Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering Commons^™

Population Balance Modeling Of Conjugation In Enterococcus Faecalis, Jeremy Binagia, Vu Tran, Che-Chi Shu, Doraiswami Ramkrishna

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In the bacteria species Enterococcus faecalis, transfer of plasmid pCF10 by conjugation between donor cells that possess sets of genes conferring drug resistance and recipient cells leads to the spread of this resistance in a population. A complex signaling molecule network is responsible for communication between recipient and donor cells. Up to this point, the nature of these signaling molecules has been modeled deterministically from the point of view of an “average” cell. While this view has been cured slightly by stochastic treatments, a model is needed that better accounts for the individual nature of each cell, each cell’s interactions …

Characterization Of Swelling Ratio And Water Content Of Hydrogels For Cartilage Engineering Applications, Emily E. Gill, Renay S.-C. Su, Julie C. Liu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Due to the high prevalence of arthritis and cartilage-related injuries, tissue engineers are studying ways to grow cartilage tissue replacements. Resilin, an elastomeric protein found in insect cuticles, is known for its extraordinary resilience and elasticity. In previous studies, recombinant resilin-based hydrogels, or cross-linked protein networks, exhibited potential for use in cartilage tissue scaffolds. Our lab successfully developed resilin-based proteins with a sequence based on the mosquito gene and showed that resilin-based hydrogels possess mechanical properties of the same order of magnitude as native articular cartilage. In addition, these mechanical properties can be controlled by changing the protein concentration. To …

Application Of Membrane Processes For Concentration And Separation Of Sugar Streams In Biofuel Production, Mohammadmahdi Malmali

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The overall objective of this study was identification and development of a sugar concentration/separation membrane filtration unit to improve the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass into chemicals and fuels. This thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part is about our studies on the use of nanofiltration membranes for concentration of sugars in a lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate. In addition, the feasibility of simultaneous removal of acetic acid, 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural and furfural from the hydrolysate has also been investigated. The results obtained indicate that both concentration of sugars and removal of hydrolysis degradation products is feasible. However, careful selection of the …

Production Of Recombinant Human Coagulation Factor Ix By Transgenic Pig, Weijie Xu

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Hemophilia B is the congenital bleeding disorder caused by deficiency in functional coagulation factor IX (FIX) and about 28,000 patients worldwide in 2012. And current treatment is restricted to protein-replacement therapy, which required FIX concentrates for patients’ life-time. Approximately 1 billion units FIX were consumed in 2012. However, still about 70-80% patients, mostly in developing countries, received inadequate or no treatment because of the unavailable and/or unaffordable FIX concentrates. Considering safety reasons, e.g. transmission of blood-borne diseases, the recombinant human FIX (rFIX) is recommended other than the plasma-derived FIX. However, only one rFIX is currently available on the market. The …

Pharmacokinetic Characterization Of Procoagulation Proteins, Nicholas C. Vanderslice

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The cessation of bleeding in mammals occurs due to a well-conserved sequence of protein activation known as the coagulation cascade. However, people who have a deficiency in one or more proteins in this cascade, whether due to genetics or blood loss, struggle to maintain hemostasis. In order to aid patients in the restoration of hemostasis, exogenous proteins are often administered in response to bleeding events. However, these proteins are limited and costly due to limited supply of donor blood available for the production of plasma-derived proteins and the high cost of mammalian cell bio-reactors required for the production of recombinant …

Developent Of A Phospholipid Encapsulation Process For Quantum Dots To Be Used In Biologic Applications, Logan Grimes

Master's Theses

The American Cancer Society predicts that 1,665,540 people will be diagnosed with cancer, and 585,720 people will die from cancer in 2014. One of the most common types of cancer in the United States is skin cancer. Melanoma alone is predicted to account for 10,000 of the cancer related deaths in 2014. As a highly mobile and aggressive form of cancer, melanoma is difficult to fight once it has metastasized through the body. Early detection in such varieties of cancer is critical in improving survival rates in afflicted patients. Present methods of detection rely on visual examination of suspicious regions …

Hydrodynamic Cfd Modeling Of A Pharmaceutical Reactor Vessel Provided With A Retreat-Blade Impeller Under Different Baffling Conditions, Christopher G. Foehner

Theses

In the pharmaceutical industry, glass-lined reactors and vessels are often utilized to carry out a variety of different unit operations. Within these systems, both the vessel and impellers are typically glass-lined in order to provide superior corrosion resistance, prevent product contamination, and enhance cleanability. This approach, in turn, often requires the use of different, and sometimes sub-optimal, baffling conditions, which affect the hydrodynamics of the vessels and the reactor performance.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a computational tool that employs numerical methods and algorithms to discretize and numerically solve partial differential equations (PDEs) representing mass, energy, and momentum conservation equations …

