiological characteristics. Analysis of its secondary metabolites revealed …
Mechanisms Of Reduced Vascular Tone Following Arteriogenesis Induced By Femoral Artery Ligation, 2019 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Mechanisms Of Reduced Vascular Tone Following Arteriogenesis Induced By Femoral Artery Ligation, Christopher Hatch
Biomedical Engineering
The presence of a developed, native collateral network can decrease the severity of ischemic injury proceeding arterial occlusion. The collateral network must under arteriogenesis to enlarge and increase blood flow to the ischemic region. Although there has been tremendous effort attempting to understand the mechanisms of arteriogenesis, no therapies have been successful in improving patient outcome. To better understand the mechanisms involved in arteriogenesis, the effect of nitric oxide production, myogenic tone, and a-adrenergic receptors were evaluated as these have been identified as playing an important role in vascular injury. Arteriogenesis was induced by ligating the femoral artery between the …
Spiderworms: Using Silkworms As Hosts To Produce A Hybrid Silkworm-Spider Silk Fiber, 2019 Utah State University
Spiderworms: Using Silkworms As Hosts To Produce A Hybrid Silkworm-Spider Silk Fiber, Ana Laura Licon
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Spider silk has received significant attention due to its fascinating mechanical properties. Given the solitary and cannibalistic behavior of spiders, spider silk farming is impractical. Unlike spiders, silkworms are capable of producing large quantities of a fibrous product in a manner mimetic to spiders, and there already exists an industry to process cocoons into threads and textiles for many applications. The combination of silk farming (sericulture), a millennia old practice, and modern advancements in genetic engineering has given rise to an innovative biomaterial inspired by nature; transgenic silkworm silk.
This project focuses on the creation of chimeric silkworm-spider silk fibers …
A Study Of Protein And Peptide-Directed Nanoparticle Synthesis For Catalytic Materials, 2019 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
A Study Of Protein And Peptide-Directed Nanoparticle Synthesis For Catalytic Materials, Abdollah Mosleh
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Nanoparticles have received much attentions due to their unique properties that makes them suitable candidates for a broad range of applications. As the size of particles decreases, their surface area-to-volume ratio would increase which is the main cause of much attention. In addition to the size, their morphologies and compositions may also play important roles for defining unique properties. Nanoparticle synthesis include both bottom-up and top-down strategies. To control the process of inorganic nanoparticles synthesis one could follow the bottom-up approach to have atom-level control over their compositions, morphologies, phases, and sizes which is the subject of this work. Due …
Optimization Of Biogas Production By Use Of A Microbially Enhanced Inoculum, 2019 Utah State University
Optimization Of Biogas Production By Use Of A Microbially Enhanced Inoculum, Anna Doloman
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
A renewable energy source, biogas, comprises of methane (80%) and carbon dioxide (15%), and is a great alternative to the conventional fossil-based fuels, such as coal, gas and oil. Biogas is created during anaerobic biological digestion of waste materials, such as landfill material, animal manure, wastewater, algal biomass, industrial organic waste etc. A biogas potential from organic waste in the United States is estimated at about 9 million tons per year and technology allows capture of greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, into a form of a fuel. In the light of global climate change and efforts to …
Characterization Of Biofilms In A Synthetic Rhizosphere Using Hollow Fiber Root-Mimetic Systems, 2019 Utah State University
Characterization Of Biofilms In A Synthetic Rhizosphere Using Hollow Fiber Root-Mimetic Systems, Michelle Bonebrake
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
The area around a plant’s roots hosts a complex and diverse microbial community. This environment can include a large number of bacteria that live on the surface of the root and benefit from the nutrients that the roots exude into the soil. These microbes can in turn be beneficial to the plant by protecting the roots from harmful fungi or stressful environmental conditions such as drought. In this thesis, several root-mimetic systems (RMSs) were developed for the study and growth of plant-beneficial bacteria in the laboratory environment. The RMS uses a porous hollow fiber used in hemodialysis as a surface …
Exploring The Capacity Of Bacteria For Natural Product Biosynthesis, 2019 Utah State University
Exploring The Capacity Of Bacteria For Natural Product Biosynthesis, Ozkan Fidan
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
This dissertation is focused on exploring the potential of bacteria for the biosynthesis of natural products with the purposes of generating novel natural product derivatives and of improving the titer of pharmaceutically important natural products.
