Biology Commons^™

Acid Attack: How Escherichia Coli Strains Resist Acid Stress, Lindsey Miller

Honors Theses

The systems used by Escherichia coli to combat heightened levels of acidity within their environment are varied and complex. Four distinct systems used by E. coli to resist acid-induced stress were identified in 2004 by Foster (1), though six now are known today. These systems include the glucose-repressed, glutamate-dependent, arginine-dependent, lysine-dependent, ornithine-dependent, and serine-dependent acid resistance systems. Each system is also known by its corresponding abbreviation, AR1-AR6. What is known about each system varies due to identification date, complexity of the pathway, and amount of research completed. Within this paper, each system will be identified and the pathway defined, combining …

Hazards And Perceptions Of Cigarette And E-Cigarette Waste, Jossalyn Rogalski

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Violence Against Healthcare Workers, Nichole Osgood

Honors Theses

Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at work (US Department of Labor, 2023). There are a handful of different types of workplace violence that include but are not limited to physical violence, verbal abuse and threats, sexual harassment, and psychological trauma (US Department of Labor, 2023). Workplace violence, a multifaceted phenomenon, is not a new concern, but its pervasiveness and intensity in healthcare settings have reached alarming proportions in recent years. In a meta-analysis, it was noted that workplace violence against healthcare workers of any kind was …

We Are The Reason We Stand Still In The Face Of Climate Change., Sydney Hemp

Honors Theses

Many different factors can impact the way any information is received but it is especially important to see how scientific information is received because it is often backed up by a great deal of evidence, especially in the case of global climate change. Many of these factors have nothing to do with science and everything to do with social influences, political parties, and other demographic measures. Discussion of these relationships is important when discussing communication in a broad sense, but it can be even more important when bringing up things like global climate change, which has become a political topic …

The Unexpected Significance Of Myosin A In Organization Of M-Line Protein Unc-89/Obscurin Within Striated Muscle Cells Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Kar Men Lee

Honors Theses

This research investigates the unexpected significance of Myosin A in the organization of M-line protein UNC-89/obscurin within striated muscle cells of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). The study employs immunofluorescence techniques to examine the spatial and temporal dynamics of UNC-89/obscurin and Myosin A during embryonic development. The sarcomere, a fundamental unit in muscle cells, is governed by the 'sliding filament model,' where the M-line serves as a crucial anchor for Myosin A. This research seeks to understand the relationship between muscle function in humans and C. elegans, utilizing the latter's simple anatomy and genetic tractability. The …

Anti-Microbial Peptide Screen For Crop Protection, Sydney Chen

Honors Theses

Vestaron currently uses an established and reliable peptide discovery and development research platform, particularly for the development of insecticidal peptides. The platform centers around a proprietary yeast expression system for peptide production (“Vestaron’s yeast expression system"). Vestaron aims to expand their portfolio and provide clean solutions in crop protection using peptide technologies to protect plants not only from insect pests but also microbial pests including phytopathogenic fungi and bacteria. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been studied extensively. However, it is questionable whether Vestaron’s yeast expression system can express AMPs heterologously. In this study, thirteen promising antimicrobial peptides were selected from literature …

Literature Replication: Insect Gut Cell Isolation Protocols, Sophie Pickelner

Honors Theses

A large problem in science is the lack of literature replication, especially for subjects in which there is little published research. Literature replication is an integral part of the scientific method and is important for validating methods and results of published studies. A study from Nature found that out of 1,500 scientists interviewed, over 70% have been unable to reproduce literature studies and over half of them have been unable to reproduce even their own studies (Baker, 2016). This problem is even more pronounced in the field of biology, with 80% of scientists reporting that they are unable to replicate …

Inhibiting Effects Of Methyllycaconitine (Mla) On Pnu-282987 Induced Neurogenesis In Blast-Exposed Mouse Retinas, Nastia Zhiyew Chan

Honors Theses

Irreversible vision loss can be caused by retinal damage, disease, or aging. In recent years, the prevalence of ocular damage due to blast trauma has been increasing due to the modernization of warfare. Adult mammalian retinal neurons were previously thought to lack the capacity for regeneration to reverse vision loss, which deemed the effects of many ocular damages permanent. However, recent studies from this lab have shown that PNU-282987, an agonist to the alpha 7 subtype of neural nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, will result in neural regeneration in adult mammalian cells. For this research project, I will be using Methyllycaconitine (MLA), …

“Exploring The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Universal Electronic Medical Records”, Zachary Mcclenny

