Biological Engineering Commons^™

Dielectrophoretic Biomarkers For Cancer Detection And Cell Analysis: Integrating Microfluidics And Ai, Raphael Olumide Oladokun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) carries a five-year survival rate of 13%, driven largely by late-stage diagnosis and the absence of sensitive noninvasive screening tools. Current diagnostic methods lack the sensitivity to detect disease-associated systemic changes at early and precancerous stages, representing a critical clinical gap. This dissertation addresses the central hypothesis that PDAC and its pathological subtypes induce measurable, disease-associated electrophysiological changes in circulating PBMCs that can serve as correlative liquid-biopsy biomarkers. To test this hypothesis, this work asks: can dielectrophoresis (DEP), impedance and zeta potential analysis with AI-assisted classification distinguish benign pancreatic conditions (non-malignant control), precancerous lesions (primarily IPMNs), …

The Bacteriostatic, Regenerative, And Immunomodulatory Properties Of Extracellular Matrix Particles For Lung Injury, Keera P. Rhoads

Theses and Dissertations

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a prevalent, life-threatening lung condition, affecting nearly 200,000 Americans annually, with a 40% international mortality rate. There is no cure for ARDS, and current pharmacological treatments have limited effectiveness. Symptoms can be mitigated with mechanical ventilation, though this often leads to ventilator-induced lung injuries (VILI) and puts critically ill patients at risk of infections, including ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). A promising therapeutic is the extracellular matrix (ECM), a complex network of structural proteins and bioactive molecules that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties and prevent fibrosis. We aim to utilize the regenerative and immunomodulatory …

Advancing Biofabrication Methodologies To Develop Biomimetic Tissue Scaffolds For Musculoskeletal Applications, Nashaita Yezdi Patrawalla

Theses and Dissertations

Musculoskeletal injuries impose a significant global burden, affecting millions and generating an economic toll exceeding $14 billion. Tissue engineering has gained traction as a promising strategy offering potential for functional restoration of damaged musculoskeletal tissues. This research aims to advance biofabrication techniques for generation of biomimetic tissue scaffolds, by optimizing scaffold design and modulating fabrication process parameters to generate scaffolds for musculoskeletal regeneration with application-specific tailored properties. In this realm, collagen-based biomaterials have been extensively investigated for tendon and ligamentous applications, and in combination with bioceramics incorporated into the collagen framework to produce composite scaffolds that better recapitulate the native …

Shape Memory Alloy Capsule Micropump For Drug Delivery Applications, Youssef Mohamed Kotb

Theses and Dissertations

Implantable drug delivery devices have many benefits over traditional drug administration techniques and have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. By delivering the medication directly to the tissue, they enable the use of larger localized concentrations, enhancing the efficacy of the treatment. Passive-release drug delivery systems, one of the various ways to provide medication, are great inventions. However, they cannot dispense the medication on demand since they are nonprogrammable. Therefore, active actuators are more advantageous in delivery applications. Smart material actuators, however, have greatly increased in popularity for manufacturing wearable and implantable micropumps due to their high energy …

Creating A Collapsible Sling Lift Capable Of Transporting Patients Between Various Locations, Cameron Delaney Hillman, Macey Jewell Ross, Lydia Noel Miller

Honors Theses

As Senior Biomedical Engineering students at the University of Mississippi, we, Lainey Hillman, Lydia Miller, and Macey Ross, are required to complete a final senior capstone for our department. This project aims to provide a solution to a current unmet clinical need in the healthcare industry, thus our team sought to improve the lack of transportability of sling lifts. The current sling lifts on the market display numerous issues: heavy, bulky, use confined to certain areas, and use specific for only one type of transportation. To combat these problems, we designed a sling lift that was lightweight, collapsible, safe, and …

Matrix Stiffness Sensing By Nascent Adhesions And The Role Of Riam In Adhesion Assembly, Nikhil Mittal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Mechanical stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM) impacts many cellular functions such as proliferation, migration, and differentiation. ECM stiffness is sensed by a cell via integrin-based focal adhesions (FAs) by changing conformation and biochemical activities of molecules within FAs by the exchange of the force between the ECM and filamentous actin (F-actin). Cells in turn respond to this stiffness by generating traction force that plays an important role in many biological events such as tissue morphogenesis, stem cell differentiation, wound healing, and cancer cell metastasis. The stiffness of the extracellular matrix induces differential tension within integrin-based adhesions. Understanding stiffness sensing …

Air-Jet Bioprinting Of Stem Cell-Encapsulated Alginate Micro-Droplets For Organoid Biomanufacturing, Mirabella B. Stump

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomanufactured 3D-organoids show promise for modeling and treating various conditions, particularly insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type-1 diabetes). Pancreatic islet organoids serve as sustainable sources of insulin-producing β-cells, potentially restoring insulin regulation in patients and providing a long-term solution for diabetes. Hydrogel droplet printing is an emerging technique in regenerative medicine due to its advantageous tunability and biocompatibility; however, challenges of consistency, quality control, and scalability persist. To address these issues, we developed a novel air-jetting based droplet bioprinting system for the generation of monodispersed alginate micro-droplets. The objective of this project was to incorporate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into …

