Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (51)
- Plant Sciences (38)
- Plant Biology (31)
- Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (24)
- Arts and Humanities (21)
-
- Biochemistry (18)
- Microbiology (18)
- Population Biology (18)
- Religion (17)
- Cell and Developmental Biology (16)
- Genetics and Genomics (16)
- Evolution (15)
- Behavior and Ethology (12)
- Cell Biology (12)
- Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology (10)
- Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology (8)
- Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering (6)
- Engineering (6)
- Microbial Physiology (6)
- Ethics in Religion (5)
- Genetics (5)
- Molecular Genetics (4)
- Bacteriology (3)
- Biophysics (3)
- Genomics (3)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (3)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (3)
- Anthropology (2)
- Keyword
-
- Biology (49)
- Bibliography (24)
- Genomics (23)
- Evolution (21)
- Cancer (20)
-
- Epigenetics (17)
- Cellular mechanotransduction (15)
- Microtubules (13)
- Development (12)
- Zebrafish (12)
- Diabetes (11)
- Genetics (11)
- Arabidopsis (10)
- Inflammation (10)
- Microbiome (10)
- Microbiota (10)
- DNA methylation (9)
- Hematopoiesis (9)
- Microglia (9)
- Cooperation (8)
- Ion channels (8)
- Macrophages (8)
- Mitochondria (8)
- RNA (8)
- Urinary tract infection (8)
- Antibiotic resistance (7)
- Arabidopsis thaliana (7)
- Bioinformatics (7)
- Community assembly (7)
- Immunotherapy (7)
- Publication Year
- Publication
- Publication Type
- File Type
Articles 661 - 690 of 1126
Full-Text Articles in Biology
A Tail Of Two Pancancer Projects: Somatic Variant Identification And Driver Gene Discovery Using Tcga, Matthew Hawkins Bailey
A Tail Of Two Pancancer Projects: Somatic Variant Identification And Driver Gene Discovery Using Tcga, Matthew Hawkins Bailey
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
The implementation of next-generation genomic sequencing has exploded over the past dozen years. Large consortia, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA); the International Cancer Genetics Consortium (ICGC); and the Pediatric Cancer Genome Projects (PCGP), made great strides in democratizing big data for the scientific community. These data sets provide a rich resource to build tools for somatic variant discovery and exploratory analysis. Public repositories hold the answer to many novel biological and clinical revelations i.e., the discovery of complex indels, splice creating mutations, alternative super enhancer binding sites, machine learning models to predict mutation impact, and cancer subtype classification …
Neural Mechanisms Of Drosophila Circadian Rhythms, Xitong Liang
Neural Mechanisms Of Drosophila Circadian Rhythms, Xitong Liang
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Animals show circadian rhythms in a variety of physiological functions and behaviors. In Drosophila melanogaster, behavioral rhythms are driven by circadian clock genes that are oscillating in ~150 circadian pacemaker neurons. To explain how circadian neurons encode time and regulate different behavioral rhythms, I performed 24-hour in vivo whole-brain calcium imaging using light-sheet microscopy. First, I found that different groups of circadian neurons show circadian rhythms in spontaneous neural activity with diverse phases. The neural activity phases of the M and E pacemaker groups, which are associated with the morning and evening locomotor activities respectively, occur ~4 hours before their …
Elucidating A Role For The Cytoplasmic Domain In The Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Mechanosensitive Channel Of Large Conductance, Nadia Herrera, Grigory Maksaev, Elizabeth S. Haswell, Douglas Rees
Elucidating A Role For The Cytoplasmic Domain In The Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Mechanosensitive Channel Of Large Conductance, Nadia Herrera, Grigory Maksaev, Elizabeth S. Haswell, Douglas Rees
Biology Faculty Research
Microbial survival in dynamic environments requires the ability to successfully respond to abrupt changes in osmolarity. The mechanosensitive channel of large conductance (MscL) is a ubiquitous channel that facilitates the survival of bacteria and archaea under severe osmotic downshock conditions by relieving excess turgor pressure in response to increased membrane tension. A prominent structural feature of MscL, the cytoplasmic C-terminal domain, has been suggested to infuence channel assembly and function. In this report, we describe the X-ray crystal structure and electrophysiological properties of a C-terminal domain truncation of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis MscL (MtMscLΔC). A crystal structure of MtMscLΔC solubilized in …