Honors Theses

A universal electronic medical record (EMR) is a platform where all of a patient's medical information, history, and data is stored and maintained by providers over time. A universal platform allows all of the medications, tests, procedures, labs, scans, notes, and any other clinical information for that patient to be kept in a record for any provider to view and make changes to while under their care. Although in the United States today, as well as many other countries, EMRs are owned and operated by privately ran businesses and institutions. Only the private institutions that have access to the EMR …

Patient Knowledge Of Family History Of Cardiac Events And Risk Factors: Potential For Increase In Preventative Care Of Cardiovascular Diseases, Joseph Marentette

Honors Theses

The following literature review regards the preventative care of cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients with the knowledge of familial cardiac events and personal cardiac risk factors, particularly in younger populations ranging from ages 18 to 39, and develop potential preventative care measures. CVD is preventable with early reduction of risk factors. People can lower the impact of cardiac risk factors through the modification of their current lifestyle and behavioral habits. However, this is limited to the education and motivation of the person. Primary emphasis must be placed on community education and physician-patient interactions regarding CVD and cardiac risk factors. Physicians need …

Kleinstuck Preserve: A Valuable Migratory Bird Stopover In Kalamazoo, Mi, Kelly Giles

Honors Theses

Decreasing bird populations have been noted with habitat loss, climate change, and human development. With an estimated loss of 2.9 billion birds in North American since the 1970’s (Rosenberg et al. 2019), I found it necessary to determine whether this pat tern was reflected in local bird populations. At Kleinstuck Preserve, a birding hotspot in Kalamazoo, MI, I was able to access data from 48 years of bird surveys starting in 1973 with 209 total bird species documented from 1973-2021. Kleinstuck is a 60-acre nature preserve that has been protected as natural land since 1922 despite being surrounded by urban …

Is The Zebrafish Speed Bump Mutant A Mutation In Wee1? And Is It A Complete Loss Of Function?, Nathania Karyadi

Honors Theses

Every cell has to undergo the cell cycle process before it can divide or differentiate. The cell cycle is an error-prone complex process where mutations could happen. This study aimed to characterize the nervous system and blood cells of the speed bump mutant in zebrafish. This study also aimed to do gene characterization of the wee1 CRISPR mutant. The speed bump mutant is due to a mutation in the wee1 gene. Lack of the wee1 gene will cause no Wee1 Kinase, which inhibits the MPF, causing cells to go into mitosis too early. To fulfill these objectives, this study used …

Literature Review On Outer Hair Cell Regeneration And Potential Hearing Restoration, Serena Karlov

Honors Theses

The cochlea is the portion of the inner ear responsible for hearing, containing both the organ of Corti and auditory hair cells. Sound wave vibrations mechanically bend the stereocilia on the three rows of outer hair cells and one row of inner hair cells. These hair cells transduce this mechanical energy into electrical impulses that are relayed from the auditory nerve to the brain, where sounds are processed. In this review I provide an overview of inner ear anatomy, ear physiology, and auditory transduction. I then move on to specifically focus on the importance of outer hair cells, their regeneration, …

The Effect Of Estrogen On Gdnf Production Of Skeletal Muscle In Vitro, Hope Welter

Honors Theses

As life expectancy continues to rise, the number of people over age 65 in the U.S. is increasing. An aging population brings with it impacts on the national health system and associated economic expenditures. As individuals age, the skeletomuscular system suffers reduced function due to disease or conditions such as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is characterized by muscular atrophy resulting from reduced muscle innervation. Exercise has been linked to prevention of sarcopenia, a suspected result of increased production of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). GDNF promotes neuronal survival, regeneration, and the formation of neuromuscular junctions. Therefore, treatments like exercise that increase …

Racial Health And Productivity Inequalities In The United States, Elissia Vecere

Honors Theses

Across America, it is frequently seen that there are may differences by race in economic and social outcomes. This variability can be seen in judicial, social, and economic systems. The breakdown of economic systems presenting racial variability can be displayed via workplace statistics. There is a general discrepancy between the workplace statistics represented with Black and White employees. These differences frequently are blamed on the productivity and background education supplied by the employee upon being hired. However, the levels of variation across these two races varies minutely in comparison to the differences in wages supplied. When all factors are kept …

Composting During Winter Versus Summer: A Microbial Analysis, Madison Ochs

Honors Theses

Pre-consumer food waste, hay, and woodchips were composted using two different methods of static composting: forced aeration (FA) and natural aeration (NA). The composting process was performed during the winter and summer for 106 and 124 days, respectively. The composting process for both winter and summer processes did not reach the temperature above the 40°C threshold of the thermophilic stage in composting. The microbial communities present during different timepoints (start, peak, and final) along the composting process were analyzed with DNA sequencing techniques and visualized using QIIME 2, an open-source bioinformatics platform. The microbial communities of the winter and summer …

