Biology Commons^™

Mesenchymal Stem Cells In The Treatment Of Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Erica Lang, Julie A. Semon

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is a Disease Caused by Mutations in Different Genes Resulting in Mild, Severe, or Lethal Forms. with No Cure, Researchers Have Investigated the Use of Cell Therapy to Correct the Underlying Molecular Defects of OI. Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Are of Particular Interest Because of their Differentiation Capacity, Immunomodulatory Effects, and their Ability to Migrate to Sites of Damage. MSCs Can Be Isolated from Different Sources, Expanded in Culture, and Have Been Shown to Be Safe in Numerous Clinical Applications. This Review Summarizes the Preclinical and Clinical Studies of MSCs in the Treatment of OI. Altogether, the …

Antimicrobial Peptides In Transgenic Silkworm Silk, David Jaden Turner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Overview: People in India and China have produced silk textiles for thousands of years. Silk is a biodegradable, biocompatible compound used in the production of clothing, bedding, furniture, industrial materials, and medical applications. Over the last 30 years, research has increasingly investigated silk’s antimicrobial effects and how to augment its natural abilities. Antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, are also an area of increasing interest as the rise of antibiotic resistance reduces the efficacy of current treatments. This project plans to systematically synthesize a fusion protein that incorporates the beneficial properties of each constituent into commercial silkworms.

Innovation: This project seeks to …

Community-Derived Core Concepts For Neuroscience Higher Education, Audrey Chen, Kimberley A. Phillips, Jennifer E. Schaefer, Patrick M. Sonner

Biology Faculty Publications

Core concepts provide a framework for organizing facts and understanding in neuroscience higher education curricula. Core concepts are overarching principles that identify patterns in neuroscience processes and phenomena and can be used as a foundational scaffold for neuroscience knowledge. The need for community-derived core concepts is pressing, because both the pace of research and number of neuroscience programs are rapidly expanding. While general biology and many subdisciplines within biology have identified core concepts, neuroscience has yet to establish a community-derived set of core concepts for neuroscience higher education. We used an empirical approach involving more than 100 neuroscience educators to …

Illuminating The Drivers Of Genomic Diversification In Lamprologine Cichlids Of The Lower Congo River, Naoko P. Kurata

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Freshwater fishes are extraordinarily diverse, considering their available habitats represent a tiny proportion of the earth’s surface. Rivers connect heterogeneous habitats in a linear form and provide excellent simplified models to understand how aquatic biodiversity evolves. In particular, the lower Congo River (LCR) in west Central Africa consists of a dynamic hydroscape exhibiting extraordinary aquatic biodiversity, endemicity, and morphological and ecological specialization. This system is thus an excellent natural laboratory for understanding complex speciation and population diversification processes. In my research, I explore various drivers of diversification, and adaptive evolution in rheophilic lamprologine cichlids endemic to the LCR, including Lamprologus …

Land And Energy, Devan Viani

Biology Student Scholarship

Land use has and will continue to be a complicated topic. We need land to succeed as a country and a species, but it is equally as important to keep the land as pristine as possible to not affect natural ecosystems. As population continues to increase, urbanization and economic growth has inevitably had an impact on climate change.¹ Parallel to an increase in land development is an increase in power generation. As cities grow, technology evolves, and energy use goes up. With this increase in technology, new sources of power generation are emerging. While fossil fuels have always been the …

Precipitation Effects On Butterfly Species Richness, Maggie Ritchie

Biology Student Scholarship

Butterflies are important pollinators that have been impacted due to climate change(1). Studies have looked at how the increasing temperatures and precipitation due to climate change may be playing a role in decreasing populations among some species in Mediterranean climates(2). However, the effects of precipitation have not been considered when looking at changing butterfly populations around the United States. Therefore, increasing precipitation amounts due to climate change may contribute to the decreasing populations of butterflies in Massachusetts.