The Costs Of A Big Brain: How Region Scaling And Energetic Costs Influence Brain Size Evolution In Weakly Electric African Fishes (Mormyridae), Kimberley Varunee Sukhum
The Costs Of A Big Brain: How Region Scaling And Energetic Costs Influence Brain Size Evolution In Weakly Electric African Fishes (Mormyridae), Kimberley Varunee Sukhum
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Brains control an organismճ ability to sense, remember, and respond to the frequently changing world. Brains are composed of multiple regions and systems, which are associated with different processes. These regions are homologous across all vertebrates yet vary greatly in size and shape across clades. While regions can function independently, they also interact extensively. These characteristics make it difficult to predict whether regions can change in size independently from other regions in response to selection (mosaic evolution hypothesis), or whether the brain evolves as a single concerted organ (concerted evolution hypothesis). Further, many traits such as cognition, behavioral flexibility, and …
The Role Of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells And Classical Dendritic Cells In The Maintenance And Regulation Of The Bone Marrow Niche, Jingzhu Zhang
The Role Of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells And Classical Dendritic Cells In The Maintenance And Regulation Of The Bone Marrow Niche, Jingzhu Zhang
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
The bone marrow niche is an important microenvironment for the regulation of normal and malignant hematopoiesis. The first discovered niche component is mesenchymal stromal cells, which are the major source for the production and secretion of multiple niche factors. Mesenchymal stromal cells are heterogeneous and various transgenes have been used to target non-identical but overlapping subpopulations. To further characterize the heterogeneity of mesenchymal stromal cells, we tested the targeting specificity of three tissue-specific Cre-recombinase transgenes. We show that in addition to osteoblasts, Ocn-Cre targets a majority of Cxcl12-abundant reticular (CAR) cells and arteriolar pericytes. Surprisingly, Dmp1-Cre also targets a subset …
Evaluation Of Neurobiological Risk Factors For Alcohol Consumption; Convergent Evidence For Predispositional Effects Of Brain Volume, David Baranger
Evaluation Of Neurobiological Risk Factors For Alcohol Consumption; Convergent Evidence For Predispositional Effects Of Brain Volume, David Baranger
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Alcohol is one of the most widely used psychoactive substances and accounts for 5% of global disease burden. The goal of the present work is to help advance efforts to both identify prognostic markers of risk, and to understand the mechanisms by which alcohol consumption impacts health. Early life stress is one of the strongest predictors of mental illness, including alcohol dependence, and has been hypothesized to impact risk via modulation of striatal reward functions and reward learning. Studies examined the effect of stress on reward learning and processing, and tested for moderation by genetic and environmental risk. Results were …
Cd4 T Cell Interaction With Intestinal Microbes Under Homeostasis And Inflammation, Jiani Chai
Cd4 T Cell Interaction With Intestinal Microbes Under Homeostasis And Inflammation, Jiani Chai
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Specific gut commensal bacteria improve host health by eliciting mutualistic regulatory T (Treg) cells responses. However, the bacteria that induce effector T (Teff) cells during inflammation are unclear. Here, we addressed this by analyzing bacterial-reactive T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic cells and TCR repertoires in a murine colitis model. Unexpectedly, we found that mucosal-associated Helicobacter species triggered both Treg responses during homeostasis and Teff responses during colitis, as suggested by an increased overlap between the Teff/Treg TCR repertoires with colitis. In fact, 4/6 Treg TCRs tested recognized mucosal-associated Helicobacter species in vitro and in vivo. By contrast, the marked expansion …
A Mechanism Of Antimicrobial Resistance And A Mitigation Strategy, Christopher Bulow
A Mechanism Of Antimicrobial Resistance And A Mitigation Strategy, Christopher Bulow
