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Articles 3571 - 3600 of 20622

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Maf1, A Repressor Of Rna Polymerase Iii-Dependent Transcription, Regulates Bone Mass, Ellen Phillips, Naseer Ahmad, Li Sun, James Iben, Christopher J Walkey, Aleksandra Rusin, Tony Yuen, Clifford J Rosen, Ian M Willis, Mone Zaidi, Deborah L Johnson May 2022

Maf1, A Repressor Of Rna Polymerase Iii-Dependent Transcription, Regulates Bone Mass, Ellen Phillips, Naseer Ahmad, Li Sun, James Iben, Christopher J Walkey, Aleksandra Rusin, Tony Yuen, Clifford J Rosen, Ian M Willis, Mone Zaidi, Deborah L Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

MAF1, a key repressor of RNA polymerase (pol) III-mediated transcription, has been shown to promote mesoderm formation in vitro. Here, we show that MAF1 plays a critical role in regulating osteoblast differentiation and bone mass. Global deletion of MAF1 (Maf1-/- mice) produced a high bone mass phenotype. However, osteoblasts isolated from Maf1-/- mice showed reduced osteoblastogenesis ex vivo. Therefore, we determined the phenotype of mice overexpressing MAF1 in cells from the mesenchymal lineage (Prx1-Cre;LSL-MAF1 mice). These mice showed increased bone mass. Ex vivo, cells from these mice showed enhanced osteoblastogenesis concordant with their high …

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Evaluating The Brain-Enhancing Mitohormesis Of N-Propargylglycine, A Suicide Inhibitor Of Proline Dehydrogenase, To Offset The Proteotoxic Mechanisms Underlying Neurodegeneration In Huntington’S Disease And Evaluating The Phenotype Of A Mutant Pdia3 Knock-In Mouse Line As A Novel Genetic Model Of Neurological Disorders, Fadzai Teramayi May 2022

Evaluating The Brain-Enhancing Mitohormesis Of N-Propargylglycine, A Suicide Inhibitor Of Proline Dehydrogenase, To Offset The Proteotoxic Mechanisms Underlying Neurodegeneration In Huntington’S Disease And Evaluating The Phenotype Of A Mutant Pdia3 Knock-In Mouse Line As A Novel Genetic Model Of Neurological Disorders, Fadzai Teramayi

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Biological Sciences Master's Theses

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is characterized by atrophy of the striatal and cerebral cortical neurons producing a variety of severe, and life-shortening neurologic symptoms including motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, psychiatric disturbances, and weight loss. As with other life-threatening neurodegenerative disorders, HD has no effective treatment capable of preventing or mitigating its underlying hallmark, subcellular and pathogenetic mechanism, that is, proteotoxicity. While it has been suggested that inducing brain mitohormesis might offer a promising therapeutic strategy, to date, no brain-penetrating mitohormesis-inducing agent has yet been identified or tested in any neurodegenerative disease mouse model. Recently, N-propargylglycine (N-PPG) was shown …

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Female Presence Does Not Increase Testosterone But Still Ameliorates Sickness Behaviours In Male Japanese Quail, Brenna M. G. Gormally, Kaelyn Bridgette, Aubrey Emmi, Delilah Schuerman, Patricia C. Lopes May 2022

Female Presence Does Not Increase Testosterone But Still Ameliorates Sickness Behaviours In Male Japanese Quail, Brenna M. G. Gormally, Kaelyn Bridgette, Aubrey Emmi, Delilah Schuerman, Patricia C. Lopes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Infections can dramatically modify animal behaviour. The extent of these changes depends on an animal's environment. It has been proposed that testosterone modulates the suppression of behavioural symptoms of sickness under certain reproductive contexts. To further understand the role played by testosterone in modulating sickness behaviours under reproductive contexts, we studied a species, the Japanese quail, in which female exposure rapidly decreases circulating testosterone in males. Males received either an immune challenge (lipopolysaccharide – LPS) or a control injection and their behaviours, mass change and testosterone levels were quantified in the presence or absence of a female. Both the presence …

