The work presented in this dissertation highlights the various techniques available to characterize the increasingly complex surfaces of engineered biomaterials. The methods used range from the simple measurement of a contact angle with a smartphone to a complex synchrotron technique like near edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy to...
Successful cryopreservation of all biological specimens would have an untold positive impact on medicine and scientific research. However, cryopreservation of the most complex biological specimens, such as tissues and organs, remains elusive. Vitrification, or ice-free cryopreservation, is promising for cryopreservation of complex specimens. The biggest challenge, though, is the toxicity...
Immobilized proteins are integral components of a number of important technologies, including the principal component of many biosensors, as functional coatings in various implants, as catalysts is industrial biosynthesis, and as the building blocks of next-generation nanotechnologies. Despite their ubiquity, relatively little is known about the processes that shape immobilized...
Dysferlin is a ∼230 kDa terminally anchored membrane protein that is ubiquitously expressed, but is particularly enriched in skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue. Mutations covering the length of the protein have been linked to muscle wasting diseases including limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and Myoshi myopathy. Dysferlin has been shown to play...