Mechanism Of Insulin Aggregation: Applied To Alzheimer's Disease, Milos Atz

Honors Scholar Theses

Alzheimer’s disease, a debilitating neurodegenerative illness, is caused by the irreversible aggregation of beta-amyloid proteins in the brain. In Alzheimer’s brains, the protein can become disfigured, causing it to aggregate into long, insoluble fibers that deposit on brain tissue. Studying the aggregation mechanisms of amyloid proteins can lead to a deeper understanding of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and possibly point towards a potential cure or treatment for the disease. Heat induced aggregation of insulin provides a model system to study the aggregation of amyloidogenic proteins. This study investigates the early stages of heat induced insulin aggregation using dynamic light …

Validation Of A Diffuse Reflectance Microendoscope With Polydimethylsiloxane Optical Phantoms And Monte Carlo Modeling, Gage Joseph Greening

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

We have introduced a method for creating thin-film PDMS optical phantoms that can be used to validate a bench-top optical device called a Diffuse Reflectance Microendoscope (DRME). The DRME is acquires data on cell surface morphology and sub-surface diffuse reflectance, which may provide clinicians with the tools to diagnose oral cancer at earlier stages. Phantoms were created with PDMS. Optical properties of the phantoms were controlled with the addition of nigrosin and titanium dioxide. Depth of phantoms was controlled by a spin coater. The DRME was built with a combination of filters and dichroic mirrors to separate electromagnetic radiation in …

Poly (Glycerol Sebacate) Nanofibers And Nanofilms For Tissue Engineering Application, Stephanie Grace Cone

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the field of tissue engineering, the development of biodegradable scaffolds that provide both structure and functionality is a major challenge. The use of biological implants, such as decellularized tissues, provides a complete matrix with full tissue functionality, however, problems with immunogenicity often arise when implants from other organisms are used in treatments. As such, there are many benefits to the use of polymeric constructs in tissue engineering. The ability to customize the material, design, and size of an implant provides opportunities for increased structural support and controlled rates of biodegradation. The selection of polymers for tissue engineering applications requires …

A Peptoid-Based Targeted Drug Delivery System For The Treatment Of Metastatic Cancer, Hugh M. Purdy

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Development of a targeted drug delivery system is a critical step in the effort to improve cancer treatments. Such a system would greatly reduce the harmful side effects of chemotherapy by delivering toxic drugs directly to cancerous cells. Peptoids—synthetic compounds that can be easily produced from readily available amine monomers—have great potential for use in targeted drug delivery. This project aimed to develop peptoids that would bind to specific proteins expressed on the surface of cancer cells. These peptoids could be combined into a complex that would bind to the proteins with an even greater affinity than the individual compounds. …

Classification And Quantification Of Phenotypic Characteristics Of Normal And Dysplastic Oral Cells, Jackson W. Boice

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Introduction Oral cancer accounts for 2.5% of all cancer cases in the United States. The 5 year survival rate or stage 1 or localized oral cancer is 82%, and the survival rate of unstaged oral cancer is only 50%; therefore, early diagnosis is key. Current clinical practices for determining malignancy of tissue include physical examination and surgical biopsy, which can be plagued by high variability between observers and are invasive for the patient. Proflavine intercalates between base pairs of nucleic acids and has excitation and emission peaks at 455 (+/- 20) nm and 515 nm respectively; therefore, it can be …

Optimizing In Vitro Extracellular Matrix Production Using Polymer Scaffolds With Targeted Pore Size, Addison M. Walker

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Extracellular matrix (ECM) has been shown to provide the framework needed for healthy tissue to grow after experiencing an injury. The optimization of growing ECM is a pressing concern in the tissue regeneration field. From prior research, an in vitro approach for harvesting ECM has been created using polyurethane (PU) foams seeded with cells. Our approach aimed at discovering if the pore size of the foams increased the amount of recovered ECM. Scaffolds of targeted pore size were created by separating sugar granules using a sieve, packing the sugar into a cylindrical mold, then pouring PU over the sugar. Three …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Development Of Multimodal Membrane Adsorbers For Antibody Purification Using Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization, Juan Wang, Scott M. Husson

Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS)

No abstract provided.

Carbon Fibers Derived From Sustainable Precursors, Meng Zhang, Jing Jin, Amod A. Ogale

Chemical and Biomolecular Graduate Research Symposium

No abstract provided.