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2019

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Capitalizing On Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case For Law Firms To Promote And Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being, Jarrod F. Reich Aug 2019

Capitalizing On Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case For Law Firms To Promote And Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being, Jarrod F. Reich

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article is the first to make the business case for firms to promote and prioritize lawyer well-being. For more than three decades, quantitative research has demonstrated that lawyers suffer from depression, anxiety, and addiction far in excess of the general population. Since that time, there have been many calls within and outside the profession for changes to be made to promote, prioritize, and improve lawyer well-being, particularly as many aspects of the current law school and law firm models exacerbate mental health and addiction issues, as well as overall law student and lawyer distress. These calls for change, made …

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Electron Decoupling With Chirped Microwave Pulses For Magic Angle Spinning Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Edward Paul Saliba Aug 2019

Electron Decoupling With Chirped Microwave Pulses For Magic Angle Spinning Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Edward Paul Saliba

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is a method of generating hyperpolarization of nuclear spins for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Coherent, time domain techniques make the possibility of DNP directly to spins of interest at room temperature and higher feasible in magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR, allowing for optimal experimental repetition times to be limited by the T_1 of the electron, rather than a much longer T_1DNP, with excellent resolution. The strong hyperfine couplings that make such direct DNP transfers possible, however, can lead to short nuclear relaxation times that result in broadening of nuclear resonances and reduce sensitivity. This dissertation …

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Elucidation Of The Role Of S100a8/A9 And Neutrophils In Chronic Tuberculosis, Ninecia Scott Aug 2019

Elucidation Of The Role Of S100a8/A9 And Neutrophils In Chronic Tuberculosis, Ninecia Scott

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is the number one killer due to a single infectious agent. Although, there is a vaccine against TB and antimicrobial treatments available, approximately 1.8 million people die each year. This underlines the importance of identifying and understanding mediators of TB pathogenesis to develop new diagnostics for early detection and therapies to treat individuals progressing to active disease. One of the cellular mediators that may play a role in TB pathogenesis are neutrophils. Neutrophils have been associated with active Tuberculosis (ATB); however, the role that neutrophils play within Mtb infection and disease is still …

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The Impact Of Mrna Structure On Trna Selection And Ribosome Rescue, Erica Nicole Thomas Aug 2019

The Impact Of Mrna Structure On Trna Selection And Ribosome Rescue, Erica Nicole Thomas

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The faithful and rapid translation of proteins from genetic information is an essential feature of the ribosome. The general process of tRNA selection is governed by the ability of the ribosome to select for the aminoacylated tRNA (aa-tRNA) that matches the codon in its A-site. The efficiency and accuracy of this selection depends on the ability of nucleotides to form proper hydrogen bonds. While much is known about how chemical alterations of tRNA and rRNA can impact the fidelity of translation, less is known about how similar changes to mRNA affect decoding. In this work, we describe several studies aimed …

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Cyanogenesis And The Genetics Of Local Adaptation In White Clover (Trifolium Repens L.), Sara Jeanes Wright Aug 2019

Cyanogenesis And The Genetics Of Local Adaptation In White Clover (Trifolium Repens L.), Sara Jeanes Wright

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Geographically widespread species experience varied selection across their ranges, and adaptation to local environments plays a critical role in their ability to persist. Understanding the genetic basis of local adaptation is a longstanding goal in evolutionary biology and provides practical information for agriculture and conservation. However, the genetic architecture of local adaptation has been characterized in relatively few plant species, primarily those with short lifespans and high rates of self-fertilization. Moreover, for plants, chemical defenses are known to play an important role in adaptation, but the extent to which they contribute to local adaptation is less understood. This dissertation provides …

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The Role Of Mitofusins In The Osteoclast Lineage, Anna Ballard Aug 2019

