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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Fluorescent Protein Biosensor For Use In Parkinson's Research, Piper R. Miller, Keelan Trull, Mathew Tantama Aug 2017

Fluorescent Protein Biosensor For Use In Parkinson's Research, Piper R. Miller, Keelan Trull, Mathew Tantama

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Purinergic signaling is a type of extracellular communication that occurs between cells, mediated by adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and adenosine. In Parkinson’s Disease, purinergic signaling is disrupted, which contributes to neurodegeneration. In order to monitor this change in cell-to-cell signaling, there is a need for the development of a fluorescent protein (FP) biosensor to study the changes in the concentration of the signaling molecule ATP and its decomposition bioproduct ADP. This summer a genetically encoded ADP sensor that measures changes in ADP concentration was developed. This sensor utilizes Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) which is a sensing technique …


Low-Cost Diagnostics: A Novel Aptamer Screening Process, Junkai Xie, Kalie Janece Dicks, Oscar C. Sanchez-Medina, Chongli Yuan Aug 2017

Low-Cost Diagnostics: A Novel Aptamer Screening Process, Junkai Xie, Kalie Janece Dicks, Oscar C. Sanchez-Medina, Chongli Yuan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Low-Cost diagnostic and screening tools are of vital importance for low resources countries like those in Africa. DNA aptamers are becoming an important detection analytical tool to recognize small molecule targets, drugs and metabolites. Compared to alternative recognition motifs, such as antibody, protein and peptides, aptamers are cheaper to produce via chemical synthesis, stable at room temperature and relatively faster in R&D lead time (year). Over the past 15 years, various aptamer based sensors have been developed. Conventionally, aptamers were screened via a Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment(SELEX) process. We have improved the SELEX process to improve the …