Biotechnology Commons^™

Exploring Barriers To The Adoption Of Pharmacogenomic Technology In The Clinical Setting By Clinical Healthcare Providers, Jason Sudia

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The changing landscape of healthcare in the US has created new questions about how to best provide cost-effective, individualized care. Personalized medicine and more specifically, pharmacogenomic technology have offered new tools for healthcare providers to use to increase the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of care. However, these tools are not being utilized to their predicted extent in the clinical setting. This study utilized Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations theory to investigate some of the reasons why. A multi-question survey, the PI-created, Pharmacogenomic Adoption Instrument (PAI) ©, was developed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and experience concerning pharmacogenetic technology in a spectrum …

Purification And Characterization Of Antibodies Against Killifish Hif-1Α, Janet Gonzalez-Rosario

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Many fish face low oxygen concentrations (hypoxia) in their natural environments, and they respond to hypoxia through a variety of behavioral, physiological, and cellular mechanisms. Some of these responses involve changes in gene expression. In mammals, the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) family of transcription factors are the “master regulators” of gene expression during hypoxia, but the study of HIF in fish has been hampered by the lack of reagents to detect this protein in non-mammalian vertebrates. The goals of this thesis are to affinity purify antibodies against HIF from the killifish Fundulus heteroclitus and use them to recover and quantify …

Clinical Study Of Canine Tear Lacritin As A Treatment For Dry Eye, Katherine E. Kelly

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS), the deficiency of tears also known as dry eye, is a prevalent disease that affects both humans and canines. The current treatment for dye eye, cyclosporine (Restatis®), only provides temporary relief, is often associated with discomfort and is inconsistently effective. Lacritin is a naturally occurring tear glycoprotein secreted from the human and canine lacrimal glands. It has been shown that lacritin stimulates basal tearing in rabbits when applied topically. This study characterized the amount and form of lacritin found in the tears of dogs with healthy and dry eyes—information which may be applied to the development of …

Engineering A Mutation In The Heparin Binding Pocket Of The Human Fibroblast Growth Factor, Roshni Patel

Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Honors Theses

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are family of proteins that belong to a group of growth factors that are found in mammals and play an important role in angiogenesis, differentiation, organogenesis, and tissue repair. In summary, their main functionality is involved in cell division and proliferation. Because FGFs plays such a vital role in cell proliferation, they are mainly involved in the process of wound healing and injuries. FGF binds to its ligand, heparin—a heavily sulfated glycosaminoglycan. The binding of heparin to FGF occurs through electrostatic interactions, specifically between the negatively charged sulfate groups on heparin and positively charged residues such …

The Role Of Intermediate Filament Proteins In Retinal Degeneration And Regeneration, Alexandria Aruck

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

More than 30 million Americans are blind or visually impaired due to injury or disease. Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic disease that initially causes death of rod photoreceptor cells and is followed by the progressive degeneration of the retina, the light sensing tissue of the eye, ultimately leading to blindness. Retinitis pigmentosa leads toretinal gliosis, a process in which a specialized neuroglial cell that is specific to the retina, known as Müller glia, undergoes hypertrophy and migration as a reaction to retinal stress or damage. I am investigating the mechanisms that are responsible for this type of degeneration in the …

Improving The Nutrient Content Of Agriculture Crops Through Community Ecology, Margo Malone

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Agriculturists continually look for ways to improve the nutrient content of crops without decreasing yield or economic benefits. Mutualistic relationships have the potential to enhance the nutrient content without sacrificing the production needs of the farmer. Mutualisms occur when two or more species interact and both members of the association benefit. An exceedingly important and often overlooked mutualism is the one formed between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and plants. This interaction has been shown to be a critical component of most ecosystems, yet our understanding of these relationships is still limited. We know that in exchange for photosynthetically derived carbon, …

Estrogens Regulate Metabolic Substrate Concentrations In Brains Of Young Adult Female Rats: A Multiple Memory Systems Approach, Ella D'Amico

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

As the most potent circulating form of estrogen in most young adult female mammals, estradiol has extensive effects on physiological functioning. Estradiol effects are especially notable with the drop in the hormone observed when a woman transitions into menopause, with accompanying changes not only in overall physiology but also in brain functions. Recent research reveals the complex effects estradiol has on regulating learning and memory that vary by type of cognitive task among other variables. In particular, increased estradiol levels improve performance on hippocampus-dependent tasks, but impair performance on striatum-dependent tasks through direct actions on these different memory systems. Estradiol’s …