Crossing The Border: A Novel Mouse Line Using Fgf10-Cre To Drive Gata3 Overexpression In Nonsensory Transcriptional Context, Lucas Cunha

Honors Theses

Hearing loss can occur in a variety of ways, and in every case, they have equally devasting effects. While hearing loss and the people who suffer from it shall not be discriminated against, attempting to offer options for treatments nevertheless should be of priority. As such, there has been much progress in the field of genetically based forms of treatment for sensorineural hearing loss. A gene that has been almost always implicated in the conversation of regeneration, Hair Cell and Spiral Ganglia development, and inner ear development, in general, is the Zing Finger transcription factorsGata3. Furthermore, since the Organ of …

An Investigation Of Chronic Pain As A Much-Neglected Symptom Of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Sydney Collins

Honors Theses

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome is a group of heritable loose connective tissue disorders with 13 distinguished subtypes. The hypermobile type of Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is the most common subtype and is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to defective collagen fibrils. This leads to joint instability and hypermobility, skin elasticity, widespread pain, fatigue, and generalized tissue fragility. Chronic pain is reported to be a symptom in as high as 92% of the hEDS population (Voermans et al., 2010); despite this prevalence, there is a significant lack of research, awareness, and treatment standardization regarding pain in hEDS. This literature review …

Literature Review Of Human Hdr Syndrome With Gata3 Haplo Insufficiency, Olivia Ambursley-Gries

Honors Theses

This literature mining project is regarding mutations that cause hearing loss in patients with human hypo parathyroid, deafness, and renal dysplasia (HDR) syndrome caused by a mutation in the GATA3 gene. The disease is unique; not all diagnosed individuals present with all symptoms of the triad. Van Esh et al. found that the haploinsufficiency of the GATA3 is found on chromosome 10p14-p15 (ref.1). The focus of this work is to condense the literature on GATA3 haploinsufficiency correlating to human HDR syndrome. Due to the lack of global healthcare access, it can be assumed that many cases remain undiagnosed; 180 have …

How Gata3 Affects Neuronal Survival In The Inner Ear, Hiba Ahmad

Honors Theses

Broadly speaking, Gata3 is a transcription factor involved in neurosensory specification and hair cell differentiation. Previous studies have shown that Gata3 null mutants do not develop neurons, so Gata3 appears to be necessary for neuronal survival. To better understand the role of Gata3 in spiral ganglion neurons of the inner ear, a Neurod1-cre model was used to conditionally knock out Gata3 at E9-E9.5, the timepoint when neuroblasts first begin to delaminate from the otic placode. The mutants used in this study were Nd1-cre: Gata3 f/f mutants. In situ was performed to determine gene expression within the cochlea, and immunohistochemistry was …

Crayfish And Climate Change: How The Growing Acidity Of Freshwater Lakes, Streams, And Ponds Negatively Impact The Nervous System Of Crayfish, Lauren Irmen

Honors Theses

The nervous system of crayfish, a freshwater crustacean, is largely regulated by the flow of calcium (Ca²⁺) ions in a cell across a concentration gradient that produces electrical impulses and controls movement (Krause et al., 1998). Crayfish obtain Ca²⁺ from their external aquatic environment. Therefore, rapid changes in the concentration of Ca²⁺ in freshwater environments may cause negative impacts to the neural system of crayfish and subsequently the freshwater food chain. These impact of altered Ca²⁺ levels may create hyperactive or hypoactive movement due to over-, under-stimulation, respectfully in the skeletal muscle of the crayfish, …

Comparison Of Cardiac Muscle Between Male And Female Rats With Exercise And Aging: Analyzing Vitals, Gdnf Expression, Ngf Expression, Rna Expression, Sympathetic Innervation, Parasympathetic Innervation, And Sensory Innervation, Katelyn Kurrie

Honors Theses

The direction of my research-based thesis answers the question of how exercise affects the cardiovascular system with aging in male and female rats. My study would highlight the important differences of the cardiovascular system of both sexes which could lead to sex-specific insight on the cardiovascular disease epidemic which prevails as the most common cause of death in the United States. The studies completed will test the hypothesis: neurotrophic factor will be higher in females than males due to the higher presence of estrogen in females. The trophic factor is predicted to increase in both males and females with regular …

An Examination Of Barriers And Determinates Impacting The Healthcare Of Kalamazoo County's Transgender And Non-Binary Young Adult Population, Tyler Signorella

Honors Theses

Historically non-binary and transgender individuals have faced and continue to face a unique set of obstacles and challenges in seeking and receiving general healthcare. Within the US this is well documented on a national level. In this exploratory study we will seek to understand the experience of young adults in Kalamazoo County comparing their perspectives to the already established pool of information. This will be accomplished through surveying emergent adults identifying as either transgender or gender non-binary within Kalamazoo County and then synthesizing this data into an analyzable collective format.

