Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

The Trm2h : Detecting Protein-Protein Interactions By Engineering The Cell As A Biosensor, Elyse Shimomura, Paulina Perezalonso

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Protein-protein interactions regulate key cellular functions and cell signaling pathways in the body; biological systems can be disrupted by protein interactions or lack of interactions that cause cell dysfunction and can lead to disease or illness. However, studying these interactions is complex and difficult to quantify. In this project, we examine the interaction of two putative cancer biomarkers, Bax and PDCDS, using the tetracycline repressor-based mammalian two-hybrid system (trM2H). This in vivo system engineers the cell as a biosensor using methods of DNA cloning and mammalian cell transfections that easily detects and quantities the interaction of two proteins by the …

The Design And Development Of A Perceptual-Based Haptic Display Device, Sohaib Akhter

Theses and Dissertations

Graphical information presented as pictures, graphs, maps, and the like are an important media for relaying knowledge and are a fundamental means of education rarely experienced by people who are blind or have a severe visual impairment. This thesis presents the design, development and testing of a multiple finger, haptic matrix dynamic display device capable of relaying graphical information through simulated textures. The design is based on user perception studies that determined which hand constraints provided the best tradeoff between simplicity of design, accuracy and time to answer. The best design was one that incorporated multiple fingers in close proximity …

Spectral Discrimination Of Breast Pathologies In Situ Using Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging, Ashley M. Laughney, Venkataramanan Krishnaswamy, Elizabeth J. Rizzo, Mary C. Schwab, Richard J. Barth, David J. Cuccia, Bruce J. Tromberg, Keith D. Paulsen, Brian W. Pogue, Wendy A. Wells

Dartmouth Scholarship

Introduction: Nationally, 25% to 50% of patients undergoing lumpectomy for local management of breast cancer require a secondary excision because of the persistence of residual tumor. Intraoperative assessment of specimen margins by frozen-section analysis is not widely adopted in breast-conserving surgery. Here, a new approach to wide-field optical imaging of breast pathology in situ was tested to determine whether the system could accurately discriminate cancer from benign tissues before routine pathological processing.

Life Support: Long Term Storage Of Solid Waste In An Enclosed Membrane System, Emmy O. Trieu, Michael Flynn, Rocco Mancinelli

STAR Program Research Presentations

In deep space missions, maintaining life support is of the utmost priority. In such a closed system, human waste must be stored and treated. Simulated feces (ersatz) will be inoculated with microbes representing normal fecal flora, mixed with urine brine and shredded refuse of products typically used in space missions. Composting methods often use alternating layers of waste with scraps of carboniferous materials (finely shredded refuse). By preparing membrane bags with a homogenized ersatz and carboniferous refuse mixture and membrane bags with alternating layers of ersatz and carboniferous refuse, it may be possible to monitor anaerobic thermophillic digestion of the …

Finite Element Models Of The Knee & Hip Joints: Using Opensim To Predict Muscle Forces, Kevin S. Jones, Spencer D. Wangerin, Jeffrey D. Pyle, Stephen M. Klisch, Scott J. Hazelwood

STAR Program Research Presentations

Quantitative data of stresses and strains in the cartilage of the knee and hip joints are required to design prostheses and can be used to give accurate advice to patients with cartilage damage as to which activities should be avoided. Instrumented hip implants can only give the overall resultant force in the joint, not the stresses and strains throughout the cartilage. Finite Element (FE) models of the Knee and Hip are being constructed in order to obtain the stresses and strains in articular (of the joint) cartilage. Muscle forces and joint contact forces are required as inputs to these FE …

Interleukin Expression After Injury And The Effects Of Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist, Connie S. Chamberlain, Ellen M. Leiferman, Kayt E. Frisch, Stacey L. Brickson, William L. Murphy, Geoffrey S. Baer

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Ligament and tendon repair involves a complex series of coordinated events orchestrated by various cell types, cytokines and other factors. The repair process extends months to years and results in scar tissue mechanically inferior to native tissue. This is in clear contrast to tissue "regeneration" which would recapitulate the native tissue. Numerous approaches to stimulate a regenerative scenario have been attempted, including tissue-engineering, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, ultrasonic, or electrical stimulation, but none have resulted in complete regeneration. In pursuit of a more regenerative outcome, it is important to understand the fundamentals of the normal healing process. Previous work from our lab …