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Targeting Aberrant Replication And Dna Repair Events For Treating Breast Cancers, Subapriya Rajamanickam, Jun Hyoung Park, Panneerdoss Subbarayalu, Santosh Timilsina, Kaitlyn Bates, Pooja Yadav, Saif S R Nirzhor, Vijay Eedunuri, Tabrez A Mohammad, Kwang Hwa Jung, Benjamin Onyeagucha, Nourhan Abdelfattah, Raymond Benevides, Grace Lee, Yidong Chen, Ratna Vadlamudi, Andrew Brenner, Virginia Kaklamani, Ismail Jatoi, John Kuhn, Robert Hromas, Yogesh K Gupta, Benny A Kaipparettu, Jack L Arbiser, Manjeet K Rao May 2022

Targeting Aberrant Replication And Dna Repair Events For Treating Breast Cancers, Subapriya Rajamanickam, Jun Hyoung Park, Panneerdoss Subbarayalu, Santosh Timilsina, Kaitlyn Bates, Pooja Yadav, Saif S R Nirzhor, Vijay Eedunuri, Tabrez A Mohammad, Kwang Hwa Jung, Benjamin Onyeagucha, Nourhan Abdelfattah, Raymond Benevides, Grace Lee, Yidong Chen, Ratna Vadlamudi, Andrew Brenner, Virginia Kaklamani, Ismail Jatoi, John Kuhn, Robert Hromas, Yogesh K Gupta, Benny A Kaipparettu, Jack L Arbiser, Manjeet K Rao

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The major limitations of DNA-targeting chemotherapy drugs include life-threatening toxicity, acquired resistance and occurrence of secondary cancers. Here, we report a small molecule, Carbazole Blue (CB), that binds to DNA and inhibits cancer growth and metastasis by targeting DNA-related processes that tumor cells use but not the normal cells. We show that CB inhibits the expression of pro-tumorigenic genes that promote unchecked replication and aberrant DNA repair that cancer cells get addicted to survive. In contrast to chemotherapy drugs, systemic delivery of CB suppressed breast cancer growth and metastasis with no toxicity in pre-clinical mouse models. Using PDX and ex …

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Studying Tissue Specific Diversity Of Splicing Regulator Muscleblind, Davron Hanley May 2022

Studying Tissue Specific Diversity Of Splicing Regulator Muscleblind, Davron Hanley

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

The muscleblind (mbl) family of RNA-binding proteins regulates alternative splicing, determining mRNA transcript composition for various types of tissue, and has been implicated in myotonic dystrophy. The mbl gene is subject to alternative splicing in Drosophila, leading to multiple isoforms, and has several paralogs in humans. Mbl proteins vary significantly in length, although the significance of such diversity and the role of specific isoforms have not been fully explored. Using immunofluorescence microscopy and polyclonal serum, we analyzed Mbl protein expression across adult Drosophila tissues. Mbl was detected in various locations, including the brain, gonads, muscle, and gut epithelium. Skeletal muscles …

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Seasonal Migration Distance Varies With Natal Dispersal And Predicts Parasitic Infection In Song Sparrows, Tosha R. Kelly, Heather L. Macgillivray, Yanina Sarquis-Adamson, Matthew J. Watson, Keith A. Hobson, Elizabeth A. Macdougall-Shackleton May 2022

Seasonal Migration Distance Varies With Natal Dispersal And Predicts Parasitic Infection In Song Sparrows, Tosha R. Kelly, Heather L. Macgillivray, Yanina Sarquis-Adamson, Matthew J. Watson, Keith A. Hobson, Elizabeth A. Macdougall-Shackleton

Biology Publications

Seasonal migration and natal dispersal represent the major large-scale movements in the lives of animals. Individuals that are relatively prone to movement and exploration might thus be more likely to disperse and also to migrate farther. Such movement might be either negatively associated with parasitic infection (if infection prevents hosts from successful long-distance migration) or positively associated (e.g. if longer-distance migrants encounter more abundant or more diverse parasites). We examined whether natal dispersal tendency predicts seasonal migration distance in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) and whether migration distance predicts infection with bloodborne parasites upon arrival at the breeding grounds. …

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Bird Nesting Trends In Massachusetts, Dieter Rodriguez May 2022

Bird Nesting Trends In Massachusetts, Dieter Rodriguez

Biology Student Scholarship

Bird nesting data has long been documented for various species across the United States. While trends between temperature changes or precipitation on bird nesting have been studied for particular species, studies done on the effects of temperature due to climate change on bird nesting on the broader state level are lacking. Using bird nesting data and average annual temperature data for Massachusetts collected over a ten year period, I assessed the effects of temperature changes over time on bird nesting attempts and total eggs laid for all documented species within the state. BIO 340 final project