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONA Mechanism of Antimicrobial Resistance and a Mitigation StrategybyChristopher BulowDoctor of Philosophy in Biology and Biomedical SciencesMolecular Genetics and GenomicsWashington University in St. Louis, 2018Professor Gautam Dantas, ChairThe ability to treat infections, perform surgery, and administer immunosuppressants and chemotherapy depends on effective antibiotics. The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance is far outpacing the development of new therapies1-3 threatening to thrust medicine into a post-antibiotic era4. Many mechanisms of antimicrobial action and of antimicrobial resistance remain poorly understood as drug development struggles to keep pace. As resistance develops, the human gut serves as a reservoir and provides …
A High-Content Screen Identifies Hsp90 As A Component Of Axon Injury Signaling, Scott Karney-Grobe
A High-Content Screen Identifies Hsp90 As A Component Of Axon Injury Signaling, Scott Karney-Grobe
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Axons are unique compartments of neurons that extend tremendous distances throughout the body. Neurodegenerative or traumatic damage to axons destroys neuronal function and thus necessitates axonal repair. Mammalian peripheral neurons can regrow their axons following injury, providing a robust system to study the molecular mechanisms of axon regeneration. Injury induces a large transcriptional program that drives regeneration. While many regeneration-associated genes are known, the mechanisms by which injury activates them are less well understood. Identification of new injury signals has been limited by in vivo approaches. To address this challenge, I developed and performed a loss-of-function pharmacological screen in cultured …
Preventing Extinction Of At-Risk Plant Species In A Complex World, Holly Lee Bernardo
Preventing Extinction Of At-Risk Plant Species In A Complex World, Holly Lee Bernardo
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Earthճ current biodiversity crisis is now considered a true mass extinction event, with species level extinction rates well above background rates and population level extinction rates orders of magnitude more common that species extinctions. There are many threats driving this loss of biodiversity. How each threat impacts the viability of a species is highly context dependent, but all are anthropogenic in origin and so as the human population continues to increase, so too will the pressure of these threats on our natural systems. Ultimately, how much a threat decreases the viability of a species depends on how that threat influences …
Viral Mhc Class I Evasion Affects Anti-Viral T Cell Development And Responses, Elvin James Lauron
Viral Mhc Class I Evasion Affects Anti-Viral T Cell Development And Responses, Elvin James Lauron
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells (CTLs) play a critical role in protective immunity against viruses, a fact underscored by the evolution of viral CTL evasion mechanisms. For instance, many viruses commonly target the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHCI) antigen presentation pathway to prevent CTLs from recognizing infected cells. A striking example of this is cowpox virus (CPXV), which interferes with MHCI antigen presentation through two distinct mechanisms. One mechanism of CPXV-mediated MHCI inhibition is to retain MHCI molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The second mechanism is to prevent antigen peptide loading onto MHCI molecules. When combined these mechanisms result …
The Mechanism Of Hyper Daptomycin Resistance In Corynebacterium Striatum And Daptomycinճ Mechanism Of Action, Nicholas Kevork Goldner
The Mechanism Of Hyper Daptomycin Resistance In Corynebacterium Striatum And Daptomycinճ Mechanism Of Action, Nicholas Kevork Goldner
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Daptomycin, a last line-of-defense antibiotic for treating Gram-positive infections, is experiencing clinical failure against important infectious agents, including Corynebacterium striatum. The recent transition of daptomycin to generic antibiotic status is projected to dramatically increase availability, use, and clinical failure. Despite daptomycinճ more than 30-year history as an important antibiotic, four major questions were left unanswered. 1) How do bacteria become hyper-resistant to daptomycin? 2) What is the in vivo membrane target of daptomycin? 3) How does daptomycin interact with the membrane? 4) What is daptomycinճ mechanism of killing? These four questions have plagued the daptomycin field, and even now conflicting …
The Role Of Membrane Excitability In Insulin Regulation, Christopher Howard Emfinger
The Role Of Membrane Excitability In Insulin Regulation, Christopher Howard Emfinger