Lactate As A Memory-Enhancing Metabolite Across The Lifespan In Male Fischer 344 Rats, Brooke Hamling

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Aging is often associated with cognitive decline, including problems with working memory and difficulties forming new memories. These deficits can be directly linked to the hippocampus, an area of the temporal lobe of the brain that is engaged during spatial working memory. Age-related declines may be influenced by changes in important modulatory pathways that impact hippocampal function, including regulation of the metabolite lactate. When astrocytic stores of glycogen are hydrolyzed, lactate is released into the extracellular space where it can be taken up by neurons and used as fuel during moments of activation. We previously found that the extracellular concentration …

Determining Gene Specific Chromatin Differences In Sulfolobus Solfataricus: Expression Of Merr Protein For Targeted-Chip Antibody Production, Erica M. North, Sophie Payne, Sam Mccarthy, Tyler Johnson, Paul H. Blum

UCARE: Research Products

In this project the repressor protein MerR from the Sulfolobus solfataricus mercury resistance operon was cloned into pET28b and transformed into Roetta 2 E.coli strains for overexpression and purification. Large quantities of recombinant MerR will be used for subsequent injection into a mammalian host for antibody production. These antibodies will be used in targeted-ChIP studies in which gene specific chromatin modification states will be analyzed. The overproduction of MerR is part of a larger project where future research could produce data on whether gene expression levels and chromatin modifiation states could be correlated at an individual gene level, possibly suggesting …

Experimental Assessment Of Mouse Sociability Using An Automated Image Processing Approach, Frency Varghese, Jessica A. Burket, Andrew D. Benson, Stephen I. Deutsch, Christian W. Zemlin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Mouse is the preferred model organism for testing drugs designed to increase sociability. We present a method to quantify mouse sociability in which the test mouse is placed in a standardized apparatus and relevant behaviors are assessed in three different sessions (called session I, II, and III). The apparatus has three compartments (see Figure 1), the left and right compartments contain an inverted cup which can house a mouse (called “stimulus mouse”). In session I, the test mouse is placed in the cage and its mobility is characterized by the number of transitions made between compartments. In session II, a …

Alzheimer's Disease: The Silver Tsunami Of The 21st Century, Ankita Sarkar, Madison Irwin, Aditi Singh, Matthew Riccetti, Amit Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder, has no cure to date. One of the causes of AD is the accumulation of amyloid-beta 42 (Aß42) plaques, which result in the onset of neurodegeneration. It is not known how these plaques trigger the onset of neurodegeneration. There are several animal models developed to (i) study etiology of disease, (ii) look for genetic modifiers, and (iii) identify chemical inhibitors that can block neurodegeneration and help to find cure for this disease. An insect model of Drosophila melanogaster has also provided new insights into the disease. Here we will discuss the utility …

The Effect Of Transformed Escherichia Coli On The Mouse Intestine Microbiome: The Microbial Metabolic Enhancement Hypothesis, Bryar P. Kader

Senior Honors Theses

Metabolic disorders affect around thirty-four percent of the population in the United States. Among these disorders is lactose intolerance, which results from diminished production of the human lactase enzyme. This disorder and others like it are genetically determined and cannot be cured. However, the use of transformed bacteria implanted in the colon may provide a means by which the faulty pathway can be bypassed. To test whether transformed bacteria have the capability to aid in the digestion of normally indigestible compounds, a transformed strain of Escherichia coli overexpressing the beta-galactosidase enzyme encoded by the lacZ gene was colonized in the …

Lignocellulose As Carbon Source Promotes Bacterial Synergism And Reduces Antagonism, Yijie Deng

Dissertations

Lignocellulose decomposes slowly in nature because it consists of complex polymers resistant to enzymatic degradation by most organisms. Some bacteria are capable of producing cellulolytic enzymes but the way in which bacteria interact within a community to enhance degradation of the recalcitrant substrate is poorly understood. A better understanding of how bacterial interactions affect lignocellulose degradation would provide potential approaches to improve the efficiency of lignocellulose degradation for biofuel production.

To study whether bacterial interactions enhance lignocellulose degradation, I grew environmental bacterial isolates in mixed cultures and pure cultures. I found that bacterial synergism in mixed cultures was common in …

From Lights Out To Lights On, Ravi Chidambaram

Asian Management Insights

How Sunlabob went from providing affordable, sustainable energy in rural Laos to becoming an international turnkey operator and co-developer.