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Climate Effects On Butterfly Species Richness, Isabelle Heron May 2022

Climate Effects On Butterfly Species Richness, Isabelle Heron

Biology Student Scholarship

The effects of climate change on the surrounding biodiversity lead scientists to argue an “insect apocalypse” is approaching. Butterflies, as poikilothermic animals, meaning their activity is closely controlled by weather, represent a useful indicator to studying climate change. Scientists can detect changes in butterfly abundance which result in changes in distribution and abundance over a short period of time. BIO 340 final project

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Alterations Of The Gut Microbial Community Structure And Function With Aging In The Spontaneously Hypertensive Stroke Prone Rat, Huanan Shi, James W Nelson, Sharon Phillips, Joseph F Petrosino, Robert M Bryan, David J Durgan May 2022

Alterations Of The Gut Microbial Community Structure And Function With Aging In The Spontaneously Hypertensive Stroke Prone Rat, Huanan Shi, James W Nelson, Sharon Phillips, Joseph F Petrosino, Robert M Bryan, David J Durgan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Gut dysbiosis, a pathological imbalance of bacteria, has been shown to contribute to the development of hypertension (HT), systemic- and neuro-inflammation, and blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption in spontaneously hypertensive stroke prone rats (SHRSP). However, to date individual species that contribute to HT in the SHRSP model have not been identified. One potential reason, is that nearly all studies of the SHRSP gut microbiota have analyzed samples from rats with established HT. The goal of this study was to examine the SHRSP gut microbiota before, during, and after the onset of hypertension, and in normotensive WKY control rats over the same …

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Cross-Modal Perception Of Identity By Sound And Taste In Bottlenose Dolphins, Jason N. Bruck, Sam F. Walmsley, Vincent M. Janik May 2022

Cross-Modal Perception Of Identity By Sound And Taste In Bottlenose Dolphins, Jason N. Bruck, Sam F. Walmsley, Vincent M. Janik

Faculty Publications

While studies have demonstrated concept formation in animals, only humans are known to label concepts to use them in mental simulations or predictions. To investigate whether other animals use labels comparably, we studied cross-modal, individual recognition in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that use signature whistles as labels for conspecifics in their own communication. First, we tested whether dolphins could use gustatory stimuli and found that they could distinguish between water and urine samples, as well as between urine from familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Then, we paired playbacks of signature whistles of known animals with urine samples from either the same …

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Sodium Mediates Developmentally Plastic Responses In Plants And Herbivores, Luis Santiago-Rosario May 2022

Sodium Mediates Developmentally Plastic Responses In Plants And Herbivores, Luis Santiago-Rosario

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sodium plays a crucial role in organismal performance, trophic-level interactions, and eco-evolutionary dynamics. For plants, sodium impacts osmoregulation, growth, and water uptake. For animals, sodium is essential influencing osmoregulatory processes, muscle and neural development, and blood regulation. My dissertation aims to disentangle why sodium mismatch affects resource-consumer interactions and its influence on morphological and behavioral plasticity. First, I identified how sodium impacts plant performance and sodium accumulation strategies. I initially focused my research on understanding how increasing substrate sodium affects plant growth and tissue sodium accumulation strategies in controlled settings using a systematic review approach. I found that saltier plants …

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Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works: Abstracts, Emma Aggeler, Elena Arroway, Daisy T. Booker, Justin Bravo, Kyle Bucholtz, Megan Burnham, Nicole Choi, Spencer Cockerell, Rosie Contino, Jackson Garske, Kaitlyn Glover, Caroline Hamilton, Haley Hartmann, Madalyne Heiken, Colin Holter, Leah Huzjak, Alyssa Jeng, Cole Jernigan, Chad Kashiwa, Adelaide Kerenick, Emily King, Abigail Langeberg, Maddie Leake, Meredith Lemons, Alec Mackay, Greer Mckinley, Ori Miller, Guy Milliman, Katherine Miromonti, Audrey Mitchell, Lauren Moak, Megan Morrell, Gelella Nebiyu, Zdenek Otruba, Toni V. Panzera, Kassidy Patarino, Sneha Patil, Alexandra Penney, Kevin Persky, Caitlin Pham, Gabriela Recinos, Mary Ringgenberg, Chase Routt, Olivia Schneider, Roman Shrestha, Arlo Simmerman, Alec Smith, Tessa Smith, Nhi-Lac Thai, Kyle Thurmann, Casey Tindall, Amelia Trembath, Maria Trubetskaya, Zachary Vangelisti, Peter Vo, Abby Walker, David Winter, Grayden Wolfe, Leah York May 2022