The Role Of Mitofusins In The Osteoclast Lineage, Anna Ballard

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondria exist in a highly dynamic network in many cell types, and mutations in mitochondrial transmembrane GTPase mitofusin2 (MFN2), a key factor that mediates mitochondrial tethering, cause defects in the nervous system. Intriguingly, the skeleton has been overlooked in patients with such mutations. Because expression of MFN2 and its homolog, mitofusin1 (MFN1) increase with maturation of osteoclasts (OCs), which are rich in mitochondria, we sought to determine the role of mitofusins in the OC lineage. Double knockout of Mfn1 and Mfn2 in OC precursors by Lysozyme-M cre reveals that mitofusin activity is required for OC function and maintenance of bone …

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Secretory Iga Enhances Gut B Cells Priming And Systemic Igg Responses Towards Commensals, You Zhou Aug 2019

Secretory Iga Enhances Gut B Cells Priming And Systemic Igg Responses Towards Commensals, You Zhou

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

IgA is the primary antibody response at mucosal surfaces and is reported to inhibit adaptive immune responses against gut bacteria. Here, we utilize an in vitro system to expand and screen IgA memory B cells for their ability to recognize gut bacteria in the context of secretory IgA (sIgA) deficiency in polymeric Ig receptor (Pigr–/–) mice. Contrary to the prevailing hypothesis that IgA provides an immune exclusionary function, we found that mice lacking sIgA showed decreased anti-bacterial IgA specificities as assessed using flow cytometry. IgA B cell responses against certain taxa such as those of order Bacteriodales showed greater dependence …

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Siderophore-Dependent Transport Paradigms For Iron Across The Bacterial Cell Envelope In The Human Pathogen Staphylococcus Aureus, Nathaniel Endicott Aug 2019

Siderophore-Dependent Transport Paradigms For Iron Across The Bacterial Cell Envelope In The Human Pathogen Staphylococcus Aureus, Nathaniel Endicott

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This work is focused on iron trafficking through ABC transporters in Staphylococcus aureus and combatting the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis by exploiting virulence factors as therapeutic targets. Specifically, the goal was to understand the role of a siderophore-binding lipoprotein FhuD2 in S. aureus iron trafficking. While S. aureus endogenously produces three metallophores for metal sequestration from the host, FhuD2 is thought to scavenge metals from hydroxamate-based xenosiderophores encountered in the host environment. FhuD2 is a critical virulence factor and vaccine candidate (Novartis) for MRSA. Since xenosiderophore scavenging systems are often dispensable, it was hypothesized that FhuD2 must be playing another …

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Force Requirements And Force Generation During Endocytosis In Yeast, Jonah Kyle Scher-Zagier Aug 2019

Force Requirements And Force Generation During Endocytosis In Yeast, Jonah Kyle Scher-Zagier

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Endocytosis is a process by which cells bring external materials into the intracellular environment and perform other essential biological functions. The main drivers of endocytosis include clathrin and actin, which help shape the membrane and form the endocytic invagination. In mammalian cells and other cells lacking a wall, the primary barriers to endocytosis are the bending rigidity of the cell membrane and surface tension. However, in cells with a rigid cell wall, such as those of yeast, this process is opposed by a substantial pressure within the cell, known as the turgor pressure, which is generated by a difference in …

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High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography During Passive Movie Viewing: A Platform For Naturalistic Functional Brain Mapping, Andrew Kelsey Fishell Aug 2019

High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography During Passive Movie Viewing: A Platform For Naturalistic Functional Brain Mapping, Andrew Kelsey Fishell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Human neuroimaging techniques enable researchers and clinicians to non-invasively study brain function across the lifespan in both healthy and clinical populations. However, functional brain imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are expensive, resource-intensive, and require dedicated facilities, making these powerful imaging tools generally unavailable for assessing brain function in settings demanding open, unconstrained, and portable neuroimaging assessments. Tools such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) afford greater portability and wearability, but at the expense of cortical field-of-view and spatial resolution. High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography (HD-DOT) is an optical neuroimaging modality directly addresses the image quality limitations associated with …

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Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang Aug 2019

