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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Structural Analysis Of The Bama-B Complex In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Abigael Gichaba, Nicholas Noinaj, Robert E. Stephenson
Structural Analysis Of The Bama-B Complex In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Abigael Gichaba, Nicholas Noinaj, Robert E. Stephenson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
There are 2 types of bacteria, gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria have both a plasma membrane and an outer membrane, while gram-positive only have a plasma membrane. The outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria have outer membrane proteins which are essential for the bacteria’s survival. Also located within the outer membrane is a multicomponent protein complex named the beta-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) complex. BAM is responsible for folding and inserting outer membrane proteins into the outer membrane. This protein complex serves an essential role but not much is understood about its function. In this study, two subunits of the BAM …
Expression Of Carbohydrates Biosynthetic Genes In Developing Soybean Seeds, Jayden Rosen, Karen A. Hudson
Expression Of Carbohydrates Biosynthetic Genes In Developing Soybean Seeds, Jayden Rosen, Karen A. Hudson
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
An essential part of livestock diets is soybean meal, which is a major source of protein, but which also consists of antinutritional carbohydrates. Antinutritional carbohydrates such as raffinose and stachyose lead to irritation to the gut for monogastric livestock as well as unhealthy weight gain. A major objective of soybean genetics is to reduce these antinutritional carbohydrates within the seed and increase the levels of good carbohydrates. This will lead to healthier livestock and better meat quality. To select genes potentially responsible for variation in carbohydrate levels in seeds, the expression of genes encoding several biosynthetic enzymes was measured during …
Targeting Pro-Inflammatory Function Of Microglia Using Small Molecules To Combat Neurodegeneration, Gabrielle C. Williams, Priya Prakash, Gaurav Chopra
Targeting Pro-Inflammatory Function Of Microglia Using Small Molecules To Combat Neurodegeneration, Gabrielle C. Williams, Priya Prakash, Gaurav Chopra
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Microglia are the brain’s resident immune cells that are responsible for maintaining homeostasis in healthy conditions. During injury or infection, resting microglia get activated and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1b, IL-1a, IL-6, etc. along with reactive oxygen species like nitric oxide (NO) to combat neuroinflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Inflammation is characterized by the activation of resident-immune cells in the brain called microglia that respond to the eat-me signals released by the toxic amyloid beta peptides as well as the dying neurons in the microenvironment. Recent studies have shown that activated microglia induce neuronal death by secreting …
Performing A Genetic Screen To Identify Factors That Promote Lncrna-Dependent Gene Repression, Chrishan Fernando, Cecilia Yiu, Sara Cloutier, Siwen Wang, Elizabeth Tran
Performing A Genetic Screen To Identify Factors That Promote Lncrna-Dependent Gene Repression, Chrishan Fernando, Cecilia Yiu, Sara Cloutier, Siwen Wang, Elizabeth Tran
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were once thought not to have useful functions in organisms but rather to be products of aberrant transcription. However, roles are being found for lncRNAs in beneficial processes such as controlling gene expression. In some of these cases, lncRNAs form R-loops in vivo. R-loops are nucleic acid structures consisting of hybridized strands of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) as well as the displaced strand of ssDNA. Formation of these R-loops is important for gene regulation by the lncRNAs. However, factors that promote formation of lncRNA R-loops are not known. The gene PHO84 is being …
Assessing The Influence Of Socials Calls On Bat Mist-Netting Success In North America, Karly A. Rushmore, Laura E. D'Acunto, Cheyenne L. Gerdes, Patrick A. Zollner, Joy M. O'Keefe
Assessing The Influence Of Socials Calls On Bat Mist-Netting Success In North America, Karly A. Rushmore, Laura E. D'Acunto, Cheyenne L. Gerdes, Patrick A. Zollner, Joy M. O'Keefe
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Since the introduction of the fungal disease White-Nose Syndrome in 2006, millions of North American bats have perished. For many species, the disease has caused over a 90 percent decline in abundance. With populations fluctuating as the pathogen spreads, biologists require improved methods of estimating bat demographics and abundance. Previous research indicates that mist netting success may be improved with the use of acoustic lures at mist-netting locations. Our research investigates which type of social calls improve the capture rates of North American bats, including the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). Social call types used include antagonistic buzzes, distress calls, …
The Role Of Osteocyte Estrogen Receptor Beta (Erβ) In Regulating The Skeletal Response To Mechanical Loading, Julia P. Townsend, Russell P. Main
The Role Of Osteocyte Estrogen Receptor Beta (Erβ) In Regulating The Skeletal Response To Mechanical Loading, Julia P. Townsend, Russell P. Main