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works: Abstracts, Emma Aggeler, Elena Arroway, Daisy T. Booker, Justin Bravo, Kyle Bucholtz, Megan Burnham, Nicole Choi, Spencer Cockerell, Rosie Contino, Jackson Garske, Kaitlyn Glover, Caroline Hamilton, Haley Hartmann, Madalyne Heiken, Colin Holter, Leah Huzjak, Alyssa Jeng, Cole Jernigan, Chad Kashiwa, Adelaide Kerenick, Emily King, Abigail Langeberg, Maddie Leake, Meredith Lemons, Alec Mackay, Greer Mckinley, Ori Miller, Guy Milliman, Katherine Miromonti, Audrey Mitchell, Lauren Moak, Megan Morrell, Gelella Nebiyu, Zdenek Otruba, Toni V. Panzera, Kassidy Patarino, Sneha Patil, Alexandra Penney, Kevin Persky, Caitlin Pham, Gabriela Recinos, Mary Ringgenberg, Chase Routt, Olivia Schneider, Roman Shrestha, Arlo Simmerman, Alec Smith, Tessa Smith, Nhi-Lac Thai, Kyle Thurmann, Casey Tindall, Amelia Trembath, Maria Trubetskaya, Zachary Vangelisti, Peter Vo, Abby Walker, David Winter, Grayden Wolfe, Leah York

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Showcase.

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Engineering Of A Multi-Epitope Subunit Vaccine Against Sasrs-Cov-2 Through The Viroinformatic Approach, Aamir Shehzada, Christijogo Sumartono, Jusak Nugraha, Helen Susilowatid, Andi Yasmin Wijayab, Hafiz Ishfaq Ahmad, Wiwiek Tyasningsih, Fedik Abdul Rantam May 2022

Engineering Of A Multi-Epitope Subunit Vaccine Against Sasrs-Cov-2 Through The Viroinformatic Approach, Aamir Shehzada, Christijogo Sumartono, Jusak Nugraha, Helen Susilowatid, Andi Yasmin Wijayab, Hafiz Ishfaq Ahmad, Wiwiek Tyasningsih, Fedik Abdul Rantam

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

The COVID-19 outbreak has infected millions of people worldwide, but no vaccine has been discovered to combat it efficiently. This research aims to design a multi-epitope vaccine using highly efficient B- and T-cell epitopes from the SARS-CoV-2 Surabaya isolate through a viroinformatic approach. First, the putative epitopes were linked together to develop tertiary structures and then docked with toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) that demonstrated a robust interaction with a low eigenvalue of 4.816138 e-06. Furthermore, the structure's high immunogenic response was observed and successfully cloned into the expression vector pET28a (+). This implies that the designed vaccine can prove effective …

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Thermoregulation And Spatial Distribution Of Lizards In The Southwestern Usa: Adaptation To A Changing Climate, Caleb Lee Loughran May 2022

Thermoregulation And Spatial Distribution Of Lizards In The Southwestern Usa: Adaptation To A Changing Climate, Caleb Lee Loughran

Biology ETDs

Lizards rely heavily on environmental temperatures to thermoregulate and maintain a body temperature (Tb) that optimizes physiological function and maximizes surface activity time. While early research noted the propensity for lizards to thermoregulate by shuttling between different thermal environments, it was long assumed that evaporative cooling via panting was an ineffective means of thermoregulation. However, evaporative cooling can potentially lower a lizard’s Tb significantly below air temperature, and thus allow lizards to extend activity periods during prolonged heat exposure. In this dissertation, I explore the varying abilities of lizards to thermoregulate while panting. I describe the metabolic and evaporative water …

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Antigen Presentation In Central Nervous System Antitumor Immunity, Jay Aaron Bowman-Kirigin May 2022

