Biotechnology Commons^™

Investigating The Effects Of Hd5 On Iec-6 Small Intestinal Epithelial Cells On Wound Healing And E-Cadherin Expression, Brady Dunn, Braxton S. Ivie, Ben J. Bolz, Cayden Durrough

Student Scholar Symposium

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Human Alpha Defensin 5 (Hd5) In Disrupted Wound Healing Processes In Crohn’S Colitis, Jafer Aljorani, Amanda Williams

Student Scholar Symposium

Wound healing is a complex biological process requiring the coordinated function of multiple proteins. In chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly Crohn’s Colitis (CC), this process is dysregulated, leading to delayed tissue repair and increased disease burden. Prior studies indicate that Human Alpha Defensin 5 (HD5) is over-expressed in the colonic epithelium of CC patients, yet its impact on wound healing remains poorly understood. Our laboratory has identified that HD5 may impair wound healing by modulating key structural and regulatory proteins. Preliminary findings suggest that HD5 reduces the expression and function of desmoplakin, a critical desmosomal protein essential for maintaining …

Protocols For Antioxidant Testing: A Mini Review Of Common Assays And Approaches, Abdulsalam Halboup, Sameer A. Alkubati

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Antioxidants play a pivotal role in mitigating damage caused by oxidative stress, which is implicated in aging, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and various chronic diseases. With the growing interest in natural and synthetic antioxidants across nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and food industries, the need for reliable, reproducible, and standardized testing methods has become increasingly urgent. This mini-review provides a structured overview of the most widely used antioxidant testing protocols, categorized into in vitro chemical-based assays (e.g., DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, metal chelation), cell-based assays (e.g., DCFH-DA for intracellular ROS detection), and in vivo biomarker-based models. Each method’s principle, experimental protocol, advantages, and limitations are critically …

Prevalence Of Giardia Infection: A Cross-Sectional Study In Basra Province, Iraq, Sarah Kamal Naser

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Giardiasis is a common parasite infection that is seen more frequently than any other parasitic infection worldwide. This infection is especially prevalent in tropical areas and in developing nations that have a poor standard of living and poor health conditions. The Giardia parasite is able to infect people of any gender, as it enters the body by the mouth, passes down the oesophagus, and finally reaches the stomach, where it is not negatively impacted by gastric acids. The goal of this study is to determine the extent to which patients who were treated at Al-Zubair General Hospital in Basra, Iraq, …

Electrochemical Sensors For In Situ Monitoring Of Reactive Species During Cold Atmospheric Plasma-Based Therapies, Jonathan Thomas, Suneel Kumar, Gagana Karkada, Julia Sutter, Kristina Pattison, Jason Rainone, Dhruv Patel, Shashank Madhavan, Fred Krebs, Francois Berthiaume, Vandana Miller, Katharina Stapelmann

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) is emerging as a clinically relevant therapy for dermatological conditions such as actinic keratosis, warts, and chronic wounds. However, these therapies lack strategies to monitor CAP delivery in situ and to ensure delivery of an effective CAP dose without unwanted toxicity. CAP acts as a therapeutic agent in these biomedical applications primarily (but not solely) through reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) generated at transiently high local concentrations. Here we demonstrate the use of bio-electrochemical sensors capable of real-time measurements of key CAP RONS: hydrogen peroxide and oxidation-reduction-potential (ORP). In in vitro scratch assays and …

Environmental Risk Assessment Of Textile Waste From Bio-Engineered Fibers In The Fashion Industry, Aayush Pankaj Agarwal, Harshit Soral, Irmak Aktan, Karol Montserrat Gonzalez Saad, Maria Daniela Saa Espinosa, Sheetal Suhas Dhanuka, Yi Yang

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

The global fashion industry generates over 92 million tons of textile waste annually, a figure projected to increase significantly by 2030. Bio-engineered fibers, including bacterial cellulose, mycelium-based leather, and recombinant protein textiles emerge as sustainable alternatives to conventional fibers. Despite their promise, recent evidence suggests that these fibers may pose environmental risks at the end-of-life stage, such as incomplete biodegradation in landfills, microfiber shedding, and chemical leaching from dyes and coatings. The purpose of this study is to examine how these risks are represented through scientific literature, corporate sustainability reports, and policy frameworks, and to identify strategies for integrating risk …

Generating Predictive Gene Expression Signatures For Alzheimer's Disease Using Postmortem Brain Tissue, Ashley Duche

Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Background: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and tau protein aggregates. These pathological features develop in specific brain regions, but why some areas are more vulnerable to early AD-related changes remains unclear. To address this, predictive gene expression signatures were developed to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying regional susceptibility to AD pathology.