Vascular Reactivity Of Immature Arterialized Capillaries, Sara Hellstrom

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) is a globally prevalent cardiovascular disease in which atherosclerotic plaques narrow arterial lumen diameters and restrict blood flow to down stream tissues. The impact of these occlusions can be mitigated by collateral vessels that connect parallel arterial branches and act as natural bypasses to maintain perfusion. Some patients with PAOD may not have robust collateral networks to accommodate ischemic tissues in the event of an occlusion and, therefore, may be more susceptible to hypoxia and tissue necrosis. In animal models that lack collateral arterioles, capillaries can arterialize and form functional collaterals; however, in the early …

The Effects Of Variation In Collagen D-Spacing On Compact Bone Viscoelasticity: A Finite Element Analysis, Miguel A. Mendoza

Master's Theses

The D-spacing that is characteristic of collagen and its structural arrangement was previously thought to be a constant value. Much research is revealing that it is actually a distribution of values in biological tissues. Recent ovine experimentation has also shown that the D-spacing distribution is significantly altered following estrogen depletion. While ewes contain some major biological differences between their human counterparts, they are an economical and robust large animal model for postmenopausal osteoporosis. So, the exploration of the possible implications that D-spacing has on the mechanical properties of the whole bone utilizing animal models and computational methods is warranted. Six …

Implantable Biosensors For Physiologic Status Monitoring During Hemorrhage, Christian Kotanen

All Dissertations

Trauma diagnostics and management are major aims of research for implantable amperometric enzyme biosensor technology. Biosensors are capable of monitoring metabolic variables in a minimally invasive manner and have great potential to augment current wireless vital sign monitoring technologies in order to make a more robust physiologic status monitoring platform. The dual responsive Electrochemical Cell-on-a-Chip Microdisc Electrode Array (ECC MDEA 5037) is a recently developed electrochemical transducer for use in a wireless, implantable biosensor system for the continuous measurement of interstitial glucose and lactate. Hyperglycemia arising from insulin resistance and hyperlactatemia arising from anaerobic metabolism both occur following trauma and …

Stochastic Reconstruction Of Multiple Source Atmospheric Contaminant Dispersion Events, Derek Wade, Inanc Senocak

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstruction of intentional or accidental release of contaminants into the atmosphere using concentration measurements from a sensor network constitutes an inverse problem. An added complexity arises when the contaminant is released from multiple sources. Determining the correct number of sources is critical because an incorrect estimation could mislead and delay response efforts. We present a Bayesian inference method coupled with a composite ranking system to reconstruct multiple source contaminant release events. Our approach uses a multi-source data-driven Gaussian plume model as the forward model to predict the concentrations at sensor locations. Bayesian inference with Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling …

Design Of A Compliant Underactuated Robotic Finger With Coordinated Stiffness, Etienne Dessauw

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The concept of underactuation has been previously developed in the robotic field for grasping applications. For these anthropomorphic grippers, the minimization of the number of input signals, or in other words underactuation, is the most expected characteristic. This method has become very popular in recent decades. Indeed, by minimizing the number of input signals, it minimizes the complexity of the system’s control and at the same time avoids increased weight and cost. The inconvenience of such a technique is that the design of this type of system remains a difficult task if the behavior of the underactuated set of joints …

Extraction Of Antioxidants From Animal Blood And Its Potential Application As A Pet Food Preservative, Chengyi Tu

All Theses

Nowadays, more and more people are having pets as members of their family. To the year of 2012, there are 78.2 million dogs and 86.4 million cats owned in the U.S according to the report of the Humane Society of the U.S. The pet food industry as a result has been prosperous, with an estimated market size of $21 billion in the year of 2013. However, there is a common problem for the industry - fat rancidification. Pet foods usually contain relatively high levels of fat, which, if not well protected, are prone to oxidation and generate unfavorable products including …

The Development Of A Rapid Fiber-Based Immunoassay As A Point-Of-Care Or In-Home Diagnostic Test, Christopher Waddell

All Theses

Early diagnosis of conditions allows for physicians to treat patients earlier, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Two conditions of particular interest for earlier and cheaper diagnosis are the influenza virus and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Antiviral treatment administered within the first 48 hours of influenza infection decreases symptom severity, risk of complications, and reduced healthcare costs. Early diagnosis of HIV can decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to HIV negative individuals and allow for earlier administration of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART), improving patient quality of life and patient outcomes.
Currently, the 'gold standard' for detection of both …

Problems In The Study And Use Of Ac Dielectrophoresis And Their Consequences: A Study Based On Comsol Multiphysics Modeling, Vandana Devi Pandian Babu

All Theses

Dielectrophoresis (or DEP) is an important phenomenon which is induced when a dielectric particle is placed in a non-uniform electric field. The force generated by DEP has been exploited for various micro and nano fluidics applications like positioning, sorting and separation of particles involved in medical diagnostics, drug discovery, cell therapeutics, biosensors, microfluidics, nanoassembly, particle filtration etc. The integration of DEP systems into the microfluidics enables inexpensive, fast, highly sensitive, highly selective, label-free detection and also the analysis of target bioparticles.