Antigen Presentation In Central Nervous System Antitumor Immunity, Jay Aaron Bowman-Kirigin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients face limited treatment options and poor outcomes. The median survival is less than two years, and there are no FDA approved immune therapies. Although GBM itself is an immune-suppressive, heterogeneous tumor, the lack of FDA approved immune therapies might be in part because the cancer immunity cycle is less well understood for GBM than for other tumor types. My studies focused on developing mouse models of malignant glioma that more faithfully recapitulate human GBM from an immunologic perspective, and on defining the role of the conventional dendritic cell 1 subset (cDC1) and lymphatic drainage in central …

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Functional And Anatomical Characterization Of Descending Periaqueductal Gray (Pag) Projections And Their Role In Pain Modulation, Jose Gabriel Grajales May 2022

Functional And Anatomical Characterization Of Descending Periaqueductal Gray (Pag) Projections And Their Role In Pain Modulation, Jose Gabriel Grajales

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Endogenous analgesic pathways embody a potential target for the development for chronic pain therapies. Previous studies have demonstrated the role of the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) in descending pain modulation. It has been proposed that tonic GABAergic neurotransmission at the level of the vlPAG serves to inhibit efferent excitatory projections that mediate descending analgesia. Disinhibition of these projection neurons allows subsequent activation of rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) neurons that inhibit nociception at the level of the spinal cord. However, lack of cell-type specificity in these studies has prevented the determination of the role of specific subsets of vlPAG neurons in …

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Regulation And Function Of Integrin Β3 In Bone-Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells In The Therapeutic Setting, Gregory Chandler Fox May 2022

Regulation And Function Of Integrin Β3 In Bone-Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells In The Therapeutic Setting, Gregory Chandler Fox

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in women, with over 250,000 patients diagnosed each year in the United States alone. The bone is the most common site of recurrence in breast cancer, affecting over two-thirds of patients with metastatic disease and presenting as the only evidence of distant spread in up to 30%. Clinically, breast cancer bone metastases manifest most often as profoundly osteolytic lesions that negatively impact survival and patient quality of life. Bone-targeted therapies such as bisphosphonates and the anti-RANKL monoclonal antibody denosumab have revolutionized the treatment of bone metastases through inhibition of osteoclast-mediated bone destruction; …

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Vcp: A Gatekeeper For Intracellular Proteopathic Seeding, Jiang Zhu May 2022

Vcp: A Gatekeeper For Intracellular Proteopathic Seeding, Jiang Zhu

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Protein inclusions such as β-amyloid, tau, α-synuclein, and TDP-43 are considered the pathologic hallmarks of many neurodegenerative diseases. These proteins are prone to misfold, aggregate, and template new aggregates. Accumulating evidence suggests that those proteins in their high-molecular-weight forms can serve as a "seed", spread through an interconnected brain network, and induce new inclusions. Therefore, it is essential to understand the mechanism of proteopathic seeding. In this dissertation, we performed a whole genomic CRISPR-Cas9 KO screening to identify gene modifiers of αS seeding. Within the screening, we found several hits of endolysosomal function and trafficking, including VCP. VCP is a …

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Understanding The Influence Of Individual-Level Sources Of Pathology Variation On Neuroimaging Measures Of Alzheimer Disease, Austin Andrew Mccullough May 2022

Understanding The Influence Of Individual-Level Sources Of Pathology Variation On Neuroimaging Measures Of Alzheimer Disease, Austin Andrew Mccullough

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of how current Alzheimer disease pathologic progression models interact with sources of individual-level variation in pathology to influence overall disease progression in a clinically meaningful way. Many sources of variation, both internal (e.g., genetic mutations, heterogeneity of tau pathology) and external (e.g., diet and exercise, sleep quality), are known to influence disease progression and symptom onset in AD. With the advent of therapies that have shown successful reduction of amyloid load in trials and the rapid progression of anti-tau therapies, we hypothesize that a better understanding of how …

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Defining The Role Of Rare Genetic Variants That Drive Risk And Pathogenesis Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Matthew James Rosene May 2022

Defining The Role Of Rare Genetic Variants That Drive Risk And Pathogenesis Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Matthew James Rosene

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia and is pathologically defined by the aggregation of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. Rare heritable mutations within the genes for amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilin 1 (PSEN1), and presenilin 2 (PSEN2) cause early onset AD and account for approximately 1% of AD cases. While the majority of AD cases are late-onset (LOAD), which is defined by a markedly more complex genetic architecture that is comprised of many genetic risk factors that influence AD through multiple cellular pathways. The advent of deep sequencing analyses have allowed for the identification …