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain the body. MS is the most common progressive neurologic disease of young adults, affecting approximately 2.3 million people worldwide. It is estimated that more than 700,000 individuals are affected by MS in United States. While MS has been studied for decades, the cause of it is still not definite and a fully effective treatment for MS is not yet available.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used extensively in MS diagnosis and for …

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Regulation Of The Yeast Cell Cycle Checkpoint Kinase Tel1 At Double-Strand Dna Breaks And At Telomeres, Sarem Hailemariam Aug 2019

Regulation Of The Yeast Cell Cycle Checkpoint Kinase Tel1 At Double-Strand Dna Breaks And At Telomeres, Sarem Hailemariam

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The work discussed in this dissertation focuses on two distinct areas that are critical for genome maintenance. Both areas are focused on the regulation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae checkpoint kinase Tel1 by the MRX complex. Tel1 kinase initiates cell cycle checkpoint in response to double-strand DNA breaks. Tel1 also plays a major role in telomere maintenance. Tel1’s function both in checkpoint signaling and telomere regulation is dependent on the Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 complex. In Chapter II, I describe a robust biochemical approach aimed at reconstituting the initial stages of double-strand DNA break response using purified proteins in order to address how the …

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Mechanism Of Activation Of Uvrd Helicase By A Processivity Factor Mutl, Yerdos Ordabayev Aug 2019

Mechanism Of Activation Of Uvrd Helicase By A Processivity Factor Mutl, Yerdos Ordabayev

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

E. coli UvrD is a superfamily 1A helicase/translocase involved in DNA repair, recombination, and replication. I investigated the role of E. coli MutL, a regulatory protein involved in methyl-directed mismatch DNA repair, in the regulation of UvrD-catalyzed DNA unwinding. Using single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and single round stopped-flow DNA unwinding experiments I demonstrated that MutL can activate latent UvrD monomer helicase activity and also stimulate UvrD dimer helicase activity. Furthermore, using analytical ultracentrifugation experiments I determined that a single MutL dimer is sufficient to activate UvrD monomer helicase. DNA unwinding experiments with a series of DNA substrates …

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Fast-Forward Protein Folding And Design: Development, Analysis, And Applications Of The Fast Sampling Algorithm, Maxwell Isaac Zimmerman Aug 2019

Fast-Forward Protein Folding And Design: Development, Analysis, And Applications Of The Fast Sampling Algorithm, Maxwell Isaac Zimmerman

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Molecular dynamics simulations are a powerful tool to explore conformational landscapes, though limitations in computational hardware commonly thwart observation of biologically relevant events. Since highly specialized or massively parallelized distributed supercomputers are not available to most scientists, there is a strong need for methods that can access long timescale phenomena using commodity hardware. In this thesis, I present the goal-oriented sampling method, Fluctuation Amplification of Specific Traits (FAST), that takes advantage of Markov state models (MSMs) to adaptively explore conformational space using equilibrium-based simulations. This method follows gradients in conformational space to quickly explore relevant conformational transitions with orders of …

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Determining The Genetic Contributions Of The Williams Syndrome Critical Region To Behavior Using Mouse Models And Human Genetics, Nathan David Kopp Aug 2019

Determining The Genetic Contributions Of The Williams Syndrome Critical Region To Behavior Using Mouse Models And Human Genetics, Nathan David Kopp

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental model caused by the deletion of 26-28 genes on chr7q11.23. The loss of these genes affects multiple organ systems resulting in severe cardiovascular disease, craniofacial dysmorphology, intellectual impairment, a specific Williams syndrome cognitive profile made up of deficits in visual-spatial processing with preserved language skills, and a characteristic hypersocial personality. The reciprocal duplication occurs at a lower frequency and manifests with diametric phenotypes to the deletion. This suggests that this locus harbors dosage sensitive genes that play a role in neurodevelopment. Large efforts have been taken to identify which genes are responsible for causing the …

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Multi-Omic Understanding Of The Evolution Of Xenobiotic Tolerance In Bacterial Isolates And Communities, Tayte Paul Campbell Aug 2019