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
In mammals, ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels are essential regulators of insulin secretion from pancreatic islet [beta]-cells, illustrated by the finding that gain-of-function mutations in KATP channels (KATP-GOF) cause neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM). However, variability in symptom severity and effectiveness of treatment is seen in NDM, even for those with the same mutation and in the same family. Short-term treatment of mice expressing KATP-GOF mutations in [beta]-cells (KATP-GOF mice) with the KATP blocker glibenclamide during disease onset results in two outcomes: one subset becomes severely diabetic (non-remitters), whereas the other subset remains below the glucose levels at which significant side effects …
Identification Of Bhlhe40 And Irg1 As Essential Regulators Of The Inflammatory Response To Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Jeremy Peter Huynh
Identification Of Bhlhe40 And Irg1 As Essential Regulators Of The Inflammatory Response To Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Jeremy Peter Huynh
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Protective immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) must induce bactericidal functions while minimizing damage to the lung. Such responses require precise control of pro- and anti-inflammatory factors to regulate the recruitment and function of protective immune cells but the mechanisms by which this control is exerted remain incompletely defined. Basic helix-loop-helix family, member e40 (Bhlhe40) is a transcription factor known to regulate production of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines that affect protective immunity to Mtb. Immune-responsive Gene 1 (Irg1) is an enzyme that generates itaconate, a metabolite with potential anti-inflammatory and antibacterial roles during Mtb infection. The impact of Bhlhe40 and …
Methods To Record Transcription Factor Binding And Enhancer Activity Throughout Cellular Differentiation, Zongtai Qi
Methods To Record Transcription Factor Binding And Enhancer Activity Throughout Cellular Differentiation, Zongtai Qi
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
The ability to create distinct cell types is fundamental for the development of multicellular organisms. Since all cells in an organism contain the same genes, cellular diversity is achieved through the transcriptional network where transcription factors (TFs) interacts with cis-regulatory elements, leading to the selective transcription of different sets of genes. To better understand the functions of TFs and regulatory elements underlying cell fate decisions, we developed methods that are able to record their activities throughout cellular differentiation. In Chapter 2, we developed a degradation domain based induction system for ҃alling CardsӠmethod which maps the binding sites of TFs using …
Smooth As Silk: Translating Discoveries To New Therapies In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Wade Self
Smooth As Silk: Translating Discoveries To New Therapies In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Wade Self
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
No effective therapies exist for the treatment of patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor neuron loss, paralysis, and death on average 3 Р5 years after diagnosis. Although multiple promising candidates have emerged from preclinical experiments in disease models, failure rates of randomized control trials assessing efficacy in humans are over 95%, demonstrating a need to improve the translation of preclinical findings to human biology. In this dissertation, I present original work investigating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by mutations in SOD1 (ALSSOD1) for the successful translation of SOD1-targeting strategies into meaningful treatment options for …
Kdm6b Is Required For Self-Renewal Of Normal And Leukemic Mouse Stem Cells Under Proliferative Stress, Cates Mallaney
Kdm6b Is Required For Self-Renewal Of Normal And Leukemic Mouse Stem Cells Under Proliferative Stress, Cates Mallaney
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
KDM6B (JMJD3) is one of two known epigenetic modifiers responsible for the removal of the repressive histone mark, histone-3 lysine-27 trimethylation (H3K27me3), and has been shown to play a role in development, differentiation, and inflammatory stress response. Unlike the other H3K27me3 demethylase, UTX (KDM6A), which is frequently mutated in hematopoietic malignancies, KDM6B is upregulated in a myriad of blood disorders. This suggests that it may have important functions in the pathogenesis of hematopoietic cancers. Here, we examined the role of Kdm6b in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) fate decisions under normal and malignant conditions to evaluate its potential as a therapeutic …