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The Role Of Soxe Transcription Factors In Melanoma Initiation, Eva Tulchinsky Kramer May 2022

The Role Of Soxe Transcription Factors In Melanoma Initiation, Eva Tulchinsky Kramer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Cutaneous melanoma, a cancer of transformed melanocytes, has the highest mortality rate among skin cancers and remains difficult to treat once metastasized. Melanoma is characterized by high genetic heterogeneity, implicating epigenetic dysfunction as an additional regulator of oncogenesis. Indeed, an increasing number of epigenetic modifiers and modifications have been identified in melanoma linked to faster melanoma onset, and then targeted with therapeutics with success. Thus, identifying and mechanistically characterizing these epigenetic and transcriptional alterations in melanoma will further our understanding of their contributions to oncogenesis and enable more diverse therapeutic options. To evaluate global epigenetic and transcriptional differences between melanocytes …

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Macrophage Proliferation Machinery Drives Immunosuppression And Pdac Progression (巨噬细胞增值机制抑制肿瘤免疫促进胰腺癌发展), Chong Zuo May 2022

Macrophage Proliferation Machinery Drives Immunosuppression And Pdac Progression (巨噬细胞增值机制抑制肿瘤免疫促进胰腺癌发展), Chong Zuo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant in near all solid tumors and are involved in many aspects of cancer progression. The presence of TAMs is negative prognostic indicator in several cancer types including pancreatic cancer. Attempts to target this population by limiting their number in PDAC tumors have not achieved promising results, as compensatory resistance pathways have already been defined. The heterogeneity of TAMs puts another barrier into this targeting strategy, given macrophage subsets are important in maintaining tissue homeostasis and some in performing anti-tumor functions. Previous studies have shown that TAMs in PDAC tumors have dual origins – HSC-derived and …

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Techniques For Spatial Analysis Of C. Elegans Anatomy And Reporter Expression, Nicolette Marie Laird May 2022

Techniques For Spatial Analysis Of C. Elegans Anatomy And Reporter Expression, Nicolette Marie Laird

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Quantitative analysis of microscopy images is integral to investigating biological phenomena. Despite a variety of tools to aid in analyzing C. elegans images, quantitative microscopy studies are still difficult due to the flexible and deformable nature of the nematode. These differences in posture and shape must first be corrected before analysis. Manual approaches to solve these problems are time intensive and infeasible for large datasets. Additionally, current automated tools rely on high-magnification imaging using labeled nuclei as fixed markers for comparison. Labelling can be achieved either with transgenic animals or fluorescent dyes; however, both of these can be impractical for …

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Control Of Intestinal Turnover And Cell Death Through Canonical Autophagy Pathways Within Mouse And Human Epithelia, John Steven Ekman May 2022

Control Of Intestinal Turnover And Cell Death Through Canonical Autophagy Pathways Within Mouse And Human Epithelia, John Steven Ekman

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Regulation of epithelial turnover is essential for the maintenance of the structure and function of the intestine. The balance of intestinal epithelial turnover is known to be modulated by cell-extrinsic cytokines such as Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF). Likewise, cell-intrinsic modulation of survival and death is afforded by a highly-conserved, multi-step pathway termed autophagy. In this body of work, I have characterized a specific and potent role for autophagy in protecting mouse intestinal epithelial cells (enterocytes) from TNF-triggered cell death. Specifically, I have found that the autophagy initiation factor Atg14 is central to mediating this protective role. Utilizing conditional loss of …

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Sex Differences In Cancer Metabolism Contribute To Sex-Specific Treatment Responses, Jasmin Inge Sponagel May 2022

Sex Differences In Cancer Metabolism Contribute To Sex-Specific Treatment Responses, Jasmin Inge Sponagel

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Many human diseases show sex differences in incidence, age of onset, and outcome, including autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, and cancer. For most cancers, incidence and mortality rates are higher in males. Lung and brain cancers are no exception. Overall, lung cancer is more common in males. Furthermore, mortality rates of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common subtype of lung cancer, are significantly higher in males. The underlying reasons for sex differences in NSCLC mortality rates are largely unknown. Most brain cancers are also more common in males. The male prevalence …

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T Cell Regulation Of Regenerative Environment In Acellular Nerve Allograft Repaired Peripheral Nerves, Deng Pan May 2022