Multi-Omic Understanding Of The Evolution Of Xenobiotic Tolerance In Bacterial Isolates And Communities, Tayte Paul Campbell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Xenobiotic compounds are any chemicals that are released into an environment by human action and that occur at concentrations higher than found naturally. Xenobiotics, including aromatic compounds and antibiotics, are recalcitrant to degradation because they are often toxic or mutagenic. Despite this toxicity, bacteria account for a large portion of xenobiotic degradation in the environment. Bacteria are able to adapt to these foreign chemicals, gaining increased levels of tolerance and increased rates of xenobiotic degradation. On the strain level, increased tolerance can be caused by mutations in individual cells or through the acquisition of genes from other cells. At the …

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Understanding The Transcriptional Mechanisms Underlying Dendritic Cell Development, Prachi Bagadia Aug 2019

Understanding The Transcriptional Mechanisms Underlying Dendritic Cell Development, Prachi Bagadia

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Dendritic cells (DCs) comprise an important immune lineage that plays a critical role in initiating and sustaining the proper immune response. They can be divided into two distinct branches, classical/conventional DCs (cDCs) or plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs). cDCs can further be classified as cDC1 or cDC2. Each DC subset exerts unique functions in vivo and are necessary for a complete immune response.The precise transcriptional programs underlying DC specification and commitment remain unclear. cDC1, cDC2, and pDC all arise from the common DC progenitor (CDP) in the bone marrow. How the CDP gives rise to all three DC subsets in an important …

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Visual And Chemosensory Pathways Associated With Male Courtship Decisions In Drosophila Melanogaster, Ross Mckinney Aug 2019

Visual And Chemosensory Pathways Associated With Male Courtship Decisions In Drosophila Melanogaster, Ross Mckinney

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Successful mating in diverse animal species often depends on ritualistic sequences of spatially and temporally coordinated behavioral elements. Yet, the sensory cues and neural circuits that mediate optimal mating display patterns are largely unknown. The courtship ritual in Drosophila melanogaster consists of a well-studied sequence of behavioral elements — including orienting, chasing, tapping, singing, and licking — that are known to depend on several sensory modalities, including both vision and chemosensation. However, the specific sensory inputs utilized by males to direct the spatial and temporal transitions between different elements of the courtship ritual are not well understood. In this thesis, …

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High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography During Passive Movie Viewing: A Platform For Naturalistic Functional Brain Mapping, Andrew Kelsey Fishell Aug 2019

High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography During Passive Movie Viewing: A Platform For Naturalistic Functional Brain Mapping, Andrew Kelsey Fishell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Human neuroimaging techniques enable researchers and clinicians to non-invasively study brain function across the lifespan in both healthy and clinical populations. However, functional brain imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are expensive, resource-intensive, and require dedicated facilities, making these powerful imaging tools generally unavailable for assessing brain function in settings demanding open, unconstrained, and portable neuroimaging assessments. Tools such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) afford greater portability and wearability, but at the expense of cortical field-of-view and spatial resolution. High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography (HD-DOT) is an optical neuroimaging modality directly addresses the image quality limitations associated with …

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Determining The Genetic Contributions Of The Williams Syndrome Critical Region To Behavior Using Mouse Models And Human Genetics, Nathan David Kopp Aug 2019

Determining The Genetic Contributions Of The Williams Syndrome Critical Region To Behavior Using Mouse Models And Human Genetics, Nathan David Kopp

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental model caused by the deletion of 26-28 genes on chr7q11.23. The loss of these genes affects multiple organ systems resulting in severe cardiovascular disease, craniofacial dysmorphology, intellectual impairment, a specific Williams syndrome cognitive profile made up of deficits in visual-spatial processing with preserved language skills, and a characteristic hypersocial personality. The reciprocal duplication occurs at a lower frequency and manifests with diametric phenotypes to the deletion. This suggests that this locus harbors dosage sensitive genes that play a role in neurodevelopment. Large efforts have been taken to identify which genes are responsible for causing the …

