Biological Engineering Commons^™

Preclinical Development Of Single Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Optical Biosensors, Eric M. Hofferber

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High resolution, long-term monitoring of key biological analytes would improve patient outcomes by providing earlier detection of disease states and improved efficacy of treatment. One class of biosensors that have gained much attention in recent years are optical biosensors. Optical probes are attractive biosensors due to their noninvasive nature of detection, as certain light can pass through tissue, water, and blood. Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are a specific type of optical biosensor that fluoresce in the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum and offer unparalleled spatial and temporal resolution. SWNT have been applied as biosensors in vitro, …

A Novel Biochamberfor Modeling Of Atherosclerotic Arteries: In-Vitro Capabilities And Applications, Iman Salafian, Angelos Karagiannis, Benjamin S. Terry, Yiannis S. Chatzizisis

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

Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease that involves the lipid accumulation and inflammation of the arterial wall [1,2]. Despite great efforts,its pathophysiology has not been fully elucidated. Existent drugs can reduce its progression but there are no available drugs to prevent its complications [3,4]. Atherosclerosis remains the leading global cause of death[5].

The purpose of this work is to design and build a customized biochamber which can be used for the following studies:

•Study the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis in vitro & ex vivo

•Investigate the mechanisms of atherosclerotic plaque disruption

•Examine the direct effect of different anti-atherosclerotic drugs on lesions

•Use …

Breast Cancer/Stromal Cells Coculture On Polyelectrolyte Films Emulates Tumor Stages And Mirna Profiles Of Clinical Samples, Amita Daverey, Karleen M. Brown, Srivatsan Kidambi

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this study, we demonstrate a method for controlling breast cancer cells adhesion on polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films without the aid of adhesive proteins/ ligands to study the role of tumor and stromal cell interaction on cancer biology. Numerous studies have explored engineering coculture of tumor and stromal cells predominantly using transwell coculture of stromal cells cultured onto coverslips that were subsequently added to tumor cell cultures. However, these systems imposed an artificial boundary that precluded cell−cell interactions. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of patterned coculture of tumor cells and stromal cells that captures the temporal changes …

Morphometric, Biochemical, And Raman Spectral Analyses Of Muscle Damage In Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease: Providing Objective Criteria For Diagnosis And Treatment Monitoring, Kim Cluff

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), which affects approximately 10 million Americans, is characterized by atherosclerosis of the non-coronary arteries. PAD produces a progressive accumulation of ischemic injury to the limbs that is reflected in a gradual worsening in the myofiber morphology and oxidative damage in the gastrocnemius muscle. In this study, we evaluated the hypothesis that quantitative morphological and biochemical parameters of gastrocnemius myofibers change in a consistent manner during the progression of PAD, provide an objective grading of muscle degeneration in the ischemic limb, and correlate to clinical stage of PAD. Myofiber morphometrics were determined precisely with mathematical equations that …

Two-Dimensional Blood Flow Velocity Estimation Using Ultrasound Speckle Pattern Dependence On Scan Direction And Velocity, Tiantian Xu

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause death in the United States. Although emergency surgery and medicine can be used for cardiovascular disease treatment, the survivors will suffer for it afterwards. Ultrasound blood flow measurement provides a noninvasive way for cardiovascular diseases diagnosis. In this dissertation, three algorithms for blood flow velocity measurements were investigated and optimized. Feature tracking has been previously proposed for vector velocity measurement. In Chapter 3, the optimal amplitude and time thresholds for feature extraction were investigated to minimize flow estimate variance while providing sufficient spatial and temporal coverage of flow area. A new method of lateral …

Effect Of Extracellular Matrix (Ecm) Protein Micropatterns On The Behavior Of Human Neuroblastoma Cells, Ishwari Poudel

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent advances in patterning techniques and emerging surface microtechnologies have allowed cell micropatterning to control spatial location of the cells on a surface as well as cell shape, attachment area, and number of contacting neighbor cells. These parameters play important roles in cell cellular behaviors. Cell micropatterning has thus become one of the most important strategies for biomedical applications, such as, tissue engineering, diagnostic immunoassays, lab-on-chip devices, bio-sensing, etc., and cell biology studies as well. For neuronal cells, there have been attempts to distribute neuronal cells on specific patterns to control cell-to-cell interaction. However, there have been very limited understanding …

Development Of The Mask Scentometer, A Comparison Of Ambient Odor Assessment Methods, And Their Application In Ground Truthing Atmospheric Dispersion Models, Christopher G. Henry

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation is organized as four stand-alone papers. Paper No. 1 describes the development of the Mask Scentometer and reports dilution ratios measured during use by twelve different people. Dilution ratios at the Mask Scentometer’s five dilution-to-threshold (D/T) settings were found to be 0.35, 1, 2, 4.5 and 18. In Paper No.’s 2 and 4, ambient odor assessment methods were compared in both controlled laboratory conditions and in the field. Laboratory analysis of ambient air samples using dynamic triangular forced-choice olfactometry (DTFCO) did not correlate well with any of the ambient odor assessment methods. Average intensity-predicted D/T was roughly five …