T Cell Regulation Of Regenerative Environment In Acellular Nerve Allograft Repaired Peripheral Nerves, Deng Pan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is common and has debilitating long term sequelae. Development of new therapies to improve regeneration following PNI is therefore critical. Acellular nerve allografts (ANAs) are increasingly utilized in the clinic for the repair of PNI and an improved mechanistic understanding of nerve regeneration through ANA is important for developing better therapies. Inflammation is an important aspect of regeneration, and the role of macrophage has been increasingly documented. Other aspect of inflammation has not been well-defined. In particular, there is limited understanding on the role of T cells in the regeneration of peripheral nerve. However, evidence in …

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The Role Of Fibroblast Growth Factor-9 In Influenza A Virus Pathogenesis, Bradley Edward Hiller May 2022

The Role Of Fibroblast Growth Factor-9 In Influenza A Virus Pathogenesis, Bradley Edward Hiller

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a respiratory virus in the Orthomyxoviridae family which causes both seasonal epidemics and pandemics. IAV preferentially infects epithelial cells in the upper and lower respiratory tract, resulting in a range of disease severity from mild upper respiratory infections to potentially-lethal pneumonia. Ultimately, the severity of symptoms and complications from IAV infection depends on control of virus replication in the lungs, the inflammatory nature of the immune response, and the effectiveness of post-infection lung repair to regain pulmonary function. An arsenal of secreted proteins in the lung regulates these antiviral, inflammatory, and regenerative activities during infection, …

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Characterizing The Role Of Interferons In Host-Microbe Interactions In Disseminated Murine Norovirus Infection And Steady-State Hematopoiesis, Forrest Walker May 2022

Characterizing The Role Of Interferons In Host-Microbe Interactions In Disseminated Murine Norovirus Infection And Steady-State Hematopoiesis, Forrest Walker

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Interferons are critical cytokines responsible for regulating host-microbe interactions in the context of infectious disease as well as homeostatic interactions with the host’s native microbiota. Although significant knowledge regarding the role of interferons in these interactions has been gained in the past sixty years, the diversity of microbes with which the host interacts and the plethora of interferons (with over twenty distinct cytokines organized into three types, based on their receptor utilization) which the host uses in these responses leads to a significant number of interactions which remain to be characterized. Here, we further dissect the role of interferons in …

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The Nature Of Phenotypes: Provoking And Measuring The Dynamic Processes Of Swarm Expansion, Predation, And Antibiotic Resistance In Myxococcus Xanthus, Linnea Judith Ritchie May 2022

The Nature Of Phenotypes: Provoking And Measuring The Dynamic Processes Of Swarm Expansion, Predation, And Antibiotic Resistance In Myxococcus Xanthus, Linnea Judith Ritchie

Dissertations - ALL

The question of how genotype affects phenotype has fascinated and puzzled scientists for generations. Regardless of organism, the correlation between observation and underlying condition is necessary for scientists to understand the world around us. Myxococcus xanthus, a fascinating organism with a large genome (7,314 genes), is known for complex social behaviors and is an excellent model system for the study of this relationship. Upon starvation, M. xanthus cells condense into large multicellular aggregates to await renewed nutrient availability. M. xanthus cells swarm together on surfaces as a predatory biofilm, lysing and killing prey as a singular unit. During predation, swarms …

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Winter Use Of Winyah Bay, Sc By The Spiny Dogfish (Squalus Acanthias), And Their Movements South Of Cape Hatteras, Nc, Meredith L. Langford May 2022

Winter Use Of Winyah Bay, Sc By The Spiny Dogfish (Squalus Acanthias), And Their Movements South Of Cape Hatteras, Nc, Meredith L. Langford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

South of Cape Hatteras, NC, little is known about the coastal distribution and movement of the Spiny Dogfish, Squalus acanthias. Between January 2018 and March 2020 this study conducted winter demersal longline sampling in Winyah Bay, SC to investigate habitat use by Spiny Dogfish. In addition to monitoring Winyah Bay use through catch-and-release, 13 individuals were outfitted with implanted Vemco™ acoustic transmitters to monitor large scale movements along the U.S. East Coast. Across three sampling seasons 84 female Spiny Dogfish were captured within lower Winyah Bay. No males were observed over the course of the study. The mean fork length …

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