Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Function Of Ric-8a In G Protein E+- Subunit Biogenesis, Barry Willardson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

1. Grant Ludlam. The MEG award helped support Grant’s work from January 2015 through August 2016. During this time Grant has worked on three projects. He investigated the role of Ric8A in the folding of the G protein a subunit and its assembly into the G protein heterotrimeric complex. Unfortunately, his results showed that deletion of Ric8A in the photoreceptor cells of mice did not affect G protein signaling. As a result, he changed his research focus to determining the structure of the BBSome core complex. He assisted a graduate student, Takuma Aoba, in this work. They used a combination of …

Mentoring Undergraduates At The Intersection Of Organic Synthesis And Peptide Science, Steven L. Castle

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Our academic goals were threefold. First, we aimed to synthesize building blocks and begin assembling them to construct the anticancer peptide yaku’amide A (YA, Figure 1). Our purposes in synthesizing YA were to develop new chemical reactions suitable for efficiently preparing its unusual amino acids (shown in red and blue in Figure 1), and synthesize simplified analogues for use in studies designed to reveal its biological target and mode of action. Our second academic goal was derived from the first and involved investigating the ability of bulky dehydroamino acids (i.e., the amino acids of YA shown in blue in Figure …

Alzheimer’S Disease: A New Model Defining The Mechanism Of Iron- Catalyzed Radical Damage To Neurons, Richard Watt, Jonathan Wisco

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The MEG proposal focused on understanding how elevated homocysteine levels cause the inability of cells to control iron levels as a cause for Alzheimer’s disease. Iron is associated with the amyloid plaques and tau tangles that are proposed to cause damage to neurons. Dr. Wisco and I previously submitted an NIH R15 proposal that was viewed positively but was not funded due to a lack of preliminary data. Our goal was to use MEG funding to provide preliminary data supporting the hypothesis. We proposed that Homocysteine was a dangerous trigger for disrupting iron metabolism. Biochemical techniques, immunohistochemistry techniques and MRI …