Characterization Of The Celf6 Rna Binding Protein: Effects On Mouse Vocal Behavior And Biochemical Function, Michael A. Rieger
Characterization Of The Celf6 Rna Binding Protein: Effects On Mouse Vocal Behavior And Biochemical Function, Michael A. Rieger
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Behavior in higher eukaryotes is a complex process which integrates signals in the environment, the genetic makeup of the organism, and connectivity in the nervous system to produce extremely diverse adaptations to the phenomenon of existence. Unraveling the subcellular components that contribute to behavioral output is important for both understanding how behavior occurs in an unperturbed state, as well as understanding how behavior changes when the underlying systems that generate it are altered. Of the numerous molecular species that make up a cell, the regulation of messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the coding template of all proteins, is of key importance to …
Breath Biomarkers And An Expanded Role For Isoprenoids In Plasmodium Falciparum, Chad Louis Schaber
Breath Biomarkers And An Expanded Role For Isoprenoids In Plasmodium Falciparum, Chad Louis Schaber
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Malaria remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, and efforts to combat it require novel insights into diagnostics, vector transmission, and drug inhibitor targets. Previous studies suggest that malaria infection causes hosts to preferentially attract the transmission vector, the Anopheles mosquito, but the mechanism and wider implication of these findings were not known. By analyzing the headspace above malaria parasite cultures, we identified several molecules that might engender mosquito attraction. We demonstrated that several of these molecules activate mosquito odorant receptors, including the known plant-emitted mosquito attractant _-pinene. During patient studies involving two independent pediatric clinical populations from Malawi, …
Transcriptional Signatures Of Host Susceptibility In Urinary Tract Infections, Lu Yu
Transcriptional Signatures Of Host Susceptibility In Urinary Tract Infections, Lu Yu
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are common and highly recurrent. Two important non-behavioral risk factors for UTI in women are genetics and history of two or more episodes of previous UTI. However, specific mechanisms of how these two factors modulate host susceptibility to UTI remain unclear. Concordantly, inbred mice of various genotypes and with different infection histories exhibit different susceptibilities to acute and chronic bladder infection (cystitis), which recapitulates a range of clinical UTI outcomes observed in women. Early host-pathogen interactions have been shown to determine UTI outcomes in mouse models. Here, we used two …
Plant Metabolic Pathways And Regulatory Networks For Aromatic Amino Acids And Hormones, Cynthia Holland
Plant Metabolic Pathways And Regulatory Networks For Aromatic Amino Acids And Hormones, Cynthia Holland
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Unlike humans and other metazoans, organisms such as fungi, bacteria, and plants have retained the enzymatic machinery necessary to synthesize their aromatic amino acids de novo. Chorismate, the final product of the shikimate pathway, is the precursor to the three aromatic amino acidsѠtryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanineѠand is upstream of a number of plant growth hormones, including auxins and benzoates. Phenylalanine and tyrosine both stem from the precursor prephenate, which is formed from chorismate by chorismate mutase, and use dehydrogenases, aminotransferases, and dehydratases in their biosynthetic pathways. Although aromatic amino acid biosynthesis is important for protein synthesis, secondary metabolism, and human …
Nonpolar Residues In The Presumptive Pore‐Lining Helix Of Mechanosensitive Channel Msl10 Influence Channel Behavior And Establish A Nonconducting Function, Grigory Maksaev, Jennette K. Shoots, Simran Ohri, Elizabeth S. Haswell
Nonpolar Residues In The Presumptive Pore‐Lining Helix Of Mechanosensitive Channel Msl10 Influence Channel Behavior And Establish A Nonconducting Function, Grigory Maksaev, Jennette K. Shoots, Simran Ohri, Elizabeth S. Haswell