Methods: This was performed using postmortem brain (PMB) tissue from participants in the Religious Orders Study and Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP), Mayo Clinic, and Mount Sinai Brain Bank (MSBB) to generate gene expression signatures from six brain …

Synthesis Of Antibody Functionalized Polyaniline/Polystyrene/N-Gqds Composite Fibermats For Sweat Based Cortisol Biosensing Applications, Ashwin James

Honors Theses

Noninvasive, wearable biosensors capable of detecting stress biomarkers in sweat require electrodes that are flexible, conductive, insoluble in water, and highly sensitive at low concentrations of analyte. In this work, bovine serum albumin blocked and anti-cmab immobilized nitrogen doped graphene quantum dots integrated polyaniline/polystyrene composite fibermat electrodes (BSA/Anti-Cmab/N-GQDs/PANI/PS electrodes) were synthesized and evaluated as a potential platform for an electrochemical cortisol biosensor in sweat based systems. Polyaniline was utilized in order to provide electrical conductivity, while polystyrene served as a carrying polymer for mechanical support and its hydrophobicity. Composite fibermats were manufactured through Forcespinning™, followed by a secondary polyaniline graft …

Antioxidant Enzymes And Osmolyte Accumulation In Okra Cultivars Under Drought Stress, Jawad Ali, Ibadullah Jan, Hidayat Ullah, Muhammad Adnan, Shah Fahad, Hassan Alsberi, Khulud Albalawi, Hakki Akdeniz, Manzoor Ahmmad, Beena Saeed, Noor Us Sabah, Mian Sayed Khan, Abdul Basir, Muhammad Romman, Ayman El Sabagh

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

Drought stress brought about by worsening environmental conditions due to climate change has increasingly damaging effects on crop production systems. To mitigate these effects, several physiological and biochemical aspects of plants could be used as markers in breeding for the selection of drought-resistant cultivars. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of 8 okra cultivars (Arka Anamika, Punjab Selection, Posaswami, Tulsi, Subz Pari, Super Green, Local Multani, and Green Star) under well-watered (control), mild drought stress, and severe drought stress conditions by irrigating plants at an interval of 3, 6, and 9 d after 30 d of planting. Results …

Comparative Assessment Of Lower Limb Neuromusculoskeletal Activation And Joint Kinematics In Normal And Impaired Gait, Jack Ryan Schule

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates whether accessible and affordable technologies can provide clinically significant, quantifiable gait analysis comparable to traditional marker-based motion capture systems. Modern high-end systems offer excellent accuracy but remain financially and logistically inaccessible to many clinicians and researchers. To address this gap, a framework was developed using markerless pose estimation using the model, MediaPipe, inertial measurement units (IMUs) processed through an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), and surface electromyography (sEMG) to measure joint kinematics and neuromuscular activity during gait. An experiment was performed where data was collected from participants with both normal gait and pathologies including: Osgood–Schlatter disease, Plica Band …

Mmp-7 Expression And Rs11225307 Polymorphism In Breast Cancer And Fibroadenoma: A Molecular Study In Basrah, Iraq, Heba Jassam, Wijdan Nazar Ibraheim, Mazin Hawwaz Abdulridha, Rafid Adil Abood, Karam B. Nanjem

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Breast cancer (BC) progression relies heavily on extracellular matrix degradation, mediated in part by matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7). While overexpression of MMP-7 has been implicated in multiple cancers, data from Middle Eastern populations remain limited.

