Gender-based violence (GBV) is a pervasive public health issue that continues to affect women globally. GBV is estimated to impact 37% of Botswanan women, exceeding the average global prevalence of 30%. This investigation takes place within the Botswana Global Health Initiative, a collaboration led by OSU researchers, the community of...
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons are able to trigger the release of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone which control the maturation of oocytes and ovulation which is vital for reproduction. They are the most downstream neurons that project to the median eminence into the pituitary portal where they release GnRH. Modulation...
Paper-based microfluidic assays, like the common pregnancy test, allow for rapid screening at the point- of-care at low cost and with no instrumentation. Fabric has many similar properties to paper, but is more flexible and durable, making it a promising option for use in a variety of diagnostic and screening...
Genetic code expansion is a technology that allows for site-specific incorporation of noncanonical amino acids into recombinant proteins at amber stop codons using engineered translational machinery. The technology allows for expanded study into proteins, derived from the integration of novel chemical functions found in noncanonical amino acids, such as fluorescence,...
The scientific method applies hypothesis testing to material samples through experimentation, measurement, and data analysis, which produce representations—or features—that describe phenomena of interest. Biomolecular features come in numerous forms such as values, matrices, graphs, three-dimensional structures, trajectories, and molecular surfaces. Researchers have tested thousands of features related to protein molecules...
The nucleocapsid protein (N protein) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is known to play an essential part of the virus’ functions. The N protein can protect and package the large 29,903 nucleotide genomic RNA whilst also interacting with structural membrane protein M and the spike protein S....
BCL11B, also known as CTIP2, is a transcription factor which plays a critical role in the regulation and development of many tissues and organ systems, including the skin. A 2019 study by Goos et. al. uncovered a novel point mutation in BCL11B gene that converted the Arginine(R)-3 residue to a...
Histones, as part of nucleosomes, are responsible for DNA packaging in chromosomes. They also affect DNA expression by a multitude of post-translational modifications, especially prevalent on the amino terminus of histones. Co-activator protein complexes “write”, “read”, or “erase” histone modifications, and in balance determine which sections of DNA are free...
Over the past decade, it has come to light that many published scientific findings cannot be reproduced. This has led to the replication crisis in science. Many researchers feel that they can no longer trust much of what they read in scientific journals, and the public is becoming ever more...
The gut microbiome influences human disease including Type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome and interacts with the innate immune system. The human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (hCAMP), an important component of the innate immune system, and vitamin D and xanthohumol, a natural compound found in beer hops, regulate its expression....
There are clues that suggest human breast cancer cells use collagen fibers to migrate, and vinculin is a transmembrane protein associated with how cells attach to their environment. Therefore, immunostaining for the vinculin will shed some light in how human breast cancer cells are attaching to their environment. Immunostaining for...
Base-pairing interaction are the fundamental blocks of an RNA structure. With increased ability to determine the structure of RNA molecules, an accurate and informative way of classifying these interactions would help to study RNA structure at many levels. Apart from the well-known complementary base pairs and wobble pairs, other interactions...
Atopic Dermatitis (AD) is a widespread skin disorder, affecting some 20% of the world’s population. Though the precise molecular underpinnings are still being understood, changes in lipid composition within the epidermal stratum corneum (SC) layer have been shown to be closely linked with AD. Previous studies have identified several specific...
Since the 1960s, Vietnamese scholars have written autobiographical literature catered to the American public though they have not gotten as much recognition as soldier accounts and anti-war literature. These Vietnamese literatures shifted in scope and form with the succeeding waves of refugee resulted from the war in Việt Nam. As...
Koi herpesvirus (KHV), is a highly pathogenic virus causing high mortality in common carp and koi, especially in fry. One of the unique features of herpesvirus infections is their ability to become latent following initial infection. During latent infection, only viral genome persists in the host and remains dormant in...
Antisense morpholino oligomers are synthetic macromolecules can modify gene expression. While these compounds have great potential to treat a broad range of human diseases, they suffer from poor cellular delivery. Conjugating cell-penetrating peptides onto these morpholinos is one option of addressing delivery, however development remains slow due to the cost...
Osmotic stress is a common challenge faced by organisms in environments with variable salinity or aridity. Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms underlying adaptation to osmotic stress may have wide applications, including management of populations experiencing climate change, or engineering industrial organisms involved in processes such as fermentation. While Saccharomyces cerevisiae is...