A wide variety of compounds from various sources have been historically used in the treatment and prevention of diseases. Natural products as a major source of new drugs are extensively explored due to their huge structural diversity and promising biological activities such as antimicrobial, anticancer, antifungal, antiviral and antioxidant properties. For instance, penicillin as an early-discovered antimicrobial agent has saved millions of lives, indicating the …
Visualizing Ischemic Skin Flap Necrosis Through Phasor Analysis Of Autofluorescence Lifetime Images, 2019 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Visualizing Ischemic Skin Flap Necrosis Through Phasor Analysis Of Autofluorescence Lifetime Images, Hallie Ramser Toomer
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Necrotic skin flaps are difficult to predict and treat due to the lack of quantitative biomarkers. Label-free multiphoton microscopy is well suited for non-invasively monitoring skin metabolism through NAD(P)H and other intrinsic fluorophores, and offers immediate future directions for assessing necrosis in the clinic. The objective of this study was to assess whether phasor FLIM could be used to evaluate skin flap status and treatment efficacy in ex vivo skin sections. Phasor maps revealed differences in growth factor treatment and region, but changes in skin flap autofluorescence at 755nm excitation and 460nm emission were not just related to NAD(P)H. A …
Modified Substrate Specificity Of A Methyltransferase Domain By Protein Insertion Into An Adenylation Domain Of The Bassianolide Synthetase, 2019 Utah State Unviersity
Modified Substrate Specificity Of A Methyltransferase Domain By Protein Insertion Into An Adenylation Domain Of The Bassianolide Synthetase, Fuchao Xu, Russell Butler, Kyle M. May, Megi Rexhepaj, Dayu Yu, Jiachen Zi, Yi Chen, Yonghong Liang, Jia Zeng, Joan Hevel, Jixun Zhan
Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Presentations
Background: Creating designer molecules using a combination of select domains from polyketide synthases and/or nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) continues to be a synthetic goal. However, an incomplete understanding of how protein-protein interactions and dynamics affect each of the domain functions stands as a major obstacle in the field. Of particular interest is understanding the basis for a class of methyltransferase domains (MT) that are found embedded within the adenylation domain (A) of fungal NRPS systems instead of in an end-to-end architecture.
Results: The MT domain from bassianolide synthetase (BSLS) was removed and the truncated enzyme BSLS-ΔMT was recombinantly expressed. The …
Design, Development, And Field Testing A Visnir Integrated Multi-Sensing Soil Penetrometer, 2019 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Design, Development, And Field Testing A Visnir Integrated Multi-Sensing Soil Penetrometer, Nuwan K. Wijewardane
Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The research community in soil science and agriculture lacks a cost-effective and rapid technology for in situ, high resolution vertical soil sensing. Visible and near infra-red (VisNIR) technology has the potential to be used for such sensor development due to its ability to derive multiple soil properties rapidly using a single spectrum. Such efforts must, however, overcome a few challenges: (i) a dry ground soil spectral library that can be used to predict the target soil properties accurately, (ii) a robust design which can acquire high quality VisNIR spectra of soil, (iii) an effective method that can link field intact …
Computational Investigation Of The Interactions Between Bioactive Compounds And Biological Assemblies, 2019 University of New Mexico - Main Campus
Computational Investigation Of The Interactions Between Bioactive Compounds And Biological Assemblies, Tye D. Martin
Biomedical Engineering ETDs
Small, biologically active molecules with unique properties and applications are potential solutions to a wide range of threats to global health including infectious agents and neurodegenerative disease. Experimental studies on a class of oligomeric p-phenylene ethynylenes (OPEs) have shown potential both as bioactive antimicrobials and fluorescent sensing agents for tracking amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregates found in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). A second type of small molecule with potential applications in AD therapy, curcumin, has been found to interfere with Aβ fibril growth. Curcumin also attenuates Aβ-membrane interactions and Aβ toxicity. Our goal has been to use computational techniques to better understand the …
A Microfluidics-Based Cross-Flow Filtration Platform For Rapid Processing Of Amphiphilic Biomarkers From Blood, 2019 University of New Mexico
A Microfluidics-Based Cross-Flow Filtration Platform For Rapid Processing Of Amphiphilic Biomarkers From Blood, Kiersten D. Lenz
Biomedical Engineering ETDs
