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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Effectiveness And Mechanism Of Action Of Modified Porphyrins For Photodynamic Therapy Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells, Hannah Brandon Jan 2019

Effectiveness And Mechanism Of Action Of Modified Porphyrins For Photodynamic Therapy Of Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells, Hannah Brandon

Honors Theses

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer that lacks the three molecules typically targeted for treatment. Standard treatment methods leave much to be desired--the rates of metastasis and recurrence are high and the prognosis for most patients with TNBC is poor. One potential treatment for TNBC is photodynamic therapy (PDT), which uses compounds called photosensitizers that are taken up by all tissues in the body. The tumor is exposed to light, activating the photosensitizer and creating reactive oxygen species that cause cell death. This method is relatively pain-free, effective, and does not harm cells …


Insects And The Evolution Of Developmental Pathways: Functional Analysis Of Genetic Sex Determination Mechanisms In Oncopeltus Fasciatus, Josefine Just Jan 2019

Insects And The Evolution Of Developmental Pathways: Functional Analysis Of Genetic Sex Determination Mechanisms In Oncopeltus Fasciatus, Josefine Just

Honors Theses

Natural selection alters genetic pathways over evolutionary time. However, different pathways have been shown to maintain mutations at varying rates, leading to different levels of conservation across developmental pathways. Sex determination pathways, in particular, show vast diversity across animals despite the fundamental conservation of biological sex itself. Here, I investigated the sex determination pathway of the hemimetabolous insect, Oncopeltus fasciatus. The large milkweed bug, O. fasciatus, is part of the order Hemiptera, which provides a relevant outgroup study to other insects in which sex determination has been studied to date. I studied three sex determination genes, intersex, fruitless …


Killing Breast Cancer One Porphyrin At A Time, Taylor C. Lymburner Jan 2019

Killing Breast Cancer One Porphyrin At A Time, Taylor C. Lymburner

Honors Theses

New treatments for cancer are continuously being developed and improved. One such treatment is Photodynamic Therapy, more commonly referred to as PDT. PDT is quickly becoming more popular due to its relative lack of side effects that are present in other treatments. In PDT, light-sensitive agents are required and are activated by light in the targeted cells. There are many types of PDT agents but the one focused on in this research is a four-pyrrole ring structure known as a porphyrin. The combination of H2 TPPC with 3- amino-oxetane-3-yl-methanol created the final product ofH2TPP-Oxo-MeOH. Once the porphyrin was formed, it …


Examining The Effects Of Fadrozole, An Aromatase Inhibitor, On Testosterone And Estrogen Production Of Domestic Chicken Embryos (Gallus Gallus), Abby E. Joseph Jan 2019

Examining The Effects Of Fadrozole, An Aromatase Inhibitor, On Testosterone And Estrogen Production Of Domestic Chicken Embryos (Gallus Gallus), Abby E. Joseph

Honors Theses

The hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is responsible for the production of the hormones testosterone and estradiol, and testosterone is thought to contribute to regulation of the axis through a negative feedback mechanism. Regulation by negative feedback involves the product of a pathway turning off that pathway when enough product is made. However, because the enzyme P450 aromatase converts testosterone to estradiol, estradiol may also contribute to regulation of the HPG axis and other phenomena that have been attributed to testosterone, like the inhibition of immune function. Previous studies have injected birds with an aromatase inhibitor (presumably reducing estradiol production) and shown …