A specific tyrosine post-translational modification, called 3-nitro-tyrosine (nitroTyr), has been known to be present on an essential calcium signaling protein called calmodulin (CaM) during oxidative stress. While protein-bound 3-nitro-tyrosine has long been considered a biomarker of OS, it is also hypothesized to be a mechanism for protein signaling. However, purification...
Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is a histone methyltransferase that initiates facultative heterochromatin formation by trimethylating histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27me3). Mutations within its three primary subunits, KMT6, EED, and SUZ12, result in inherited diseases and sporadic cancers. In the fungus Fusarium graminearum, deletion of the gene encoding the...
Academic performance of student athletes is an of interest topic in the current climate of rising university athletics expenses. This project academic population of Oregon State University student athletes with that of the general undergraduate population using grade point averages (GPA). Samples were compared using team, gender, college, and sport...
Cyanobacteria represent an underexploited source of bioactive natural products of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Lack of development of these compounds as drug leads is due mainly to myriad practical problems with the producing strains including long doubling times, genetic intractability, and low compound yields. Previous attempts at heterologous expression...
Background: Chronic heavy alcohol consumption is a risk factor for bone fracture.
Using a non-human primate model of voluntary alcohol self-administration, we have recently shown that alcohol consumption suppresses intracortical bone remodeling. The current study extends this investigation to asses the effect of alcohol consumption on cancellous bone mass, architecture,...
The purpose of this study was to examine pregnant Puerto Rican women’s perspectives on the Zika virus threat. Using data collected from open-ended, semi-structured interviews and observational field notes, we aimed to understand the degree to which Zika contributes to maternal stress. How concerned are pregnant women in Puerto Rico...
The purpose of this meta-synthesis was to investigate why students from the U.S. receive the scores they do on the international TIMSS and PISA science exams. This work sought to shed light on the perceived disparity between science performance of U.S. students and students from other countries. To do so,...
The role of the high density lipoprotein (HDL) molecule is currently an area of great interest within the scientific community. Previously, mouse and human studies have demonstrated an inverse association between HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and cardiovascular disease. Recent clinical trials, which increased HDL-C, have failed to reduce the number...
The aging process is a biological phenomenon in mammals that heavily contributes to the onset of chronic diseases. While there are many theories that attempt to explain the biological onset of aging, one emerging theory involves chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation has been previously linked to several age-related diseases and is...
Heavy chronic alcohol consumption has been linked to a myriad of
detrimental skeletal effects. Many studies have been conducted to examine
the effects of alcohol abuse upon cancellous bone. However, little is known
about its effect upon cortical bone. The skeleton is comprised of
approximately 80% cortical bone and thus...
Many people die yearly worldwide due to diseases associated with aging, and if the
process of aging in humans was more understood, the health of these patients could be
improved. While many biochemical actions are involved with the aging process, loss of
proteostasis has been called one of the most...
In recent years, microRNA’s (miRNA’s) have emerged as important in regulating gene expression. Fluctuations in their levels are associated with the up or down-regulation of tumor-suppressor genes and oncogenes. Thus, the ability to visualize changes in miRNA is an important step in understanding cancer emergence and development. The Burrows group...
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a relatively rare neurodegenerative disorder that is fatal 2-4 years after the onset of the disease. Population studies are being done in order to help reveal candidates for further studies of disease etiology, disease progression, as well as to further understand racial and ethnic variations....
An ideal labeling reaction between protein and surface should generate a protein-patterned surface with control over the orientation of the desired protein. Controlling orientation would generate a homogeneous, un-fouled protein surface and allow for maximum efficiency in regards to the activity, reactivity, and stability of the protein. In this research...
Water samples along the Washington, Oregon and California coastline were collected using high resolution sampling and analyzed to determine particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations. Over 28 days during August 2011, nearly 1500 samples were collected aboard the R/V Wecoma (W1108C) using a semi-automated filtration system. Additional subsurface samples were...
Autophagy, a homeostatic degradation pathway, has a role in promoting cell survival under stress conditions, but can also promote cell death under conditions of sustained stress. This project investigates the cytotoxic potential of coibamide A and other natural products in autophagy-deficient and wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Wild-type MEFs were...
Auxotrophic strains of the fungus Fusarium graminearum were generated in order to increase
the number of functional selectable markers and improve the utility of the model organism.