Biology Faculty Research
Mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels provide a universal mechanism for sensing and responding to increased membrane tension. MscS‐like (MSL) 10 is a relatively well‐studied MS ion channel from Arabidopsis thaliana that is implicated in cell death signaling. The relationship between the amino acid sequence of MSL10 and its conductance, gating tension, and opening and closing kinetics remains unstudied. Here, we identify several nonpolar residues in the presumptive pore‐lining transmembrane helix of MSL10 (TM6) that contribute to these basic channel properties. F553 and I554 are essential for wild type channel conductance and the stability of the open state. G556, a glycine residue …
Integrating Species Traits Into Species Pools, Marko J. Spasojevic, Christopher P. Catano, Joseph A. Lamanna
Integrating Species Traits Into Species Pools, Marko J. Spasojevic, Christopher P. Catano, Joseph A. Lamanna
Biology Faculty Research
Despite decades of research on the species‐pool concept and the recent explosion of interest in trait‐based frameworks in ecology and biogeography, surprisingly little is known about how spatial and temporal changes in species‐pool functional diversity (SPFD) influence biodiversity and the processes underlying community assembly. Current trait‐based frameworks focus primarily on community assembly from a static regional species pool, without considering how spatial or temporal variation in SPFD alters the relative importance of deterministic and stochastic assembly processes. Likewise, species‐pool concepts primarily focus on how the number of species in the species pool influences local biodiversity. However, species pools with similar …
Bioinformatics Core Competencies For Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, Sarah C.R. Elgin, Melissa Wilson - Sayers, Charles Hauser, Michael Sierk, Srebrenka Robic, Anne Rosenwald, Todd Smith, Eric W. Triplett, Jason Williams, Elizabeth Dinsdale, William Morgan, James Burnette, Samuel Donovan, Jennifer Drew, Edison Fowlks, Sebastian Galindo-Gonzales, Anya Goodman, Nealy Grandgenett, Carlos Goller, John Jungck, Jeffrey Newman, William Pearson, Elizabeth Ryder, Rafael Tosado-Acevedo, William Tapprich, Tammy Tobin, Arlin Toro-Martínez, Lonnie Welch, Robin Wright, Lindsay Barone, David Ebenbach, Mindy Mcwilliams, Kimberly Olney, Mark A. Pauley
Bioinformatics Core Competencies For Undergraduate Life Sciences Education, Sarah C.R. Elgin, Melissa Wilson - Sayers, Charles Hauser, Michael Sierk, Srebrenka Robic, Anne Rosenwald, Todd Smith, Eric W. Triplett, Jason Williams, Elizabeth Dinsdale, William Morgan, James Burnette, Samuel Donovan, Jennifer Drew, Edison Fowlks, Sebastian Galindo-Gonzales, Anya Goodman, Nealy Grandgenett, Carlos Goller, John Jungck, Jeffrey Newman, William Pearson, Elizabeth Ryder, Rafael Tosado-Acevedo, William Tapprich, Tammy Tobin, Arlin Toro-Martínez, Lonnie Welch, Robin Wright, Lindsay Barone, David Ebenbach, Mindy Mcwilliams, Kimberly Olney, Mark A. Pauley
Biology Faculty Research
Although bioinformatics is becoming increasingly central to research in the life sciences, bioinformatics skills and knowledge are not well integrated into undergraduate biology education. This curricular gap prevents biology students from harnessing the full potential of their education, limiting their career opportunities and slowing research innovation. To advance the integration of bioinformatics into life sciences education, a framework of core bioinformatics competencies is needed. To that end, we here report the results of a survey of biology faculty in the United States about teaching bioinformatics to undergraduate life scientists. Responses were received from 1,260 faculty representing institutions in all fifty …
Development And Function Of Retinal Ganglion Cell Circuits, Nai-Wen Tien
Development And Function Of Retinal Ganglion Cell Circuits, Nai-Wen Tien
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
The function of our nervous system relies on specific patterns of synaptic connections between diverse neuronal cell types. My thesis research addressed how cell-type-specific patterns of connectivity emerge in the developing mouse retina and how they enable mature retinal neurons to detect specific sensory stimuli.Spike trains of the approximately 40 retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types in mammals encode specific features and events in the visual world, and are the sole source of visual information to the brain. Recent studies have begun to dissect the presynaptic circuits underlying diverse RGC light responses, but how cell-type-specific retinal circuits emerge during development is …