Insect Antennae As Bioinspirational Superstrong Fiber-Based Microfluidics, Griffin J. Donley

All Theses

Nature is frequently turned to for inspiration for the creation of new materials. Insect antennae are hollow, blood-filled fibers with complex shape, and are cantilevered at the head. The antenna is muscle-free, but the insect can controllably flex, twist, and maneuver it laterally. To explain this behavior, a comparative study of structural and tensile properties of the antennae of Periplaneta americana (American cockroach), Manduca sexta (Carolina hawkmoth), and Vanessa cardui (painted lady butterfly) was performed. These antennae demonstrate a range of distinguishable tensile properties, responding either as brittle fibers (Manduca sexta) or strain-adaptive fibers that stiffen when stretched (Vanessa cardui …

The Tin Man Needs A Heart: A Proposed Framework For The Regulation Of Bioprinted Organs, Linda Foit

Fordham Law Review

Each day, seventeen people die in the United States while waiting for an organ transplant. At least part of this need could be met by bioprinting, a technology that allows the on-demand production of custom-sized organs from a patient’s own cells. The field of bioprinting is progressing rapidly: the first bioprinted organs have already entered the clinic. Yet, developers of bioprinted organs face significant uncertainty as to how their potentially lifesaving products will be regulated—and by which government agency. Such regulatory uncertainty has the potential to decrease investment and stifle innovation in this promising technological field. This Note examines how …

Performance And Economics Of Solar Inverters And Module Level Power Electronics In A 1 Mw Photovoltaic System, Maxwell Criswell

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Photovoltaic solar panels convert sunlight to electricity in the form of direct current; therefore, a necessary component of every photovoltaic system is an inverter to convert the electricity to usable alternating current. There are various commercially available inverter technologies manufactured today such as microinverters, string inverters, and central inverters, as well as module level power electronic devices such as DC optimizers that are capable of improving system performance in string and central inverter systems. This thesis compares the performance and economics of five different inverter and module level power electronic systems through model simulation using Helioscope software. The five alternatives …

Development Of Light Actuated Chemical Delivery Platform On A 2-D Array Of Micropore Structure, Hojjat Rostami Azmand, Hojjat Rostami Azmand

Dissertations and Theses

Localized chemical delivery plays an essential role in the fundamental information transfers within biological systems. Thus, the ability to mimic the natural chemical signal modulation would provide significant contributions to understand the functional signaling pathway of biological cells and develop new prosthetic devices for neurological disorders. In this paper, we demonstrate a light-controlled hydrogel platform that can be used for localized chemical delivery in a high spatial resolution. By utilizing the photothermal behavior of graphene-hydrogel composites confined within micron-sized fluidic channels, patterned light illumination creates the parallel and independent actuation of chemical release in a group of fluidic ports. The …

A Study Of Protein And Peptide-Directed Nanoparticle Synthesis For Catalytic Materials, Abdollah Mosleh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanoparticles have received much attentions due to their unique properties that makes them suitable candidates for a broad range of applications. As the size of particles decreases, their surface area-to-volume ratio would increase which is the main cause of much attention. In addition to the size, their morphologies and compositions may also play important roles for defining unique properties. Nanoparticle synthesis include both bottom-up and top-down strategies. To control the process of inorganic nanoparticles synthesis one could follow the bottom-up approach to have atom-level control over their compositions, morphologies, phases, and sizes which is the subject of this work. Due …

Coatings On Mammalian Cells: Interfacing Cells With Their Environment, Kara A. Davis, Pei-Jung Wu, Calvin F. Cahall, Cong Li, Anuhya Gottipati, Brad J. Berron

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The research community is intent on harnessing increasingly complex biological building blocks. At present, cells represent a highly functional component for integration into higher order systems. In this review, we discuss the current application space for cellular coating technologies and emphasize the relationship between the target application and coating design. We also discuss how the cell and the coating interact in common analytical techniques, and where caution must be exercised in the interpretation of results. Finally, we look ahead at emerging application areas that are ideal for innovation in cellular coatings. In all, cellular coatings leverage the machinery unique to …

Enhanced Hot Electron Lifetimes In Quantum Wells With Inhibited Phonon Coupling, Hamidreza Esmaielpour, Vincent R. Whiteside, Herath P. Piyathilaka, Sangeetha Vijeyaragunathan, Bin Wang, Echo Adcock-Smith, Kenneth P. Roberts, Tetsuya D. Mishima, Michael B. Santos, Alan D. Bristow, Ian R. Sellers