Early and accurate detection of bacterial infections can help save lives, prevent the spread of disease, and decrease the overuse of antibiotics. Our team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed novel assays to detect bacterial biomarkers from patient blood at the point-of-care in order to facilitate a universal diagnostic platform. However, these biomarkers are amphiphilic in nature, and this biochemical property causes them to be sequestered by high-density and low-density lipoproteins (HDL and LDL) in the host’s blood. Extraction of the bacterial biomarkers from the lipoprotein complexes is thereby required for the development and deployment of a diagnostic …
Accounting For Host Cell Protein Behavior In Anion-Exchange Chromatography, 2019 Iowa State University
Accounting For Host Cell Protein Behavior In Anion-Exchange Chromatography, Ryan K. Swanson, Ruo Xu, Daniel S. Nettleton, Charles Glatz
Dan Nettleton
Host cell proteins (HCP) are a problematic set of impurities in downstream processing (DSP) as they behave most similarly to the target protein during separation. Approaching DSP with the knowledge of HCP separation behavior would be beneficial for the production of high purity recombinant biologics. Therefore, this work was aimed at characterizing the separation behavior of complex mixtures of HCP during a commonly used method: anion-exchange chromatography (AEX). An additional goal was to evaluate the performance of a statistical methodology, based on the characterization data, as a tool for predicting protein separation behavior. Aqueous two-phase partitioning followed by two-dimensional electrophoresis …
Unravel The Cellular Biophysical Dynamics Of Spatial Constraint-Induced Membrane Blebbing And 3d Migration Using A Microfluidic Platform And Data-Driven Mathematical Modeling, 2019 Utah State University
Unravel The Cellular Biophysical Dynamics Of Spatial Constraint-Induced Membrane Blebbing And 3d Migration Using A Microfluidic Platform And Data-Driven Mathematical Modeling, Yu Huang
Funded Research Records
No abstract provided.
Developing A Control System To Better Understand The Effects Of Pyruvate Decarboxylase Activity On Clostridium Thermocellum Metabolism, 2019 Dartmouth College
Developing A Control System To Better Understand The Effects Of Pyruvate Decarboxylase Activity On Clostridium Thermocellum Metabolism, Nicholas Cervenka
ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)
In order for cellulosic biofuels from Clostridium thermocellum to be commercially viable, the ethanol yield and titer of the microbe must be increased. To accomplish this, it has been suggested to introduce the Pyruvate Decarboxylase (PDC) enzyme into C. thermocellum. In order to demonstrate effects on ethanol production by PDC prior to genetic modification, a cell free system (CFS) has been developed. A purified enzyme system was developed with the CFS to function as a control. Using the purified enzyme system, PDC from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was demonstrated to be a good candidate for further testing in the CFS.
Maximizing And Modeling Malonyl-Coa Production In Escherichia Coli, 2019 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Maximizing And Modeling Malonyl-Coa Production In Escherichia Coli, Tatiana Thompson Silveira Mello
LSU Master's Theses
In E. coli, fatty acid synthesis is catalyzed by the enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), which converts acetyl-CoA into malonyl-CoA. Malonyl-CoA is a major building block for numerous of bioproducts. Multiple parameters regulate the homeostatic cellular concentration of malonyl-CoA, keeping it at a very low level. Understanding how these parameters affect the bacterial production of malonyl-CoA is fundamental to maximizing it and its bioproducts. To this end, competing pathways consuming malonyl-CoA can be eliminated, and optimal nutritional and environmental conditions can be provided to the fermentation broth. Most previous studies utilized genetic modifications, expensive consumables, and high-cost quantification methods, making …
Developing An Optomechanical Approach For Characterizing Mechanical Properties Of Single Adherent Cells, 2019 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Developing An Optomechanical Approach For Characterizing Mechanical Properties Of Single Adherent Cells, Ali Mehrnezhad
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Mechanical properties of a cell reflect its biological and pathological conditions including cellular disorders and fundamental cellular processes such as cell division and differentiation. There have been active research efforts to develop high-throughput platforms to mechanically characterize single cells. Yet, many of these research efforts are focused on suspended cells and use a flow-through configuration. Therefore, adherent cells are detached prior to the characterization, which seriously perturbs the cellular conditions. Also, methods for adherent cells are limited in their throughput.
My study is aimed to fill the technical gap in the field of single cell analysis, which is a high-throughput …