Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Monodentate, Bidentate And Photocrosslinkable Thiol Ligands For Improving Aqueous Biocompatible Quantum Dots, Hiroko Takeuchi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water-soluble Quantum Dots (QDs) are highly sensitive fluorescent probes that are often used to study biological species. One of the most common ways to render QDs water-soluble for such applications is to apply hydrophilic thiolated ligands to the QD surface. However, these ligands are labile and can be easily exchanged on the QD surface, which can severely limit their application. As one way to overcome this limitation while maintaining a small colloidal size of QDs, we developed a method to stabilize hydrophilic thiolated ligands on the surface of QDs through the formation of a crosslinked shell using a photocrosslinking approach. …

Expression, Production, And Purification Of Novel Therapeutic Proteins, Mckinzie Shea Fruchtl

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Interest in the production of recombinant proteins consisting of collagen binding domain (CBD) fused to a bioactive material has increased due to the targeting/attachment capabilities of CBD. For example, CBD fusions can be applied to the reversing of bone density loss and the repair of the eardrum, specifically, by choosing an appropriate fusion partner (parathyroid hormone or epidermal growth factor). The production of CBD fusions was examined using batch and fed-batch culturing of Escherichia coli to express the fusion proteins, and affinity chromatography to isolate the final product.

Different medium formulations, feeding strategies, and induction methods were tested in order …

The Geometry And Sensitivity Of Ion-Beam Sculpted Nanopores For Single Molecule Dna Analysis, Ryan Connor Rollings

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the relationship between the geometry of ion-beam sculpted solid-state nanopores and their ability to analyze single DNA molecules using resistive pulse sensing is investigated. To accomplish this, the three dimensional shape of the nanopore is determined using energy filtered and tomographic transmission electron microscopy. It is shown that this information enables the prediction of the ionic current passing through a voltage biased nanopore and improves the prediction of the magnitude of current drop signals when the nanopore interacts with single DNA molecules. The dimensional stability of nanopores in solution is monitored using this information and is improved …