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Estrogen’s biological functions are mediated by estrogen binding to estrogen receptors (ER). Understanding what role both ERα and ERβ have in bone maintenance and formation can contribute to possible treatment of osteoporosis. This study examined osteocyte specific deletion of ERβ in mice. The cross of ERβ-floxed mice with DMP1-8kb-Cre mice provided both experimental knockout mice as well as littermate control mice. At 24 weeks of age the left tibiae of all mice were mechanically loaded five days per week for two weeks to induce bone formation. Analysis of cortical bone was conducted using microcomputed tomography (microCT) to measure load-induced changes …
Seasonality Of Forensically Relevant Diptera In Northwestern Indiana, Sarah M. Stanley, Trevor Stamper
Seasonality Of Forensically Relevant Diptera In Northwestern Indiana, Sarah M. Stanley, Trevor Stamper
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Minimum postmortem interval (mPMI) estimations are critical to solving cases of equivocal death and the accuracy of these predictions can depend on the understanding of necrophagous fly successional patterns. In order to better understand the successional patterns of necrophagous flies, it is important to know the seasonality of forensically relevant fly species—that is, the baseline pattern of their presence and absence in relation to annually cyclic environmental factors. Since many environmental factors play a role in insect seasonality, it is possible that some of these factors can be summed to create an index that represents seasonality in a simpler form. …
Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve
Viewing The Extracellular Matrix: An Imaging Method For Tissue Engineering, Michael Drakopoulos, Sarah Calve
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
The field of regenerative medicine seeks to create replacement tissues and organs, both to repair deficiencies in biological function and to treat structural damage caused by injury. Scaffoldings mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM), the structure to which cells attach to form tissues, have been developed from synthetic polymers and also been prepared by decellularizing adult tissue. However, the structure of ECM undergoes significant remodeling during natural tissue repair, suggesting that ECM-replacement constructs that mirror developing tissues may promote better regeneration than those modeled on adult tissues. This work investigated the effectiveness of a method of viewing the extracellular matrix of developing …
Detecting Genomic Regions Responsible For Resistance In Arabidopsis, Valeria Cancino, Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, Rucha Karve
Detecting Genomic Regions Responsible For Resistance In Arabidopsis, Valeria Cancino, Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, Rucha Karve
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne plant root colonizing pathogen and the casual agent of bacterial wilt (BW) disease. BW leads to severe yield loss in a wide variety of agricultural commodity crops, such as tomato, banana, and pepper. In this study, we look at the plant-pathogen interaction between Ralstonia solanacearum and various ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana with the goal of finding resistant ecotypes. To identify resistant ecotypes, seeds are first sterilized and left to soak in the dark. Then the seeds are plated on agar media, transferred to a growth chamber, and allowed to grow for 5 days. On day …
A Novel Synthetic Yeast For Enzymatic Biodigester Pretreatment, Tianyu Tan, Mark S. Aronson, Arren Liu, Jill H. Osterhus, Melissa Robins, Suraj Mohan, Erich Leazer, Bowman Clark, Alexa Petrucciani, Katherine Lowery, James Welch, Casey Martin, Helena Lysandrou, Michael E. Scharf, Jenna Rickus
A Novel Synthetic Yeast For Enzymatic Biodigester Pretreatment, Tianyu Tan, Mark S. Aronson, Arren Liu, Jill H. Osterhus, Melissa Robins, Suraj Mohan, Erich Leazer, Bowman Clark, Alexa Petrucciani, Katherine Lowery, James Welch, Casey Martin, Helena Lysandrou, Michael E. Scharf, Jenna Rickus
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Lignin, a complex organic polymer, is a major roadblock to the efficiency of biofuel conversion as it both physically blocks carbohydrate substrates and poisons biomass degrading enzymes, even if broken down to monomer units. A pretreatment process is often applied to separate the lignin from biomass prior to biofuel conversion. However, contemporary methods of pretreatment require large amounts of energy, which may be economically uncompelling or unfeasible. Taking inspiration from several genes that have been isolated from termites and fungi which translate to enzymes that degrade lignin, we want to establish a novel “enzymatic pretreatment” system where microbes secrete these …
Determining The Binding Between Saga Subunits And Spliceosomal Components, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel L. Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake
Determining The Binding Between Saga Subunits And Spliceosomal Components, Peyton J. Spreacker, Rachel L. Stegeman, Vikki M. Weake
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Proper gene regulation is vital to the health and development of an organism. Determining the relationship between splicing, transcription, and chromatin structure is vital for understanding gene regulation as a whole. There have been previous studies linking these elements pairwise; however, no evidence exists for a direct link between all three. Recent data shows that splicing components of the U2 small nuclear ribonucleic protein (snRNP) co-purify with Spt-Ada-Gcn5-acetyltransferase (SAGA), a highly conserved transcriptional co-activator and chromatin modifier. We hypothesize that SAGA binds with splicing components through a multi-protein binding surface with certain core components based on preliminary yeast two-hybrid data. …
Interaction Between Insecticide Exposure And Trematode Infection Across Four Wood Frog Populations, Michael J. Hiatt, Jessica Hua Dr., Vanessa Wuerthner, Jason Hoverman Dr.
