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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Construction And Performance Optimization Of Bioconjugated Nanosensors For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Pro-Inflammatory Diseases, Pooja Gaikwad Sep 2023

Construction And Performance Optimization Of Bioconjugated Nanosensors For Early Detection Of Breast Cancer And Pro-Inflammatory Diseases, Pooja Gaikwad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, nanosensors have emerged as a tool with strong potential in medical diagnostics. Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) based optical nanosensors have notably garnered interest due to the unique characteristics of their near-infrared fluorescence emission, including tissue transparency, photostability, and various chiralities with discrete absorption and fluorescence emission bands. Additionally, the optoelectronic properties of SWCNT are sensitive to the surrounding environment, which makes them suitable for in vitro and in vivo biosensing. Single-stranded (ss) DNA-wrapped SWCNTs have been reported as optical nanosensors for cancers and metabolic diseases. Breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the most common causes of death …


Optimized Peptide Nanomaterials As Delivery Vehicles For Hydrophobic Metal-Based Anticancer Agents, Yaron Marciano Feb 2023

Optimized Peptide Nanomaterials As Delivery Vehicles For Hydrophobic Metal-Based Anticancer Agents, Yaron Marciano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Enzyme-responsive materials have been well explored, particularly as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. In this thesis we demonstrate that anionic self-assembling peptides can be utilized as delivery vehicles for metal-based hydrophobic payloads. The tunability of the system is highlighted as well as the increase in cytotoxicity and selectivity in vitro. The rapid degradation of peptides in cell media may lead to the formation of new peptide-drug bioconjugates with increased activity and selectivity. The physiological stability of these peptide delivery vehicles has been optimized by capping the N-terminus with an acetyl group. This simple backbone modification was shown to not prevent self-assembly, …


A New Mathematical Theory For The Dynamics Of Large Tumor Populations, A Potential Mechanism For Cancer Dormancy & Recurrence And Experimental Observation Of Melanoma Progression In Zebrafish, Adeyinka A. Lesi Jan 2021

A New Mathematical Theory For The Dynamics Of Large Tumor Populations, A Potential Mechanism For Cancer Dormancy & Recurrence And Experimental Observation Of Melanoma Progression In Zebrafish, Adeyinka A. Lesi

Dissertations and Theses

Cancer, a family of over a hundred disease varieties, results in 600,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. Yet, improvements in imaging technology to detect disease earlier, pharmaceutical developments to shrink or eliminate tumors, and modeling of biological interactions to guide treatment have prevented millions of deaths. Cancer patients with initially similar disease can experience vastly different outcomes, including sustained recovery, refractory disease or, remarkably, recurrence years after apparently successful treatment. The current understanding of such recurrences is that they depend on the random occurrence of critical mutations. Clearly, these biological changes appear to be sufficient for recurrence, but are they …


Leveraging Antibodies For Positron Emission Tomography And Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging Of Cancer, Kimberly C. Fung Feb 2020

Leveraging Antibodies For Positron Emission Tomography And Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging Of Cancer, Kimberly C. Fung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The high specificity and affinity of antibodies make them attractive for developing drugs to diagnose and treat cancer. The overarching goal of this work is to explore the synthesis and use of antibody-based imaging agents in preclinical models of cancer. This work can be described as two-fold. In the first part, we investigated how the use of a glycans-specific bioconjugation strategy affects Fc gamma RI binding and why it results in improved in vivo performance of immunoconjugates. To do so, we used the clinically relevant positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent, 89Zr-DFO-pertuzumab, in mouse models of human breast cancer. …


Using Fundamental Properties Of Light To Investigate Photonic Effects In Condensed Matter And Biological Tissues, Laura A. Sordillo Jan 2019

Using Fundamental Properties Of Light To Investigate Photonic Effects In Condensed Matter And Biological Tissues, Laura A. Sordillo

Dissertations and Theses

Light possesses characteristics such as polarization, wavelength and coherence. The interaction of light and matter, whether in a semiconductor or in a biological sample, can reveal important information about the internal properties of a system. My thesis focuses on two areas: photocarriers in gallium arsenide and biomedical optics. Varying the excitation wavelength can be used to study both biological tissue and condensed matter. I altered the excitation wavelengths to be in the longer near-infrared (NIR) optical windows, in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range, a wavelength region previously thought to be unusable for medical imaging. With this method, I acquired high …


Parp Pet Imaging Agents, Brandon Carney Feb 2018

Parp Pet Imaging Agents, Brandon Carney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The poly (adenosine-diphosphate (ADP) ribose) polymerase (PARP) family of enzymes has been of interest to researchers and clinicians for over fifty years, especially the first member of the family, PARP1. This enzyme has become a target for cancer therapeutics due the reliance of highly proliferating cells on PARP1 for genomic maintenance. In the coming age of individualized medicine, however, highly specific therapeutic agents like PARP inhibitors are in need of similarly highly specific companion diagnostic agents. These kind of agents have been made possible with the quickly progressing field of molecular imaging. Specifically, positron emission tomography (PET) has enabled the …