Rerouting Pre-Existing Host Vaccine-Induced Immunity To Wards Breast Cancer, Bharat Kumar Reddy Chaganty

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

For decades, investigators have attempted to activate the immune system to prevent cancer metastasis or recurrence; however, owing to host immune tolerance to cancer antigens and the immunosuppressive environment at tumor sites, many such attempts have failed. The recent success of anti-CTLA4, PD-L1 and PD-1 antibodies targeting immune checkpoint pathways and HPV vaccines has renewed hope that patient survival can be increased through enhancing T-cell responses. We propose to test a novel approach that may bypass host immune tolerance to cancer cells. We hypothesize that host T-cell immunity acquired through vaccination against or natural infection with infectious diseases—e.g., influenza—can be …

Lipid Content And Biomass Analysis In Autotrophic And Heterotrophic Algal Species, Addie M. Lauder, Daniel P. Jones, Thomas E. Walker, Todd Allen

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Biofuels are a form of renewable energy derived from living matter, typically plants. The push for biofuels began in order to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere, as biofuels are essentially carbon neutral. The idea is the same amount of CO2 the plants took in to perform photosynthesis will then be released in the burning of the biofuels. Algae is an excellent source of biofuels because it grows quickly and is versatile in terms of the type of fuel it can produce. The two most common mechanisms for algae growth are heterotrophic or photoautotrophic. Heterotrophically …

Spatial Engineering Of Osteochondral Tissue Constructs Through Microfluidically Directed Differentiation Of Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Stephen M. Goldman, Gilda A. Barabino

Publications and Research

The development of tissue engineered osteochondral units has been slowed by a number of technical hurdles associated with recapitulating their heterogeneous nature ex vivo. Subsequently, numerous approaches with respect to cell sourcing, scaffolding composition, and culture media formulation have been pursued, which have led to high variability in outcomes and ultimately the lack of a consensus bioprocessing strategy. As such, the objective of this study was to standardize the design process by focusing on differentially supporting formation of cartilaginous and bony matrix by a single cell source in a spatially controlled manner within a single material system. A cell-polymer solution …

Poster: Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Emillie Partridge

Best Integrated Writing

This poster presentation by Partridge provides information about stem cell research and the controversy surrounding it.

Effects Of Soil Type And Diversity On Soil Respiration And Litter Decomposition In A Perennial Biofuel Production System, Jordan Young

Annual Graduate Student Symposium

For my master's thesis, I researched soil respiration and litter decomposition at the Cedar River Ecological Research Site. Respiration and decomposition are important processes in the understanding of carbon sequestration, which is one of the main benefits of using biofuels. Cellulosic biofuels can be produced from a wide diversity of plants on a wide range of soil types, and these factors can influence the rate of carbon sequestration, so I investigated the effects of plant diversity and soil type in the context of perennial biofuel production.

Using Technology To Serve The Agricultural Community In The Western Cape Province Of South Africa, Pavarni Naidoo, Lise Sandenbergh, Maud Bonato, Johann Strauss, Mike Wallace, Andre Roux, Shaheed Martin, Ilse Trautmann, Schalk Cloete

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture has a team of agricultural experts using novel approaches to address the challenges faced by South African agriculture. The objective of this paper is to describe some of the innovative research and technologies, and methods of technology transfer, used to better serve the agricultural community. The spectrum of technologies implemented includes new research on breeding (biotechnology); new approaches to conservation agriculture; remote sensing satellite and spatial information for improved decision making, such as the spatial intelligence project and FruitLook; Agricultural Integrated Management System; and technology to manage and disseminate information, such as smart …

Plantbot Genetics Presents: The Moth Project, Augustana College, Rock Island Illinois

2015-2016

PlantBot Genetics Inc. presents an engaging overview of second shift pollinators such as the moth, along with recent advances in self-pollinating robo-plants. The Moth Project highlights inspired responses to the decline of the honeybee and the hope that Moths and PlantBots will step in and save the day.

As consumers, we no longer know the real price of our food. Present food distribution systems are so complicated that it is unrealistic to expect consumers will make responsible choices based on the knowledge at hand. We encourage people to think more about their food, where it comes from, and where it …

Moisture Sensing Sprinkler System, Lewis University

Sustainability

No abstract provided.

Implementing Efficient Laminar-Flow Showerheads, Lewis University

Sustainability

No abstract provided.