Go to article

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang Aug 2019

Quantitatively Studying Tissue Damage In Multiple Sclerosis Using Gradient Recalled Echo Mri Sequences, Biao Xiang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain the body. MS is the most common progressive neurologic disease of young adults, affecting approximately 2.3 million people worldwide. It is estimated that more than 700,000 individuals are affected by MS in United States. While MS has been studied for decades, the cause of it is still not definite and a fully effective treatment for MS is not yet available.Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used extensively in MS diagnosis and for …

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Mechanisms Of Nestmate Recognition Cue Production In The European Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera., Cassondra Leigh Vernier Aug 2019

Mechanisms Of Nestmate Recognition Cue Production In The European Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera., Cassondra Leigh Vernier

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Social insects are some of the world’s most ecologically successful animal groups, and their complex societies are considered one of the pinnacles of animal evolution. Since these organisms live in colonies composed of many individuals and stored resources, they are a target for intruders, such as parasites, predators and conspecific robbers. Therefore, many social insect species have evolved mechanisms for nest defense, including nestmate recognition, where guarding individuals at the entrance of the colony use cues on incoming individuals to determine whether they are nestmates or intruders. Although nestmate recognition is incredibly important for maintaining colony integrity and fitness, the …

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Siderophore-Dependent Transport Paradigms For Iron Across The Bacterial Cell Envelope In The Human Pathogen Staphylococcus Aureus, Nathaniel Endicott Aug 2019

Siderophore-Dependent Transport Paradigms For Iron Across The Bacterial Cell Envelope In The Human Pathogen Staphylococcus Aureus, Nathaniel Endicott

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This work is focused on iron trafficking through ABC transporters in Staphylococcus aureus and combatting the growing antimicrobial resistance crisis by exploiting virulence factors as therapeutic targets. Specifically, the goal was to understand the role of a siderophore-binding lipoprotein FhuD2 in S. aureus iron trafficking. While S. aureus endogenously produces three metallophores for metal sequestration from the host, FhuD2 is thought to scavenge metals from hydroxamate-based xenosiderophores encountered in the host environment. FhuD2 is a critical virulence factor and vaccine candidate (Novartis) for MRSA. Since xenosiderophore scavenging systems are often dispensable, it was hypothesized that FhuD2 must be playing another …

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Diverse Far-Red Light Utilization Strategies In Cyanobacteria And Algae, Benjamin Martin Wolf Aug 2019

Diverse Far-Red Light Utilization Strategies In Cyanobacteria And Algae, Benjamin Martin Wolf

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In their natural environments, photosynthetic organisms are often exposed to widely varied light environments. Species adapted to shade light, often found growing in lower layers of photosynthetic biofilms, must survive on filtered light alone. Filtered light is highly enriched in far-red wavelengths, which are normally unavailable for photosynthetic energy production in most oxygenic phototrophs. To overcome light limitations in filtered light environments, some species of algae and cyanobacteria utilize specialized photosynthetic pigments and antenna systems to harvest these far-red wavelengths. By sampling the natural environment and using custom-built far-red light growth chambers, I have isolated several species of oxygenic phototrophs …

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Self-Assembly Of Conducting Polymer Nano- And Microstructures For Energy Storage, Luciano Matteo Santino Aug 2019

Self-Assembly Of Conducting Polymer Nano- And Microstructures For Energy Storage, Luciano Matteo Santino

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Plastics are materials composed of many long chains of molecules with repeating subunits; strong interactions between neighboring molecules lead to the material used throughout the world. Plastics are commonly thought to be insulating, in stark contrast to the conductivity of metals. However, certain polymer structures were discovered to exhibit semiconducting properties, the subject of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000. Conducting polymers have a unique molecular structure with an electronically conjugated backbone, allowing electrons to freely travel both across the chain and in between chains. This work focuses on controlling the kinetics of the reaction between the vapors of …