Interaction Between Insecticide Exposure And Trematode Infection Across Four Wood Frog Populations, Michael J. Hiatt, Jessica Hua Dr., Vanessa Wuerthner, Jason Hoverman Dr.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Amphibian populations are declining worldwide due to a number of stressors including pesticides and parasites. Conservation of these animals can be complicated because populations can differ dramatically in response to the same stressor. When consistently exposed to pesticides, some populations evolve tolerance through the process of natural selection acting across multiple generations. Alternatively, populations that are intermittently exposed to pesticides induce tolerance within a single generation. To date, however, there have been few studies examining the costs associated with these different stress tolerance mechanisms. In this study, we examined how difference in stress tolerance influence susceptibility to parasitic infections. We …
Electrophoresis Staining: A New Method Of Whole Mount Staining, Mitchell G. Ayers, Sarah Calve, Zhiyu Li
Electrophoresis Staining: A New Method Of Whole Mount Staining, Mitchell G. Ayers, Sarah Calve, Zhiyu Li
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Advances in tissue clearing techniques have allowed almost a ten-fold increase in the viewing depth of confocal microscopy. This allows for intact cellular structures to be rendered in 3D. However, viewing tissues to this depth is often limited to endogenous fluorescence as passive diffusion of antibodies via whole mount staining can take weeks. Our lab is developing a new method involving electrophoresis as a driving force that will promote active antibody binding deep into tissue, reducing the amount of time needed to stain for cellular structures. Due to the inherent charge within antibodies, they are able to be directionally forced …
Detection Of Foodborne Pathogens By Micro-Filtration Using A Continuous Cell Concentrator Device, Klaire E. Jeffries, Eduardo Ximenes, Michael R. Ladisch
Detection Of Foodborne Pathogens By Micro-Filtration Using A Continuous Cell Concentrator Device, Klaire E. Jeffries, Eduardo Ximenes, Michael R. Ladisch
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Protecting consumers from foodborne illness is an important health concern facing the food industry today. An important deficiency exposed by foodborne illness is the inability to track contaminated food back to the source in a timely manner. Although there are established methods that detect bacterial pathogen contamination, they are limited in distinguishing viable bacteria reliably and quickly. Currently, food pathogen testing requires lengthy culture steps, which many times are delayed even longer due to the lack of in-house testing labs. Typically, two to three days elapses between when the food is sampled and the test results are available. This study …
Identification Of Set1 Target Genes, William Beyer, Scott D. Briggs
Identification Of Set1 Target Genes, William Beyer, Scott D. Briggs
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
The Set1 complex, a histone methyltransferase complex found in S. cerevisiae (budding yeast), is the only histone methyltransferase responsible for catalyzing methylation of histone H3 at Lysine 4. It possesses homologues in other species, humans included. While yeast only have the Set1 complex, the human homologues of the yeast Set1 complex include mixed-lineage leukemia family (MLL1-4), Set1 A, Set1 B, among others. MLL1-4 has been shown to play a role in transcription, cell type specification, and the development of leukemia. One application of characterizing the role of a protein is that the information gained can provide insight into the function …
Synthesis And Characterization Of Nucleic Acid-Functionalized Nanomaterials, Brianna S. Carroll, Jong Hyun Choi
Synthesis And Characterization Of Nucleic Acid-Functionalized Nanomaterials, Brianna S. Carroll, Jong Hyun Choi
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium
Motor proteins such as kinesin move along microtubules in order to transport cellular cargos throughout the cell by obtaining energy from RNA hydrolysis which allows the cell to complete the tasks needed to stay alive. In this work, we developed synthetic molecular motors using DNA enzymes (DNAzyme) and fluorescent nanomaterials which mimic the functions and structures of motor proteins. A DNAzyme-capped CdS nanoparticle and a RNA-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) were used as a walker and a track in the motor platform, respectively. As a walking mechanism, the DNAzyme cleaved the RNA substrates in the presence of metal cations. The …