This study examined MMP-7 gene expression and polymorphism patterns, with emphasis on rs11225307, in breast cancer versus benign fibroadenoma (FA) tissues among women in Basrah, Iraq. Thirty-seven BC and twenty-three FA patients were enrolled. MMP-7 mRNA expression was quantified using qRT-PCR and normalized to β-actin, while polymorphisms were analyzed through Sanger sequencing of eight SNPs and allele-specific PCR for rs11225307. Statistical significance was set at …

Assessing The Role Of Social Media As A Complementary Source In Pharmacovigilance: Insights From Faers, X (Formerly Twitter), And Askapatient Data Across Multiple Drug Classes, Nwanneka Okere

Dissertations

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) pose significant public health challenges yet remain substantially underreported in traditional pharmacovigilance systems. Social media platforms and patient-reported outcome forums have emerged as potential complementary sources for capturing real-time patient experiences with medications, but their integration with established surveillance systems remains underexplored.

Purpose: This study examined ADR reporting patterns across FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), X (formerly Twitter), and Askapatient to evaluate whether patient-generated digital data can complement traditional pharmacovigilance systems for enhanced drug safety monitoring.

Methods: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design analyzed 107,753 reports representing 289,740 individual ADR occurrences for …

Fostering Entrepreneurial Thinking And Practice Through Teaching And Learning Integration, Mohammad G. Sabbir

Learning and Educational Center Virtual Teaching and Learning Conference

This session explores an innovative, evidence-based approach to integrating entrepreneurial thinking into undergraduate neuroscience education through hands-on gene editing experiences. Using the commercially available Bio-Rad CRISPR/Cas9-based “Out of the Blue” kit for bacterial LacZ gene editing, students are guided not only through the scientific principles underlying modern gene editing technologies but also through the entrepreneurial challenge of replicating and manufacturing the kit using existing lab resources. This model empowers students to extend their learning beyond the classroom by engaging in cost-effective, scalable biotechnology practices—particularly valuable for institutions with limited funding. Classroom-based research demonstrates increased student engagement, deeper conceptual understanding, and …

Screening For Potential Plant Growth‐Promoting Rhizobacteria (Pgpr)-Assisted Phytoremediation To Mitigate Lead Toxicity In Uae Soils, Zeinab Mohamed Abdalla

Theses

This study investigates the potential of lead (Pb)-tolerant actinobacteria that possess 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACCD) activity and plant growth-promoting (PGP) traits to serve as a biological tool for enhancing the growth of corn (Zea mays L.) under Pb stress. The primary objective of this research was to isolate and characterize novel, Pb-tolerant, rhizosphere-competent actinobacteria and to evaluate their efficacy in mitigating Pb toxicity, reducing its uptake, and promoting biomass accumulation in corn grown in contaminated soil. A total of 43 actinobacterial isolates were obtained from Pb-contaminated rhizosphere soil and screened for Pb tolerance, rhizosphere competence, ACCD activity, and PGP traits. …

Comparison Of Metal Nanoparticles As Antifungal Agents: Efficacy, Mechanisms, And Toxicity Against Candida, Aspergillus, And Cryptococcus, Ahmed Falah Imran, Hayder Hameed Saeed, Khaldoon Jasim Mohammed

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Cryptococcus neoformans are the invasive fungi whose diseases are becoming a growing health issue in the global community, particularly in immunocompromised people. The increasing resistance of the conventional antifungals and the shortage of the existing treatment methods require alternative methods. The present review is an evaluation of the antifungal activity of metal-based nanoparticles, including silver (Ag), copper (Cu), zinc oxide (ZnO), titanium dioxide (TiO₂), and selenium (Se) in relation to the three predominant pathogenic fungi. It also talks about their mode of action, relative efficacy, toxicity and their possible future clinical …

Renoprotective Potential Of Ciprofloxacin, Prednisolone, And Infliximab In Acetic Acid-Induced Ulcerative Colitis Rats, O. A. Oyesola, O. E. Olayemi, B. I. Kukoyi

