Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

How Imbalanced Excitation And Inhibition May Cause Low Entropy Brain Dynamics, Qusay Redwan Alfaori

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

To study the effect of the imbalance of excitation and inhibition neurons on brain entropy using a computer model of a brain. The brain model will be composed of a neural network and entropy of the neural network will be measured quantitatively. Entropy in this context quantifies how many different patterns of activated neurons the brain can create. Imbalance between excitation and inhibition neurons causes the brain to malfunction, which can be an underlying cause of autism.

5ht And The 5ht Receptors- Relevance To Cardiac Valve Disease, Christopher Ryan Martindale

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Recent studies have revealed that elevated levels of serotonin or 5HT lead to valve dysfunction. A mouse model was successfully established to investigate the effects on the aortic valve in subjects with elevated 5HT levels along with cardiovascular hypertension. For each two-week trial, eight C57BL/6J mice were divided into the following expermental groups: control, 5HT, angiotensin II, and 5HT+angiotensin II. The drug was delivered to the mice via osmotic pumps (Ang II: 0.4ng/g/min, 5HT:0.0025ng/g/min) or direct injections(Ang II: 0.1 mg, 5HT: 2.12 mg, every other day) and the blood pressure of the mice was continually monitored via the CODA tail …

In Vivo Evaluation Of An Automated Pressure Sore Reducer, Linda J. Cross

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Computational Modeling Of Drug Release From Bone Scaffolds, Corey Landry

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Biobotic Solutions, Michael Joseph Iseman

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

BioBotic Solutions is a business plan that was created and used to compete in national business competitions. The business takes an in-depth look into the pathology industry, which has an impact on nearly 75% of all patient diagnosis, and proposes a change- to automate a process currently done manually, and introduce to proprietary products, a robotic arm and a new container. The solution addresses a $500M annual opportunity, and will reduce both errors and costs for mid/large size laboratories.

Investigating The Shelf Life Of Benzoyl Peroxide Coated Nozzles For Bone Cement Application, Alysen Leigh Demzik

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Two-solution bone cements (TSBC) were developed to address the limitations of current powder-liquid bone cements, however are characterized by a limited shelf life due to spontaneous free radical polymerization. As a solution to pre-polymerization concerns, the initiator benzoyl peroxide (BPO) was removed from the cement solution and incorporated into a thin film coating within the static mixing nozzle, allowing the BPO to integrate with the TSBC as it is mixed for use. Only short-term storage of BPO-coated nozzles and the subsequent effects on bone cement properties is known. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of time, …

Analyzing Thermal And Mechanical Effects Of Pulsed Laser Irradiation On Tissues, Mohit Ganguly

Theses and Dissertations

Pulsed lasers are known for their spatial and temporal specificity in delivering heat energy to the tissues. This is useful in laser ablation treatment mechanism where damage to the healthy tissues is highly undesired. However, the efficacy of the process is limited by the damage caused by the pulsed laser. A pulsed laser has both photothermal and photomechanical interaction with tissues. Photothermal interaction is caused by the rise in temperature due to the laser irradiation. This includes the denaturation of proteins, increased mitochondrial membrane permeability and ultimately vaporization. Photomechanical interaction causes the generation of pressure waves produced as a result …

Modeling Of An Oxygenation-Aided 3d Culture For Functional Beta-Cell Expansion, John Lance Mcreynolds

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction: Diabetes affects millions of people and its prevalence is increasing by 2-5% per year. A promising method for the control of diabetes is the transplant of pancreatic β-cell mass. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of the donor tissue that is needed to replace β-cell mass. A potential source of β-cells is the production of β-cells in vitro, but the proliferation rate of β-cells is very slow and elevating the proliferation rate can result in loss of cell function. We observed that β-cells benefit from being cultured in a 3D environment, but in the 3D culture the β-cells often die …