Host Determinants Of Protection And Pathogenesis During Chikungunya Virus Infection, Lindsey Elaine Cook
Host Determinants Of Protection And Pathogenesis During Chikungunya Virus Infection, Lindsey Elaine Cook
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes acute and chronic polyarthritis. The virus has rapidly emerged over the last decade, and in 2013, CHIKV spread to the Western Hemisphere for the first time, infecting more than 1.8 million people. CHIKV targets the joints and musculoskeletal tissues, resulting in severe myalgia and symmetric polyarthritis that clinically mimics rheumatoid arthritis. Currently, no approved treatment is effective in preventing or controlling CHIKV infection or disease. Pathogenesis of CHIKV is still poorly understood but is thought to reflect an interplay between viral replication and detrimental immune responses. CHIKV patients have increased numbers …
Novel Approaches To Studying The Effects Of Cis-Regulatory Variants In The Central Nervous System, Susan Shen
Novel Approaches To Studying The Effects Of Cis-Regulatory Variants In The Central Nervous System, Susan Shen
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
For decades, studies of the genetic basis of disease have focused on rare coding mutations that disrupt protein function, leading to the identification of hundreds of genes underlying Mendelian diseases. However, many complex diseases are non-Mendelian, and less than 2% of the genome is coding. It is now clear that non-coding variants contribute to disease susceptibility, but the precise underlying mechanisms are generally unknown. Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) are transcription factor (TF)-bound genomic regions that regulate gene expression, and variants within CREs can therefore modify gene expression. The putative locations of CREs in a variety of cell types have been identified …
Discovering Rare Hematopoietic Clones Harboring Leukemia-Associated Mutations Using Error-Corrected Sequencing, Andrew Lee Young
Discovering Rare Hematopoietic Clones Harboring Leukemia-Associated Mutations Using Error-Corrected Sequencing, Andrew Lee Young
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases that currently takes over half a million lives per year in the United States alone. Our understanding of cancer has improved dramatically over the last forty years, beginning with the discovery that cancer is a disease of the genome. Currently, the set of somatic mutations found in malignancy are largely known. The specific somatic mutations driving an individual’s disease can be readily assessed at clinical presentation. Additionally, the functional consequences for many of these mutations are known as well as their role in tumorigenesis. Despite this understanding, a cure for cancer remains elusive.Acute …
Understanding Stroke In The Connected Human Brain, Joshua Sarfaty Siegel
Understanding Stroke In The Connected Human Brain, Joshua Sarfaty Siegel
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Although structural damage from stroke is focal, remote dysfunction can occur in regions of the brain distant from the area of damage. Lesions in both gray and white matter can disrupt the flow of information in areas connected to or by the area of infarct. This is because the brain is not an assortment of specialized parts but an assembly of distributed networks that interact to support cognitive function. Functional connectivity analyses using resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have shown us that the cortex is organized into distributed brain networks. The primary goal of this work is to characterize …
Negative Regulators Of Colonic Peripheral Regulatory T Cell Development, Teresa Lei Ai
Negative Regulators Of Colonic Peripheral Regulatory T Cell Development, Teresa Lei Ai
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations
Peripheral Treg cells (pTreg cells) maintain immune homeostasis at mucosal interfaces, where they can develop upon activation of naïve CD4+ T cells by bacteria antigen. However, the cellular and molecular requirements that govern their differentiation in inflamed and homeostatic contexts require further elucidation. To circumvent uncertainties in existing methods of distinguishing pTreg cells from thymic Treg cells (tTreg cells), we analyzed monoclonal cell populations of CT2 and CT6 transgenic (Tg) cells that develop into pTreg cells in response to different species of endogenously presented Helicobacter antigen. In our comprehensive assessment of multiple intestinal inflammatory models, including infections and physical injury, …