Life Sciences Commons^™

A Tragedy Exposed? Clear Growth Medium Reveals Competing Roots, Christopher H. Karounos, Deric Miller, Philip Crowley, Nicholas Mcletchie

Kaleidoscope

Abstract

Tragedy of the Commons (ToC) is the exploitation of an open-access resource that is exploited by selfish individuals to the detriment of all. Examples include open sea fisheries, cattle grazing, pollution, deforestation and plants competing over shared soil nutrients and space. Tragically, these resources become depleted and plants become severely resource limited. Our study seeks to determine if a ToC causes two plants sharing resources to reproduce less successfully than two plants owning the equivalent amount of personal resources. We predict that plant root competition creates a ToC by increasing root mass while reducing reproductive mass. Our study uses …

Oswald Physical And Engineering Sciences First Place: An Improved In Vitro Model For The Study Of Endothelial Cells Using Micropatterned Surfaces, Lindsay Gray

Kaleidoscope

Sickle cell anemia, malaria, and cancer are a few of the deadly diseases that utilize blood vessels as a means of migration throughout the body. Adhesion of harmful cells to the endothelial lining of the circulatory system is an integral step in the metastasis of blood borne diseases. As a result of shear stress produced by blood flow through veins and arteries, the endothelium undergoes a distinct morphological change resulting in a more elongated and unidirectional morphology. It has recently been suggested that such changes in cell morphology can affect surface expression profiles, which in turn affects cell-cell binding and …

Oswald Physical And Engineering Sciences Second Place: Multiple Macromer Hydrogels For Multiphase Drug Release, David Spencer

Kaleidoscope

Biodegradable hydrogels are of interest for drug delivery applications due to their resemblance to biological tissue and their ability to absorb large amounts of biological fluids. Here, hydrogels were synthesized from multiple macromers to demonstrate step-wise degradation and multiphase drug release profiles. Control over the degradation and release profiles of multiple macromer hydrogels has potential applications in implantable, extended release drug delivery devices in which removal would not be needed after administration. Herein, macromers were synthesized from diethylene glycol diacrylate (A), poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (n=400) (H), and isobutylamine (6) in 1.2:1 molar ratios of total diacrylate to amine with diacrylate …

Oswald Biological Sciences First Place: Development Of Three-Dimensional Lung Multicellular Spheroids In Air And Liquid Interface Culture For The Evaluation Of Anti-Cancer Therapeutics, Alexandra Tsoras

Kaleidoscope

The implementation of in vitro results to in vivo applications has limitations due to conventional two-dimensional (2D) in vitro conditions lacking the ability to create a physiologically representative model. This study investigated a three-dimensional (3D) cell culture technique to model lung tumors in vitro. A 3D lung cancer model was created by applying collagen (a semi-non-adhesive material) to a transwell, which allowed for nutrient transfer through the collagen. Two lung cancer cells lines (H358, a bronchioalveolar carcinoma and A549, a lung adenocarcinoma) were seeded on top of the collagen. The non-adhesive collagen allowed the cells to preferentially attach to one …

Oswald Biological Sciences Second Place: Rna Degradation Is Elevated With Age-, But Not Disuse-Associated Skeletal Muscle Atrophy, Aman Shah

Kaleidoscope

Aging and inactivity are both associated with decreased muscle size and protein content. The possible role of RNA degradation in the loss of protein has not yet been investigated. Therefore, we hypothesized that RNA degradation was elevated with muscle atrophy in aging and disuse. Brown Norway/Fisher344 male rats at 6 and 32 months were hindlimb suspended (HS) for 14 days to induce muscle atrophy or remained weight bearing (WB). Cytosolic extracts from gastrocnemius muscles were prepared for Western analysis of DCP-2 protein (marker of p-bodies) and RNA degradation assay. In vitro total RNA decay assay was performed using 30ug of …