Beginning Of Malignant Tumor Cells, Emily K. Shields

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite advances in cancer treatments, cancer is still ranked the second leading cause of death. Cancers are started by cancer stem cells (CSCs). CSCs, also called tumor-initiating cells, are found in tumors and are responsible for the growth of tumors and the spread of cancer to other parts of the body. CSCs are very resistant, and cannot be killed by chemotherapy or radiation treatments. These cells can come from healthy stem cells. The environment surrounding the healthy stem cells and mature cells can cause mutations in the cell’s genetics, resulting in development of CSCs. The environment can also increase tumor …

Development Of Biomechanical Analysis Techniques For Fatigue Of Transtibial Prosthetic Socket And Pylon Interactions, Thomas Z. Sudbury

Honors Theses

The lack of formal, engineering based information is prevalent in the prosthetic industry. Currently, very few prosthetic manufacturing companies can definitively tell their patients how long their products will last. Because of this lack of information, many amputee patients will experience failure of their transtibial prosthetic device during daily activities. One such failure occurs from the fatigue of everyday use. Fatigue failures originate from the repeated application of certain loading conditions. These repeated loads usually occur for millions of cycles before a transtibial prosthetic catastrophically fails. The purpose of this study is to develop a testing procedure and apparatus that …

Tht And Capillary Electrophoresis To Monitor The Effects Of Solutions Conditions On Amylin Aggregation, Michael May

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amylin (hIAPP) aggregates have been found in 90% of patients with type II diabetes at autopsy, and are suspected to play a role in the death of islet &beta-cells¹. However, this aggregation process is not well understood. Here, we explore methods that utilize capillary electrophoresis (CE) as a means to better understand amylin's aggregation process.

We examined the effects of solutions conditions: agitation, pH, salt, and temperature on amylin aggregation using Thioflavin T, dot blots, and capillary electrophoresis. Thiofalvin T was used to predict the lag time to &beta-sheet formation. Our results indicated all variables with the exception …

Development Of An Application For Patient-Centered Dementia Care., David Collar Alston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dementia care in the United States faces several challenges, many of them associated with managing the information that is associated with patients. Protected patient information about patients is often separated between many sources. For example, a new doctor may have information on patient medicines, but not the document associated with the caregiving goals of the patient and their family. Problems can develop if a patient is treated by a new caregiver, who may not know the patient’s treatment and behavior history. There is a strong desire for a system that can collect, organize, and analyze patient information in a user …

Modeling The Adaptive Immune Response To Mutation-Generated Antigens, Rory J. Geyer

Honors Scholar Theses

Somatic mutations may drive tumorigenesis or lead to new, immunogenic epitopes (neoantigens). The immune system is thought to represses neoplastic growths through the recognition of neoantigens presented only by tumor cells. To study mutations as well as the immune response to mutation-generated antigens, we have created a conditional knockin mouse line with a gene encoding, 5’ to 3’, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), ovalbumin (which is processed to the immunologically recognizable peptide, SIINFEKL), and cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), or, YFP-ovalbumin-CFP. A frame shift mutation has been created at the 5’ end of the ovalbumin gene, hence YFP should always be expressed, …

Development Of A Multi-Purpose Automated Synthesis Module For Production Of Novel Pet Radiopharmaceuticals, I Hong Shih

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Among radiopharmaceuticals of positron emission tomography (PET), ¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) made from commercialized automated synthesis module is the most frequently used in tumor diagnoses. But the false positive findings, such as infectious tissues and post-operative surgical conditions, show strong uptake of ¹⁸F-FDG in PET scans which requires extra clinical procedures to confirm the results. Moreover, the false negative findings, such as low glycolytic activity tumors, reduce the accuracy of PET scans. Therefore, there will be new PET radiopharmaceuticals to redeem the defects of ¹⁸FDG-PET applications.