This work aims to provide a complete compilation of the factors affecting the DEP force. It elucidates the underlying …

Experimental Development And Analysis Of A Novel Setup For Insulated Dielectrophoresis, Johnie Hodge

All Theses

Dielectrophoresis has long been studied and utilized for the manipulation of microscale particles in solution. This phenomenon is due to the induced polarization of dielectric particles subjected to an electric field. When the field is also inhomogeneous in terms of the distribution of its strength through space, the polarized particles move and come to rest in certain areas due to the relationship between their and the solvent's relative permittivities. If the electric field is homogenous, such as within a parallel plate capacitor, the particles are polarized according to their permittivity and the field's frequency, but they will not move.
These …

Multimodal Wearable Sensors For Human-Machine Interfaces, Mark Nolan

Doctoral

Certain areas of the body, such as the hands, eyes and organs of speech production, provide high-bandwidth information channels from the conscious mind to the outside world. The objective of this research was to develop an innovative wearable sensor device that records signals from these areas more conveniently than has previously been possible, so that they can be harnessed for communication. A novel bioelectrical and biomechanical sensing device, the wearable endogenous biosignal sensor (WEBS), was developed and tested in various communication and clinical measurement applications.

One ground-breaking feature of the WEBS system is that it digitises biopotentials almost …

Finite Element Analysis And Validation Of Hip Joints With The Main Types Of Femoroacetabular Impingement, Kevin Lucas Mitchell

Master's Theses

Current research suggests that femoroacetabular impingement can be a cause of osteoarthritis. Femoroacetabular impingement is a condition that can affect both the femur and the pelvis of an individual. Femoroacetabular impingement can cause damage to the hip joint and its surrounding tissues. The articular cartilage and the labrum are both affected by this condition. A cam impingement is where a bony protrusion develops at the femoral head/neck junction. A pincer impingement is where a bony protrusion develops at the acetabular rim. Often, patients are seen with a combination of both impingements. The main goal of this study was to computationally …

Optimization Problem Formulation For Predicting Knee Muscle And Contact Forces During Gait, Gil Serrancolí, Jonathan P. Walter, Allison Kinney, Benjamin J. Fregly, Josep M. Font-Llagunes

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The human body has more muscles than degrees of freedom (DOF), which leads to indeterminacy in the muscle force calculation. In this study, an optimization problem to estimate the lower-limb muscle forces during a gait cycle of a patient wearing an instrumented knee prosthesis is formulated. It consists of simulating muscle excitations in a physiological way while muscle parameters are calibrated.

A Lateral Flow Smart Phone Image Analysis Diagnostic, Christina Holly Tyrrell

Master's Theses

A low cost compact diagnostic has many implications in today’s society. Smart phone technology has exponentially grown and with it the imaging capabilities associated with smart phones. The goals of this research are i) to determine the feasibility of combining in the field smart phone images with color dependent assay results, ii) to develop a MatLab® image analysis code to analyze these results, and iii) compare limits of detection between the un-aided eye and MatLab® image analysis software.

Orange G dye is used to create a stock solution and subsequent titers for analysis. Autocad is used to design an assay …

Biofabrication Of Scaffolds For Intervertebral Disc (Ivd) Tissue Regeneration, Benjamin Whatley

All Dissertations

The ultimate goal of tissue regeneration is to replace damaged or diseased tissue with a cell-based or biomaterial-based tissue that accurately mimics the functionality, biology, mechanics, and cellular and extracellular matrix (ECM) composition of the native tissue. Specifically, the ability to control the architecture of tissue engineered constructs plays a vital role in all of these issues as scaffold architecture has an affect on function, biomechanics, and cellular behavior. Many tissue engineered scaffolds focus on the ability to mimic natural tissue by simulating the ECM due to the fact that in each distinct tissue, the ECM serves as a structural …