Engineering Commons^™

Production Of Living Nanoparticles For Blood Cancer Therapy, Michael Pierotti, Matthew Piro, Peter Mitchell

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Current cancer therapies leave much to be desired because they are very harmful to the patient and cause a significant decrease in quality of life. Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) are a promising novel approach for treating specific types of leukemia due to their binding affinity for proteins expressed solely on leukemia B cells. This approach increases specificity of how cells receive treatment, thus allowing for the destruction of cancerous cells while leaving the healthy cells unharmed. In this experiment, we show that production of CAR expressing exosomes (liposome like vesicles produced naturally by human cells) is possible through cell transfection. …

Engineered Living Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Inflammatory Diseases, Annie Brown, Alex Campanelli, Adarsh Tantry

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a widespread, debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by painful inflammation of the joints. Current treatments for RA are either ineffective, expensive, or have undesirable effects, such as an adverse immune response. To mitigate these effects, we have designed an exosome-based treatment for inflammation. We chose to utilize exosomes for their longer half-life in the body, better penetrative capacity, and biocompatibility, thus improving upon previous RA treatments. To do this, we created a stable cell line to produce exosomes modified at the surface to express a tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR), which possesses the ability to act as …

Modifying The Size Of Nanopores Of Alginate Microcapsules, Andrea Filler, Jordan Levine, Jerard Roniel Madamba, Natalie Ploof

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Alginate hydrogels provide desirable biocompatibility and material properties for various biomedical applications, but are limited by the polymer's natural pore size. With the rise of nanotechnology, the desired crosslinked pore size range of 30 nm to 100 nm has not yet been achieved. This project aimed to develop a method to increase the pore size of alginate-based hydrogels in a reproducible manner without compromising their structural integrity. Experimental methods included altering alginate composition using carboxymethyl cellulose or gelatin and inducing conformational changes via Mach-1TM mechanical compression. Fluorescence microscopy was used to visualize the diffusion of FITC-dextran weight markers and fluorescent …

Cervis: Cervical Cancer Early Response Visual Identification System, Evangelia Bouzos, Ivy Fernandes, Marina Predovic

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Our goal is to make a positive impact in the cervical cancer diagnostic space through the development of an accurate, cost effective solution that enables women in low resource settings to test for cervical cancer on a frugal and effective platform. In developed countries, we rely on regular preventive care, such as pap smears, to identify any cellular abnormalities that may indicate the disease state. However, due to the high cost and laboratory requirements of this procedure, women in low resource settings typically do not have access to this procedure. Since they are not regularly screened and often have little …

Meshr: A Modular, Economical Skin Graft Hand Roller, Maggie Alt, Josée Fournier, Madeline Krenek, Will Paton

Bioengineering Senior Theses

In South Africa and around the world, the rates of severe burns are a significant health issue. Skin grafts are used to improve the function and appearance of the burned area and reduce the amount of time a patient is in the hospital. To minimize the amount of skin needed and maximize the coverage of the graft, the harvested sample is meshed in a lattice pattern so it can expand and graft a much larger surface area. Unfortunately, the current methods and devices used in both high and low-income countries have been optimized for hospitals with larger budgets and more …

Milkguard: Low-Cost, Polymer-Based Sensor For The Detection Of Escherichia Coli In Donated Human Breast Milk, Maggie May, Nicholas Kikuchi, Matthew Zweber

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Breast milk, the gold standard for infant nutrition, could prevent up to 13% of child deaths worldwide. However, many mothers are unable to breastfeed due to health conditions and other factors. Because of this, a network of more than 500+ human milk banks, which collect and distribute donated breast milk to infants, have emerged worldwide. However, operational costs to ensure the safety of this milk remain time-intensive and costly.

There are no existing diagnostics for rapid and on-site detection of bacterial contaminants in donated milk. Currently, many milk banks send samples to outside laboratories for bacterial culturing tests, which take …

Active Auxetic Heel Support For Achilles Tendon Therapy, Anna Hinrichs, Kseniya Malukhina, Ishaan Sharma, Micaela Vierra

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The Achilles tendon, which stretches from the calf to the ankle, can be injured due to repeated daily activities or overstretching. In severe cases a tear in the tendon can prevent athletes from performing in games as well as individuals from completing their daily tasks. Achilles tendon injuries affect millions of people. The severe pain that occurs upon injury can take months to improve and for the Achilles tendon to heal. Our goal is to design an auxetic support to provide comfort, help heal the tendon, and allow the individual to continue to be active through the natural healing process. …

Hands-Free Wearable Crutch, Cooper Schwabe, Marcus Kraus, Tk Wasserman

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Traditional crutches have long been the primary mobility aid for patients with a lower-leg injuries. However, forced to place most of their weight on their hands and underarms while balancing on only one leg, users find that such crutches present a physically demanding, uncomfortable, and inconvenient means of getting around. To combat these issues, we propose a hands-free crutch that will attach only to the injured leg, increasing maneuverability while preserving natural walking mechanics. Within the last decade, other hands-free crutch solutionshave proven to increase user satisfaction by reducing fatigue, increasing safety and efficiency by allowing users to perform additional …

Development Of Stable Cell Lines For The Production Of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Targeted Exosomes, Anja Beard, Zach Ehlinger

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Exosomes represent a promising new approach to targeted drug delivery. Current research explores the ability of these naturally occurring nanoparticles to transport therapeutic cargo to specific tissues of the body and to subsequently enter the cells of those tissues. Human cells act as an efficient source of these nano-vesicles. Our project ultimately focuses on the establishment of a cell line that produces exosomes tagged with the RD114 protein, which allows for the targeting of hematopoietic stem cells. With the ability to deliver therapeutic cargo to these specific cells, exosomes can serve as a vehicle for many effective hematopoietic stem cell …

Engineering Synthetic Antibody For Prostate Cancer Detection, Kimberley Gonzalez, Tatum Prosswimmer, Cassandra Stawicki

Bioengineering Senior Theses

This Senior Design project seeks to manufacture an E. Coli based antibody for prostate cancer detection using unnatural amino acid incorporation. Current diagnostic techniques take advantage of the high binding specificity of monoclonal antibodies to detect the concentration of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in a blood sample. Production of this technology is lengthy and costly, while simultaneously incurring countless ethical problems related to animal welfare and accessibility. This project proposes a synthetic antibody that can be produced efficiently in single E. Coli cells and exhibits complementary binding to PSA. By incorporating an unnatural amino acid into a recombinant peptide sequence, …