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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

X-Ray Characterization Of Mesophases And Phase Transitions Of Dna Analogues In Solutions, Mustafa Selcuk Yasar Nov 2016

X-Ray Characterization Of Mesophases And Phase Transitions Of Dna Analogues In Solutions, Mustafa Selcuk Yasar

Doctoral Dissertations

We think of DNA as double-stranded helices (duplex), but the polymer exists in many conformations. Several triplex and quadruplex DNA structures can be formed in laboratory settings and exist in nature. This thesis first provides a brief description of the nature of the order in arrays of duplex DNA under biologically relevant molecular crowding conditions. Then we compare the duplex DNA mesophases with the corresponding liquid crystalline phase behavior of the triplex and quadruplex DNA analogues. In particular, we focus on G-quadruplexes. Observed in the folds of guanine-rich oligonucleotides, G-quadruplex structures are based on G-quartets formed by hydrogen bonding and …


Morphological And Material Effects In Van Der Waals Interactions, Jaime C. Hopkins Jul 2016

Morphological And Material Effects In Van Der Waals Interactions, Jaime C. Hopkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Van der Waals (vdW) interactions influence a variety of mesoscale phenomena, such as surface adhesion, friction, and colloid stability, and play increasingly important roles as science seeks to design systems on increasingly smaller length scales. Using the full Lifshitz continuum formulation, this thesis investigates the effects of system materials, shapes, and configurations and presents open-source software to accurately calculate vdW interactions. In the Lifshitz formulation, the microscopic composition of a material is represented by its bulk dielectric response. Small changes in a dielectric response can result in substantial variations in the strength of vdW interactions. However, the relationship between these …


Photolysis Of Triazenylbenzoic Acids For Click Chemistry, Adam Gann Jul 2016

Photolysis Of Triazenylbenzoic Acids For Click Chemistry, Adam Gann

Doctoral Dissertations

Copper catalyzed cycloaddition of terminal alkynes and azides has revolutionized the field of bioconjugate chemistry. Unfortunately, typical copper catalysts are known to disrupt relevant biological systems, so it has become necessary to develop new, copper-free methods that are less cytotoxic. particular interest are "click" probes which can be activated with an outside light source, giving the user spatial and temporal control over the system being investigated. We have developed a method in which an aryl diazonium salt is rapidly generated using photolysis of the triazene functional group, and subsequently coupled with an electron rich aromatic nucleophile to yield an azobenzene. …


Kinetic And Dynamic Insights Into The Substrate Interactions And Catalysis Of Factor Inhibiting Hif-1 (Fih-1), Cristina B. Martin Jul 2016

Kinetic And Dynamic Insights Into The Substrate Interactions And Catalysis Of Factor Inhibiting Hif-1 (Fih-1), Cristina B. Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

inhibiting HIF-1 (FIH-1) modulates the master regulator of hypoxia sensing, hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), by transcriptional repression making it an attractive potential target for treatment of hypoxia-related diseases. Given that similar enzymes are present within the cell and that they have other important physiological roles, defining the therapeutic window by which it can be selectively targeted becomes an issue. Consequently, it’s necessary to have a deeper understanding of the substrate interactions in FIH-1 that contributes to catalysis as this is one avenue that can be explored for future therapeutic investigations. The overall goal of this dissertation is to gain kinetic …


Biophysical Studies Of Cell Division Protein Localization Mechanisms In Escherichia Coli, Matthew Wayne Bailey May 2016

Biophysical Studies Of Cell Division Protein Localization Mechanisms In Escherichia Coli, Matthew Wayne Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations

How nanometer-scale proteins position accurately within micron-scale bacteria has intrigued both biologists and physicists alike. A critical process requiring precise protein localization is cell division. In most bacteria, cell division starts with the self-assembly of the FtsZ proteins into filaments that form a ring-like structure encircling the cell at its middle, the Z-ring. The Z-ring is a scaffold for additional proteins that synthesize the lateral cell wall which separates the two daughter cells. If division planes are misplaced relative to bacterial chromosomes, also called nucleoids, daughter cells with incomplete genetic material can be produced. In Escherichia coli, research carried out …


The Application Of Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange And Covalent Labeling Coupled With Mass Spectrometry To Examine Protein Structure, Nicholas B. Borotto Mar 2016

The Application Of Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange And Covalent Labeling Coupled With Mass Spectrometry To Examine Protein Structure, Nicholas B. Borotto

Doctoral Dissertations

Thorough insight into a protein’s structure is necessary to understand how it functions and what goes wrong when it malfunctions. The structure of proteins, however, is not easily analyzed. The analysis must take place under a narrow range of conditions or risk perturbing the very structure being probed. Furthermore, the wide diversity in size and chemistry possible in proteins significantly complicates this analysis. Despite this numerous methods have been developed in order to analyze protein structure. In this work, we demonstrate that mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques are capable of characterizing the structure of particularly challenging proteins. This is done through …