Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

Glial Bridge Development: 22 Hpf, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Glial Bridge

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiment: Wild Type, Probability, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Validation Experiment

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiment: Wild Type, Raw, At, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Validation Experiment

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiment: You-Too, Probability, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Validation Experiment

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiment: You-Too, Psi, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Validation Experiment

No abstract provided.

Validation Experiment: You-Too, Raw, Barresi Lab, Smith College

Validation Experiment

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Meiotic Drive On Developing Eye-Stalks In Stalk-Eyed Flies, Christopher Lepore, Olivia Smith, Heather Wood, Josephine Reinhardt Phd

McNair Scholars Program

Teleopsis dalmanni, commonly known as Stalk-Eyed flies, are known for their sexually dimorphic eye-stalks which females use to pick mates. Within the Gombak-12 population, some individuals contain meiotic drive which is known to influence eye-stalk length and sex ratios. Our goal was to identify genes in developing eye tissue that play a role in causing meiotic drive. To identify these candidate genes, we determined the sex and meiotic drive status of individuals by dissecting 3rd instar larvae for their carcasses. After finding that Qiagen Puregene and Qiagen DNEasy columns DNA extraction techniques worked best—determined by using gel electrophoresis—we prepared …

Dna And Protein Sequence Analysis Of Neuronal Markers Neuronal Nuclei (Neun) And Doublecortin (Dcx) In The Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus Oreganus) And Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus Occidentalis)., Brett M. Vassar

Master's Theses

Neuronal Nuclei (NeuN) and Doublecortin (DCX) are neuron specific proteins that are used in histological studies of brain structure in a variety of vertebrate taxa.Antibodies against NeuN (anti-NeuN) bind to the Fox-3 protein, an RNA binding protein common in mature neurons. Anti-DCX labels a microtubule-associated protein expressed in actively dividing neural progenitor cells and migrating neurons. The DCX gene encodes a protein that is well conserved across mammalian, avian, and a few reptilian species, therefore anti-DCX staining has been used successfully across a range of vertebrate taxa. Successful neuronal staining using anti-NeuN has been demonstrated in mammals, birds, and the …

Examining Lateral Line Development Through Cxcl14 Modulation Of Cxcl12-Cxcr4 Mediated Gene Expression In Danio Rerio, Ariana Calderon-Zavala

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The lateral line is a mechanosensory system used by fish to sense the movement of water. It is evolutionarily related to the inner-ear in humans. For both organisms, the binding of the CXCL12 (SDF-1 ligand) to the CXCR4 receptor induces conformational changes needed to activate signal transduction. This signaling results in numerous cellular responses such as cell fate, chemotaxis, and gene transcription. Interestingly, researchers have found that another signaling molecule, CXCL14, can also bind to the CXCR4 receptor with high affinity (Tanegashima et al., 2013). As a result, we hypothesize that CXCL14 modulates CXCL12-mediated chemotaxis, presumably acting as an allosteric …

Novel Characterization Of The Role Of Orthologous Xap5 In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Nabor Vazquez

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Cilia are one of the oldest and most well conserved cellular organelles. Cilia provide an essential role in cellular locomotion, fluid regulation, and are a site for signal transduction pathways involved in sensation. A new study suggests that XAP5 is a transcription factor in a unicellular organism, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which regulates gene expression needed for proper cilium assembly. Our study investigates the conservation of the role of XAP5 in a multicellular system, Caenorhabditis elegans. Alignments between protein, coding region, and promoter sequences for XAP5 orthologs from related species show a good conservation in DNA and protein sequences. As part of …

Hippo Signaling In Cancer: Lessons From Drosophila Models, Kirti Snigdha, Karishma Sanjay Gangwani, Gauri Vijay Lapalikar, Amit Singh, Madhuri Kango-Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

Hippo pathway was initially identified through genetic screens for genes regulating organ size in fruitflies. Recent studies have highlighted the role of Hippo signaling as a key regulator of homeostasis, and in tumorigenesis. Hippo pathway is comprised of genes that act as tumor suppressor genes like hippo (hpo) and warts (wts), and oncogenes like yorkie (yki). YAP and TAZ are two related mammalian homologs of Drosophila Yki that act as effectors of the Hippo pathway. Hippo signaling deficiency can cause YAP- or TAZ-dependent oncogene addiction for cancer cells. YAP and TAZ are often activated …

Characterization Of Pth Type-2 Receptor ( Pth2rb ) And Its Endogenous Ligand Pth2 In Zebrafish Development, Nicholas Seitz

Theses and Dissertations

Members of the parathyroid hormone family of ligands, PTH (parathyroid hormone), PTH2, and PTHLH (parathyroid hormone-like hormone). These hormones interact with the class B GCPRs parathyroid hormone receptors PTH1R, PTH2R, and PTH3R to regulate a variety of biological processes. In mammals, PTH and PTHLH activate PTH1R and PTH3R to mediate serum calcium homeostasis, chondrogenesis, and bone maintenance. PTH2R activation by PTH2 has been studied primarily in regard to its neuroendocrine roles but is also found in the skin where it contributes to wound healing and keratinocyte differentiation. Still, little is known about the impacts of PTH2R signaling relative to PTH1R …