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with systemic manifestations, including renal impairment mediated by oxidative stress, inflammation, and electrolyte imbalance. This study investigated the renoprotective potential of ciprofloxacin, prednisolone, and infliximab in rats with acetic acid–induced UC. Fifty male Sprague–Dawley rats (180–200 g) were divided into five groups (n = 10): control, UC control, UC + ciprofloxacin (50 mg/kg, p.o.), UC + prednisolone (4 mg/kg, p.o.), and UC + infliximab (5 mg/kg, i.p.). UC was induced by rectal instillation of 4% acetic acid, and treatments were administered for 42 days. Serum urea, creatinine, electrolytes, and malondialdehyde (MDA) …

Purple Tomatoes Boost Nutrition Crop Value And Create New Opportunities For United States (U.S) Agriculture, Tariq Alam

Agronomic Crops

The agricultural landscape in the United States is continually evolving, with growers and the tomato industry seeking innovative ways to meet consumer demands while enhancing profitability. The introduction of both bioengineered and classically bred anthocyanins-enriched purple tomatoes presents a unique opportunity for U.S. growers to cultivate a high-value crop that appeals to niche markets and commands premium pricing. Bioengineered purple tomatoes achieve high anthocyanin levels through the introduction of snapdragon transcription factors, while classically bred 'Indigo Rose' purple tomatoes are developed via classical breeding methods, providing an alternative for consumers who prefer traditionally bred products. Specifically, the purple tomato holds …

Mesenchymal Stem Cells As Cornerstones Of Regenerative Medicine: Mechanisms, Applications, And Future Perspectives, Hasan M. Agha, Mohammed A. Abdalqader, Jantson Hoh, Yacoub Wassouf, Khudhur Abbas Ahmed Al-Saadawi, Amjad Abdulhadi Mohammed, Muneer Mohammed Saleh Alsayadi

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Regenerative medicine is a multidisciplinary domain focused on restoring, repairing, or replacing damaged tissues and organs by harnessing the body’s inherent healing abilities with sophisticated biological and technical techniques. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become fundamental among many stem cell types because to their self-renewal, multipotency, paracrine signaling, and immunomodulatory capabilities. Their therapeutic adaptability has been shown in orthopedic, cardiovascular, neurological, dermatological, and immune-mediated illnesses, underscoring their clinical significance. Nonetheless, obstacles like donor heterogeneity, senescence during in vitro growth, restricted engraftment, and regulatory impediments persist in limiting repeatability and broad clinical use. Recent advancements are enhancing the capabilities of MSCs …

Evaluating The Pros And Cons Of Common Dental Polymers In Dentistry: Review, Ali Kadhim Wadday, Sukaina Tuama Ghafel, Lina M. Shaker

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

Dental polymers play a central role in modern dentistry, offering versatility in applications ranging from removable dentures and prosthetic frameworks to implant abutments and bioactive scaffolds. Common materials like PMMA, PEEK, and nylon are valued for their formability, cost-effectiveness, and aesthetic properties, while emerging biopolymers including chitosan and alginate offer promising biocompatible alternatives. However, both conventional and bio-based polymers exhibit limitations in terms of chemical stability, mechanical wear, and microbial adhesion. Recent advancements in polymer science have expanded the material palette through innovative biopolymer formulations and advanced surface engineering techniques such as antimicrobial coatings and nanocomposites, introducing novel solutions for …

Characterization Of Mannosidases (Man) In Tetrahymena Thermophila Using Bioinformatics Tools, Cynthia Wen

Publications and Research

Mannosidases are a type of glycoside hydrolase (glycosidase) that facilitate the hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds in mannose-containing polysaccharides and glycans, including those found in glycoproteins. Their main role is to cleave specific linkages involving D-mannose residues, effectively trimming or degrading mannose-rich oligosaccharides. These enzymes are crucial in N-glycosylation pathways, which are essential for proper protein folding, glycoprotein maturation, and the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism in eukaryotic cells.

There are two main types of mannosidases: alpha-mannosidases and beta-mannosidases. In humans, several of these enzymes exist, including those found in the endoplasmic reticulum (alpha-mannosidase I), those in the Golgi apparatus (alpha-mannosidase II), …