Current commercialized automated synthesis modules are suitable for clinical use, but …

Bioactivity And Cell-Mediated Targeting Of Multistage Nanoporous Silicon Particles, Jonathan O. Martinez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Progress in drug delivery approaches have not adequately translated into clinical advances in the diagnosis or treatment of inflammatory disorders (e.g., cancer). This disconnect is rooted in the inefficient delivery of imaging and therapeutic agents to the inflamed site upon systemic delivery. A multitude of biological barriers pose insurmountable obstacles limiting the ability of the agent to effectively reach and accumulate at the target site. Nanoparticles (NP) surfaced as potential vectors to encapsulate and deliver biological agents. However, even after surface decoration, NP have failed to evade biological barriers (i.e., MPS) and to accumulate at the tumor site at therapeutic …

Designing An Artificial Tendon/Graft Derived From Silkworm Silk And Synthetic Spider Silk With Respect To Structure, Mechanical Properties, Biocompatibility, And Attachment, Neal Hengge

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The Achilles tendon is one of the most commonly damaged tendons in the human body (Hansen et al., 2012). Current surgical and therapeutic techniques require extended recovery time and the tendon is rarely returned to its original healthy state. For athletes in particular, strenuous rehabilitation is required to return from a serious injury like a ruptured Achilles tendon (Rosso et al., 2013).

Despite the high amount of sources for grafts to aid in surgical repair, all of the options have drawbacks such as availability, immune response, or poor mechanical properties. Spider silk has the potential to enhance current Achilles tendon …

Comparing Virus Ultrafiltration Of Bacteriophages With Filtration Of Minute Virus Of Mice, Kent Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Industrial production of protein therapeutics demand rigorous testing and clearance of viruses. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration dictate the purity of pharmaceuticals with regards to viral contamination. As this testing is time consuming and expensive using mammalian cells and viruses, bacteriophages may provide a faster and cheaper alternative for membrane filtration processes. We used ultrafiltration membranes to filter protein solutions with viruses. Two bacteriophages were tested against membranes with two different pore sizes. These membranes were then tested by inverting the membrane's orientation. Flux measurements and log virus removal data were taken. Flux and log virus removal were seen …

Optimization Of Wastewater Microalgae Pretreatment For Acetone, Butanol, And Ethanol Fermentation, Yessica A. Castro

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation from wastewater microalgae by Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4 is a novel bioprocess that utilizes waste substrate to generate valuable solvents. Butanol, the most abundant product resulting from ABE fermentation, is an environmentally safe and high performing fuel that can be utilized as a drop-in-fuel; however, high operational costs and low ABE yield present challenge in scale-up of the process. The utilization of algae as a substrate requires pretreatment prior to fermentation to increase the bioavailability of the algal fermentable sugars and to improve the conditions of the pre-fermentation medium. The purpose of this thesis was to optimize wastewater …

Sustainable Production Of Novel Biomaterials In Escherichia Coli, Asif Rahman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The biotechnology revenues in the United States exceeded $100 billion in 2010 and the potential impact of synthetic biological engineering has been identified nationally as an emerging technology to further expand the national bioeconomy. Synthetic biological engineering approaches biology from an engineering perspective to make biology easier to engineer. The potential to engineer microorganisms for novel applications can have far-reaching implications and benefits for society. Some of the potential applications range from biosensors, biofuels, therapeutics, and biomaterials.

In this study two biomaterials were produced in genetically engineered Escherichia coli: polyhydroxybutyrates (PHBs) and spider silk. PHBs are bioplastics that have …

Alkaloid Production By Hairy Root Cultures, Bo Zhao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the present research, nicotine alkaloid production by Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) hairy roots and tropane alkaloid production by Hyoscyamus niger hairy roots were investigated. The first objective of this research was to improve the oxygen mass transfer in hairy root cultures with microbubbles. Oxygen was shown as a critical nutrient for the growth of tobacco and H. niger hairy roots. In a 1-liter fermentor, microbubble dispersion improved the oxygen mass transfer, tobacco hairy root growth, and nicotine production in the medium. In a novel ground-joint column bioreactor, microbubbles enhanced the oxygen mass transfer and the growth of H. niger hairy …