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Hot electrons established by the absorption of high-energy photons typically thermalize on a picosecond time scale in a semiconductor, dissipating energy via various phonon-mediated relaxation pathways. Here it is shown that a strong hot carrier distribution can be produced using a type-II quantum well structure. In such systems it is shown that the dominant hot carrier thermalization process is limited by the radiative recombination lifetime of electrons with reduced wavefunction overlap with holes. It is proposed that the subsequent reabsorption of acoustic and optical phonons is facilitated by a mismatch in phonon dispersions at the InAs-AlAsSb interface and serves to …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2017, Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Alginate Hydrogels As Three-Dimensional Scaffolds For In Vitro Culture Models Of Growth Plate Cartilage Development And Porcine Embryo Elongation, Taylor D. Laughlin

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

The establishment of in vitro culture models utilizes tissue engineering principles to design functional mimics of in vivo environments in vitro. Advantages for the use of in vitro culture models include ethical alleviation of animal models for therapeutic testing, cost efficiency, and a greater ability to study specific mechanisms via a systematic, ground-up approach to development. In this thesis, alginate hydrogels are utilized in the development of in vitro culture models of porcine embryo elongation and growth plate cartilage development. First, the effect of scaffold and modifications to the scaffold were explored in both projects. In order to modulate …

Inhibition Of Bacterial Growth And Prevention Of Bacterial Adhesion With Localized Nitric Oxide Delivery, Julia Osborne

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Bacterial infections continue to be a problem at the site of an indwelling medical device, and over the years, various bacterial strains have become more resistant to current antibiotic treatments. Bacterial infection at an indwelling medical device can be dangerous and affect the performance of the medical device which can ultimately lead to the failure of the device due to bacterial resistance to treatment.

Nitric Oxide (NO) has been shown to possess antibacterial properties to prevent and inhibit bacterial growth. NO releasing coatings on indwelling medical devices could provide a reduction in bacterial infections that occur at the device site …

Biomimetic Oral Mucin From Polymer Micelle Networks, Sundar Prasanth Authimoolam

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Mucin networks are formed by the complexation of bottlebrush-like mucin glycoprotein with other small molecule glycoproteins. These glycoproteins create nanoscale strands that then arrange into a nanoporous mesh. These networks play an important role in ensuring surface hydration, lubricity and barrier protection. In order to understand the functional behavior in mucin networks, it is important to decouple their chemical and physical effects responsible for generating the fundamental property-function relationship. To achieve this goal, we propose to develop a synthetic biomimetic mucin using a layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition approach. In this work, a hierarchical 3-dimensional structures resembling natural mucin networks was generated …

Systematic Study Of The Biological Effects Of Nitric Oxide (No) Using Innovative No Measurement And Delivery Systems, Weilue He

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Nitric oxide (NO) is recognized as the most important small signaling molecule in the human body. An imbalance of NO is closely associated with many serious diseases such as neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, chronic inflammations and cancers. Herein two chemiluminescence-based devices (a real-time NO measurement device and a controllable NO delivery device) were developed to facilitate the NO quantitative study and obtain information for NO related drug design.

The first device used for real-time measuring NO(g) flux from living cells was developed and validated. The principle was to use a two-chamber design, with a cell culture chamber and a gaseous …

Design And Fabrication Of A Novel Electrospinning System For Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration, Carter L. Chain, Maggie R. Del Ponte, Meng Deng, Feng Yue, Shihuan Kuang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Disease and injury to human tissue, especially musculoskeletal tissue, is a prevalent concern to the public, affecting millions of people each year. Current treatment options involving autografts and allografts are hindered by limited availability and risk of immunogenicity, respectively. In order to overcome these limitations, a transdisiplinary regenerative engineering strategy has emerged with a focus on the development of biomimetic scaffolds that closely mimic the properties of the native tissues. For example, the structure of muscle tissue is characterized by oriented muscle fibers. However, fabrication of aligned nanofiber structures that mimic the anisotropic organization of muscle presents significant engineering challenges. …

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 …

Quantitative Analysis Of The Reaction Between Gliadin And Citric Acid Under Weak Acidic And Weak Alkaline Conditions, Wei Li

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

Gliadin was reacted with citric acid under weak acidic and weak alkaline conditions in both wet and dry states and the reaction mechanism was studied. The low morphological stability in an aqueous environment and inferior mechanical properties have restricted the applications of plant proteins, although these materials possess a unique structure, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Carboxylic acids such as citric acid are inexpensive and nontoxic chemicals and are preferred for crosslinking proteins and cellulose to improve the desired properties of the materials.

In this study, gliadin was chosen as a model of plant proteins to react with citric acid. However, previous …

Intracellular Signaling Networks In The Immune Response: Pathways Activated By Interleukin-2 And-4 Receptors And Their Roles In T Cell Proliferation, Kristen K. Comfort

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Cells sense and respond to chemical and physical stimuli through signal transduction pathways, which mediate cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and survival. The cytokines interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) are key regulators of the adaptive immune system, particularly influencing the clonal expansion and differentiation of T cells. At least in culture, both synergistic and antagonistic effects of IL-2 and -4 co-stimulation have been reported; the antagonism, when observed, is thought to arise from the utilization of a common subunit shared by IL-2 and IL-4 receptors. We have sought to characterize IL-2 and IL-4 signaling at the level of intracellular pathways activated …