Anti-Metastatic And Anti-Tumor Growth Effects Of Carnosol On Breast Cancer, Halima Ali Mohammed Salem Al Samri

Theses

Our lab has previously showed that carnosol, a naturally occurring polyphenol, exhibits anti-cancer activity by promoting cell cycle arrest at G2 phase, and induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) dependent apoptosis and beclin-1 independent autophagy in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line (MDA-MB-231). Here, we extended our study by investigating the potential effect of carnosol on migration, invasion and tumor growth of these cells. Our findings demonstrated that carnosol, at non-cytotoxic concentrations, exerted a potent anti-metastatic and anti-tumor growth activity against the highly invasive TNBC cell line, MBA-MB-231. Carnosol inhibited the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells. Moreover, carnosol suppressed …

A Comparative Study Of Aromatic Pollutants Degradation Using Two Different Peroxidases, Aysha Hamad Muftah Ai Neyadi

Theses

Enzyme based degradation of organic pollutants is a promising new remediation approach due to the promiscuous nature of the technique, the wide range of available enzymes, and the scalability of the process. Oxidoreductases, specifically, peroxidases are the most popular class of enzymes that have been used for the degradation of organic pollutants. It is generously assumed that all peroxidases behave similarly and produce similar degradation products. Our main objective was to test the hypothesis that related peroxidases may act differentially towards the degradation of aromatic pollutants. Therefore, in this study, we have carried out detailed degradation studies on three model …

Anti-Breast Cancer Effect Of Rhus Coriaria Extract, Khawlah Najib Athamneh

Theses

Plants have been shown to be an excellent source of new drugs, including anticancer agents. Rhus coriaria, commonly known as sumac, a plant that is known to possess different therapeutic values including anti-oxidant and anti-microbial activities. Here, we investigated the anti-cancer effect of R. coriaria on triple negative MDA-MB-231 cell line. We demonstrated that Rhus coriaria ethanolic extract (RCE) inhibits the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cell line in a time- and concentration dependent manner. RCE induced senescence and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Moreover, no proliferative recovery was detected after RCE removal. Annexin V staining and PARP cleavage analysis revealed …

A Model Of Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, And Vaso-Vagal Responses Produced By Vestibulo-Sympathetic Activation, Theodore Raphan, Bernard Cohen, Yongqing Xiang, Sergei B. Yakushin

Publications and Research

Blood Pressure (BP), comprised of recurrent systoles and diastoles, is controlled by central mechanisms to maintain blood flow. Periodic behavior of BP was modeled to study how peak amplitudes and frequencies of the systoles are modulated by vestibular activation. The model was implemented as a relaxation oscillator, driven by a central signal related to Desired BP. Relaxation oscillations were maintained by a second order system comprising two integrators and a threshold element in the feedback loop. The output signal related to BP was generated as a nonlinear function of the derivative of the first state variable, which is a summation …

Bio-Piracy: Creating Proprietary Rights In Plant Genetic Resources, James O. Odek

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Attention Strongly Modulates Reliability Of Neural Responses To Naturalistic Narrative Stimuli, Jason J. Ki, Simon P. Kelly, Lucas C. Parra

Publications and Research

Attentional engagement is a major determinant of how effectively we gather information through our senses. Alongside the sheer growth in the amount and variety of information content that we are presented with through modern media, there is increased variability in the degree to which we “absorb” that information. Traditional research on attention has illuminated the basic principles of sensory selection to isolated features or locations, but it provides little insight into the neural underpinnings of our attentional engagement with modern naturalistic content. Here, we show inhumansubjects that the reliability of an individual’s neural responses with respect to a larger group …

Drought Responsive Gene Expression Regulatory Divergence Between Upland And Lowland Ecotypes Of A Perennial C4 Grass, John T. Lovell, Scott Schwartz, David B. Lowry, Eugene V. Shakirov, Jason E. Bonnette, Xiaoyu Weng, Mei Wang, Jenifer Johnson, Avinash Sreedasyam, Christopher Plott, Jerry Jenkins, Jeremy Schmutz, Thomas E. Juenger

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Climatic adaptation is an example of a genotype-by-environment interaction (G×E) of fitness. Selection upon gene expression regulatory variation can contribute to adaptive phenotypic diversity; however, surprisingly few studies have examined how genome-wide patterns of gene expression G×E are manifested in response to environmental stress and other selective agents that cause climatic adaptation. Here, we characterize drought-responsive expression divergence between upland (drought-adapted) and lowland (mesic) ecotypes of the perennial C₄ grass, Panicum hallii, in natural field conditions. Overall, we find that cis-regulatory elements contributed to gene expression divergence across 47% of genes, 7.2% of which exhibit drought-responsive G×E. …