The Effect Of Nuclear Power On Carbon Intensity, Lukas Mullaney

Biology Student Scholarship

The world is currently facing one of the biggest threats to the environment in its history: the warming of the Earth’s surface due to climate change. One major contributor is the release of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere by humans. To reduce these emissions, countries are making a concerted effort to invest in more sustainable energy sources. Nuclear power is one green energy source that can potentially support the transition to lower carbon emissions. Nuclear power plants release no carbon emissions during the generation of electricity. The only emissions are a result of maintenance, such as …

Effect Of Natural Disasters On Coastal Human Populations Of The Southeastern U.S., Caitlin Mchugh

Biology Student Scholarship

Due to climate change, extreme weather events and natural disasters are becoming more prevalent, and the severity of these events is increasing (Sheldon & Zhan, 2022). Over the last 40 years, the number of billion-dollar natural disasters has gone up. The U.S, averaged 3 billion-dollar disasters per year in the 1980s compared to the average 13 per year in the 2010s (USAFacts, 2023). With natural disasters comes loss of life, infrastructure, and resources that can leave a physical and economic toll on communities for many years if not generations. While some global studies have found that natural disasters increase households’ …

Element Levels In Soil Depend On Elevation, Sean Harris

Biology Student Scholarship

Elements, such as arsenic, copper, phosphorus, and calcium, in soil can help biological processes if content levels are not too low or excessive. Arsenic in soil is toxic at high levels and so too much is harmful to vegetation. Copper is important for plants because it helps with chlorophyll and seed production. Phosphorus helps with plant growth, especially for new seedlings. Calcium in soil is not completely needed at high levels, but it does strengthen plants’ health. However, with factors such as different environments, average precipitation levels, and elevation levels in different counties in the Northeast, element content level differ. …

The Effect Of Water Temperature On Tiger Shark Location, Philip Gelso

Biology Student Scholarship

The tiger shark is a keystone species in its ecosystem. As an apex predator, the tiger shark keeps the entire ecosystem in balance such as maintaining seagrass and coral reef habitats. The rise of ocean surface temperatures have become an issue over the past decades due to the increase in energy from the sun trapped by greenhouse grasses. This change in ocean surface temperature can have detrimental impacts on the ocean environment and the life cycles of many species including the tiger shark. Therefore, this project evaluates the change in location of tiger sharks in relation to water temperature.

The Impact Of Age And Catch Location On The Mortality Rates Of Striped Bass, Owen Finnegan

Biology Student Scholarship

Striped bass are one of the most popular and sought-after gamefish in the United States for recreation and commercial fishermen. This popularity comes from their size, with many fish reaching 40+ pounds, a prominent dish in seafood restaurants, and their expansive habitat as they inhabit waters from Florida to Canada (1). During the late 1970s/80s, the population began sharply declining due to overfishing, and governments enacted regulations to stabilize the population (1). However, as of 2020, overfishing is still occurring, and regulations are continuously evolving (1). Each state has their own rules and regulations for possessing striped bass for commercial …

Does More Pollen Mean More Sneezing?, Diraliz Cruz

Biology Student Scholarship

Every year millions of people suffer from seasonal allergies, according to the CDC about 25% of adults have to deal with these allergies. Pollen comes from all different things like trees, grasses, and weeds and as climate change increases annually the amount of pollen released into the air also increases. Research has shown that climate change has specifically impacted the amount of birch and oak pollen released annually. Although there is data to show that there has been an increase in pollen release there is little to no information on if the prevalence of allergies has increased or decreased along …

The Influence Of Sampling Frequency On Bee Species Richness, Courtney Caccamo

Biology Student Scholarship

As one of Earth’s most valuable pollinators, bees provide important pollination services to wild plant species and crops alike (Winfree 2010). But, in recent years, bee populations appear to be declining due to a variety of anthropogenic drivers (Potts et al. 2010). Quantifying the extent of bee population decline is difficult because there is currently a lack of a standardized protocol for how best to survey bee populations (Tepedino & Portman 2021). One of the commonly used survey methods is pan trapping, which involves leaving out yellow, white, and blue bowls filled with soapy water to passively sample the species …

Intermittent Synchronization In Gamma-Band Neural Oscillations, Anh Nguyen

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Aluminum Ion Exposure On Planarian Photophobic Response To Different Wavelengths Of Light, Anden Velez