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Effort, Avolition And Motivational Experience In Schizophrenia: Analysis Of Behavioral And Neuroimaging Data With Relationships To Daily Motivational Experience, Adam Culbreth Aug 2019

Effort, Avolition And Motivational Experience In Schizophrenia: Analysis Of Behavioral And Neuroimaging Data With Relationships To Daily Motivational Experience, Adam Culbreth

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Recent research has suggested an association between motivational impairment in those with schizophrenia and reduced willingness to expend effort on experimental tasks. However, few studies have examined the neural correlates of effort-based decision-making in those with schizophrenia. In the current study, we aimed to examine willingness to expend effort, the associated neural circuitry of effort-based decision-making, and the impact of experimentally-defined effort-based decision-making on daily motivational experience in schizophrenia. We recruited 28 individuals with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls to perform an effort-based decision-making task while undergoing fMRI scanning. In order to assess whether willingness to expend effort was associated …

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Brain Blood Flow And Metabolism: Variable Relationships In Altered Metabolic States, Tyler M. Blazey Aug 2019

Brain Blood Flow And Metabolism: Variable Relationships In Altered Metabolic States, Tyler M. Blazey

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Brain metabolism is usually thought of in terms of energy production. Decades of research has shown that the brain derives the majority of its energy from the oxidative phosphorylation of glucose transported from the blood into the brain. Because of this, cerebral blood flow (CBF), the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose consumption (CMRglc), and the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMRO2) generally are tightly coupled. Indeed, the coupling between CBF, CMRglc, and CMRO2 is robust enough such that many investigators believe them to be equivalent measures of brain activity.Nevertheless, research over the last few decades has shown that cerebral …

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Genomic Signatures Of Conflict And Cooperation In Plants And Social Amoebae, Katherine Sylvia Geist Aug 2019

Genomic Signatures Of Conflict And Cooperation In Plants And Social Amoebae, Katherine Sylvia Geist

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Arms races involve bouts of reciprocal co-adaptation to a social environment. We have a strong sense for how arms races drive the evolution of genes in purely antagonistic contexts, such as host-pathogen or predator-prey. In these systems, conflict that produces arms races between two parties results in positive selection – the fixation of adaptive alleles between species – for both parties. However, we do not have an equal sense for how arms races during cooperative enterprises shape genic evolution. If we assume that arms races affect genic evolution similarly regardless of context – antagonistic or cooperative – then we would …

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Mesothelium-Derived Factors Shape Tissue Resident Macrophage, Chin-Wen Lai Aug 2019

Mesothelium-Derived Factors Shape Tissue Resident Macrophage, Chin-Wen Lai

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The studies outlined in this thesis provide several new insights into Msln-related pathways necessary for peritoneal immune responses and mucosal repair. We found that Msln and its binding partner mucin 16 from mesothelium influenced peritoneal and pleural macrophage differentiation. We found that Msln was required for proper tissue repair after colonic biopsy injury and was required for maximal polyp growth in APCMin/+ mice. Overall, this work describes mesothelial and epithelial-derived factors that are important for tissue resident macrophage differentiation and wound repair after colonic mucosal injury. Understanding the complex interactions between stromal cells and immune cells will lead to better …

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From Single Cells To Human Disease: High-Resolution Phenotyping Of Male Infertility Models Using Single-Cell Rna Sequencing, Min Jung Aug 2019

From Single Cells To Human Disease: High-Resolution Phenotyping Of Male Infertility Models Using Single-Cell Rna Sequencing, Min Jung

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Male infertility is a complex disease that can result in significant emotional distress and treatment costs. Globally, male infertility affects 7% of males, and while its incidence is rising, its etiology remains elusive. In order to improve patient care, it is critical to identify the nature of spermatogenic failure in as many men as possible. The extensive cellular heterogeneity of testis has limited the application of bulk expression measurements to capture crucial information to dissect molecular mechanisms of defects in the infertile patients. Thus, the application of single-cell RNA-sequencing on male germ cells provides an amazing new set of scientific …

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