Microrna Profiling And Engineering Of Cho Cell Lines Stably Expressing Difficult-To-Express Lysosomal Protein, Ifeanyi Amadi

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Difficult-to-express (DTE) recombinant proteins like multi-specific proteins, DTE monoclonal antibodies and lysosomal enzymes, have seen difficulties in manufacturability using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and other mammalian cells as production platforms. CHO cells are preferably used for protein production because of their innate ability to secrete human-like recombinant proteins with post-translational modification, resistance to viral infection and familiarity with drug regulators. However, despite huge progress made in engineering CHO cells for high volumetric productivity, expression of DTE proteins like recombinant lysosomal sulfatase represent one of the poorly understood proteins. Furthermore, there are growing interest in the use of microRNAs (miRNAs) …

Targeted Genome-Scale Gene Activation And Gene Editing In Human Cells To Understand Disease Models, Michael De La Cruz

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Since the discovery of sequence directed DNA editing reagents such as CRISPR-Cas9 RNA-guided and TALEN DNA endonucleases, there has been a snowball of advances in the life sciences due to the ability to efficiently edit and control genomes within living cells. CRISPR-Cas9 based genomic tools, which facilitate the high-throughput precise manipulation of genes, allow for unbiased functional genomic screens. We used a human CRISPR-Cas9 Synergistic Activation Mediator pooled library which utilizes an engineered protein complex for transcriptional activation of 23,430 endogenous genes to investigate the development of novel resistance mechanisms to lung cancer targeted therapy, Erlotinib. We set out to …

Novel Low Shear 3d Bioreactor For The Scaled Production Of High Purity Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Andrew Burns

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Human mesenchymal stem cells are an ideal candidate for stem cell therapies. They have been researched since the 1960’s and can differentiate into many desired functional cell types without undergoing teratogenesis. However, higher yields are needed for a marketable, successful stem cell therapy. To accomplish this, cells will have to be cultured to expand them to therapeutically relevant dosages for multiple patients. Bioreactor production is an ideal method to solve this problem.

The aim of this thesis is to test and validate a novel bioreactor for the cultivation of human mesenchymal stem cells. In this work, we investigate a novel …

Reversal Of P-Glycoprotein And Breast Cancer Resistance Protein Mediated Multidrug Resistance In Vitro Using In Silico Identified Novel Compounds, Amila Nanayakkara

Biological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of chemotherapy failure. Overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) are two well-studied drug transporters which are associated with MDR. These two transporters also act as a major functional unit of the blood brain barrier to protect the brain from xenobiotics and toxins. Lack of clinically approved P-gp and BCRP inhibitors renders chemotherapy treatments of many MDR cancers ineffective and obstructs drug uptake into the brain.

Using computational methods, we have identified new compounds that inhibit P-gp (Brewer et al., Mol. Pharmacol. 2014). Several of …

Reversal Of P-Glycoprotein And Breast Cancer Resistance Protein Mediated Multidrug Resistance In Vitro Using In Silico Identified Novel Compounds, Amila Nanayakkara

Biological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of chemotherapy failure. Overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) are two well-studied drug transporters which are associated with MDR. These two transporters also act as a major functional unit of the blood brain barrier to protect the brain from xenobiotics and toxins. Lack of clinically approved P-gp and BCRP inhibitors renders chemotherapy treatments of many MDR cancers ineffective and obstructs drug uptake into the brain.

Using computational methods, we have identified new compounds that inhibit P-gp (Brewer et al., Mol. Pharmacol. 2014). Several of …

Network Analyses Of Glomerular Capillaries, Jason Cory Brunson, Justin Sardi, Mark Terasaki

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Kinetics Of Hiv-1 Uncoating In C20 Microglial Cells, Melanie Anne Taylor

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Uncoating is a poorly understood yet required step of HIV-1 replication that is defined as the disassembly of the viral capsid structure. The goal of this project is to characterize uncoating in C20 microglial cells. These cells are a natural target of HIV-1 that are infected to establish latent viral reservoirs and HIV-associated neurological disorders. A stable C20 cell line that expresses TRIM-CypA was established to study the kinetics of uncoating with the CsA washout assay. The expression of TRIM-CypA was confirmed by western blot and the functionality of the protein was confirmed by a viral infectivity assay. Using this …

Further Characterization Of The Skeletal Phenotype In A Hurler Syndrome Mouse Model And The Ethical Treatment Of Children In Medicine, Anna Marie Mcwoods

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I) is a rare, autosomal recessive disorder caused by the deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme α-L-iduronidase (IDUA). Absence of IDUA results in the accumulation of dermatan and heparin sulfate and ultimately causes multi-system dysfunction. The most severe form of MPS I is Hurlers syndrome, a rapidly progressive disorder that, if left untreated, is fatal. Current treatment options for diagnosed individuals includes hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). These treatments are able to ameliorate the majority of symptoms with the exception of the bone phenotype. This investigation aimed to further characterize the bone …