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Aluminum exposure has been linked to the development of neurological diseases (Kim et al., 2021). It has increased in quantity in the environment due to industrial activity in producing personal care products and fast food (Tietz et al., 2019). The freshwater invertebrate planarian flatworm Giardia dorotocephala (G. dorotocephala) serves as a model organism. Humans and planarians both express the ion channel transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), which is responsible for thermotaxis, locomotive response to heat, and pain reception (Arenas et al., 2017). Aluminum exposure can exert ion channel-related toxicity via the TRPA1 protein. It has been found …

Assessing Paleoenvironmental Change Of A Boca Raton Inlet Through Midden Shell Artifact Analysis, Maria Gabriella Saraiva De Almeida

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

In this archeological study of a barrier island shell midden in Boca Raton, FL, we evaluate possible environmental and cultural changes that occurred through time by performing a quantitative analysis of shell artifacts of Giant False Donax (Iphigenia brasiliana) and Common Atlantic Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) collected from the shell midden. Middens are archeological trash sites used by researchers to identify artifacts used by past populations to understand their behaviors. The artifacts collected in shallow portion of the midden are younger (therein representing more recent time periods) and the artifacts collected at the deeper portion are older …

An Investigation Into Transcription Fidelity And Its Effects On C. Elegans And S. Cerevisiae Health And Longevity, Olivia S. Dinep-Schneider

Theses and Dissertations

mRNA molecules form an intermediate in the transfer of sequences from DNA to ribosomes in order to guide protein production. Errors can be introduced into mRNA, producing aberrant proteins which place a strain on cellular regulatory machinery, causing increased risks of apoptosis, cancer, and decreased fitness. These errors may be introduced due to decreased transcriptional proofreading capabilities, exposure to chemicals, or mistakes in RNA editing machinery. It is important to investigate these causes of transcription errors to better understand the long-neglected area of mRNA fidelity which has such significant impacts on our cellular functions. In this paper, it was determined …

Role Of Fungal Arv-1 Protein In Sterol Metabolism And Pathogenicity Of The Chestnut Blight Fungus Cryphonectria Parasitica, Soumyadip Kundu

Theses and Dissertations

Intracellular sterol redistribution is an important step in the lipid homeostasis of organisms, a process directly linked to the organizational arrangement in the plasma membrane (PM) of cells. Previous studies in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have demonstrated that the ARV1 (ACAT-related enzyme-2 required for viability 1) protein is a major regulator of sterol transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the plasma membrane, contributing to the structural organization of the PM, rendering it resistant to anti-fungal compounds as well as maintaining ER integrity. This study assessed the significance of ARV1 in the plant pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Cparv1) …

Host-Acquired Virus Genes Support An Ancient Antiviral Role Of The Pirna Pathway In Dipterans, Rebecca Christian

Theses and Dissertations

Endogenous viral elements (EVEs) have been recently investigated as a source of transgenerational immune memory. These “viral fossils” are abundant in Aedes mosquitoes and partner with the host’s primary antiviral defense system, the RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. This partnership appears unique to mosquitoes, which encode an expansion of the Piwi endoribonucleases. To interrogate EVE-Piwi partnerships and their role in antiviral defense, I performed a comparative small RNA analysis of two naturally occurring EVE-virus pairs – one in the mosquito Aedes albopictus, and one in the midge Chaoborus americanus. Both express an EVE related to the nucleoprotein of their …

Classic Iga-Vasculitis With Nephrotic Range Proteinuria - Rare Presentation In An Adult, Ella Teplitsky, Maryam Zafar, Abubakar Tauseef, Marissa Varghese, Joseph Thirumalareddy, Sunil Nair, Akshat Sood, Mohsin Mirza

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

IgA vasculitis formerly known as Henoch-Schonlein Purpura is characterized by leukocytoclastic vasculitis and IgA immune complex in small vessels of the affected organ. IgA vasculitis can involve any organ system depending upon the deposition of the IgA immune complex. IgA vasculitis is a clinical diagnosis which manifest with abdominal pain, arthralgia/arthritis, palpable purpura, and kidney involvement. Occasionally, serum IgA levels or skin or kidney biopsy can help in confirming the diagnosis. Treatment is usually supportive, but studies have proved that prednisone or immunosuppressive agents can help in the prevention or progression of the disease. Hereby we present a case of …