High-Efficiency Transformation Of Yeast By Electroporation, Lilly Ruell

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes and optimizes efficiency in the yeast transformation protocol using electroporation. Three variables were tested for optimization, they are the following: DNA concentration, cell density and electroporation voltage. Further verification of transformation was done through the analyzation of HPLC data to ensure protein production. The results conclude that DNA concentration was the most important dependent variable for transformation efficiency. A voltage of 2000V is the optimal condition to achieve efficient yeast transformation. Cell density had no observational difference in transformation efficiency at the range of DNA concentration necessary for research use. Improving this efficiency of the yeast transformations …

Organized Caudal Photoreceptors In The Medicinal Leech, Baylee Bancroft

Honors Theses

Visual systems are essential to an organism’s survival. There are a wide range of photosensory organs across the animal kingdom, varying by means of structure, complexity, and the way in which they transduce information. Regardless of variation, visual systems provide the organism with information regarding external stimuli based on how light interacts with surrounding matter. The medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, is one of the many important model organisms of neurobiology as this segmented annelid possesses a relatively simple nervous system and a rudimentary visual system. The leech also exhibits a restricted range of quantifiable overt behaviors and is capable of …

Glut5 And Fructose Metabolism Inhibition In A Simulated Small Intestine Environment, Isabella Trainor

Honors Theses

This thesis describes an experiment that was designed in order to obtain information that could be useful for treating individuals with HFI. The author hypothesized that MSNBA would inhibit GLUT5 and fructose metabolism in the small intestine. The final experimental design involves exposing a small intestine cell line to fructose and MSNBA. The cell line would be exposed to MSNBA over the course of three different periods, and data was intended to be obtained using western blotting and a fructose assay kit. Although the final experimental design project was not fully carried out due to circumstances surrounding COVID-19, a plausible …

Understanding Stem Instructors’ Experiences With And Perceptions Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students: The First Step Towards Increasing Access And Inclusivity, Makayla Long

Honors Theses

Through an anonymous survey we analyzed Western Michigan University (WMU) STEM instructors’ experience with and understanding of teaching and interacting with Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) students. The goal of this study was to capture the experiences of WMU STEM instructors and the resources available to them given their direct impact on Deaf/HoH students’ ability to succeed and receive a post-secondary education. The findings of this study support the claim that instructors are not well supported or aware of the needs of Deaf/HoH students, and do not have access to adequate resources to resolve the issue.

The first steps …

Gender And Socioeconomic Disparities In Iatrogenic In-Hospital Torsades De Points, Bradley Reinoehl

Honors Theses

It has been well established for decades that women are at increased risk for torsades de pointes (TdP). Additionally, it has been well documented that patients of lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have inferior health outcomes compared to other patient populations. In this study we investigate the incidence of iatrogenic in-hospital TdP among these two demographic groups. Iatrogenic in-hospital TdP is a complex combination of medical issues and including danger from QT prolonging medications. In theory, a combination of identifiable, demographic risk factors coupled with specific clinical settings could be used to identify patients at high risk for iatrogenic …

The Macroevolution Of Diadromous And Non-Diadromous Clupeiformes., Lindsey Dehaan

Honors Theses

Migration is a common life history strategy across the animal tree of life. This behavior is energetically demanding and may trigger strong selection for the evolution of an optimal ecomorphology to lessen energetic costs, yet the ecomorphology of migratory aquatic species remains poorly understood. Previous studies have demonstrated that migratory fishes exhibit predictable phenotypic patterns in body size evolution in response to evolving migration: migratory fishes are larger than non-migratory fishes. Migratory fishes may also have functional traits (e.g. fin shape) associated with locomotion that have experienced similar selective forces and exhibit predictable evolutionary patterns, resulting in migratory lineages sharing …

Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Isolated From Michigan Birds - A High School Learning Experience, Cody Benfant

Honors Theses

Bacteria, extremely small prokaryotic cells, are everywhere throughout the world. One striking thing about bacteria is their size: comparing a 2-micrometer bacterial cell to a 6-foot-tall human is similar in scale to comparing a 6-foot-tall human to the distance between Chicago, IL and Denver, CO! Despite their small size, bacteria are found in almost every ecosystem and environment imaginable. From deep sea hydrothermal vents to the clouds miles in the sky, there are trillions of bacteria flourishing in all of Earth’s ecosystems, performing many important functions in global nutrient cycles. While the majority of bacteria are beneficial to humans, …