Single metabolic genes, the sequences encoding for enzymes required for the production of
specific essential metabolites, were deleted in F. graminearum, and then...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative nosocomial pathogenic bacterium known for its resilience against antibiotics. The bacterium infects over 50,000 patients each year in the United States, with 13% of reported cases involving multi-drug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas. This research discovered several fungal natural products with promising activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The...
There is a rapid shift towards urbanization all over the world. In developing countries like Pakistan, the urbanization process is under-planned leading to the haphazard growth of existing cities without enough resources to fit the needs of the residents. Cities in Pakistan lack good transportation systems, which creates inaccessibility to...
Global warming and on-going depletion of fossil fuels have stimulated research to develop renewable sources of energy. Current renewable energy use comprises only 10% of the energy consumed in the US and is focused mostly on generating electricity. The majority of the energy consumed by the US transportation sector is...
Glioblastoma multiforme is a devastating primary brain tumor with a median five year survival rate of less than 5%. It is a cancer that is resistant to current cancer treatments, such as surgery and chemotherapy, as well as one that is prone to recurrence after surgical removal. This highlights the...
Exploring and quantifying the parameters regarding contact guidance may provide valuable insight to the precise mechanisms controlling cell movement, especially in a three-dimensional environment. The objective of this project was to quantify the relationship between MDA-MB-231 cell morphogenesis and the geometry of the cell’s local microenvironment, which was modeled by...
A study was conducted to evaluate the developmental toxicity of three commonly detected mycotoxins in food (deoxynivalenol, patulin, and zearalenone) using the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model. Mycotoxin exposures were carried out at five concentrations (0.0064, 0.064, 0.64, 6.4, and 64 μM). Morphological and photomotor screenings were conducted at 24 hours...
Fer1L6 is an uncharacterized member of the ferlin family of proteins, a group of large, calcium sensitive proteins with emerging roles in vesicle trafficking and various disease states. The presence of Fer1L6 has been identified within the C2C12 cell line of mouse skeletal muscle. To determine the protein’s subcellular location...
The preconditioning agent poly-ICLC has recently been shown to protect against cerebral injury in the mouse model, when administered systemically prior to ischemic insult. However, the mechanism by which poly-ICLC provides neuroprotection is currently unknown, but it has been shown to protect against ischemia-induced bloodbrain barrier (BBB) disruption. Inflammation contributes...
Oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OPAHs) are a class of environmentally prevalent compounds with little known information on their effect in vivo. In a recent study conducted using zebrafish as a model, 38 OPAHs were screened for toxicity. This investigation focuses on two of these OPAHs, 7,12-B[a]AQ and BEZO. Both 7,12-B[a]AQ...
Glioblastoma is a malignant brain tumor that has extremely poor prognoses with a 5 year survival rate of less than 5%. The low survival rates of glioblastoma patients is attributed to glioblastoma cells being extremely resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as being very invasive. We previously identified calpain...
As organisms age they lose the ability to respond to both exogenous and endogenous stresses, therefore placing them at a greater risk for the development of many diseases. The transcription factor Nrf2 is responsible for the induction of many oxidative stress response genes and therefore 3proteins. Additionally, Nrf2-mediated stress response...
Although U.S. Latin@s are more affected by major depressive disorder than non-Latin@ whites, they are less likely to utilize mental health services. The purpose of this project is to create a children’s book that promotes the utilization of mental health services among U.S. Latin@s with major depressive disorder. This book...
M. avium is an opportunistic pathogen that primarily infects macrophages. In order to survive within the macrophage, M. avium secretes proteins into the host cell cytoplasm to inhibit specific functions such as phagosome acidification, altering pathways as well as initiating apoptosis. However, little is known about how those secreted proteins...
It is no doubt that the face of Ernesto "Che" Guevara is recognized
globally as it appears on currency, merchandise, at protest marches, and in art.
However, there is little agreement on what this handsome face represents or what
the Argentine revolutionary fought for. Some view Guevara as a humanitarian...
In this investigation, six different endogenous thyroid hormone derivatives—T₄, T₃, TA₄, TA₃, T₁-Amine, and N-Acetylated T₁-Amine—were tested to gain insight into their permeability coefficients and efflux ratios across a monolayer of Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK II) cells. The results indicate that T₃ and T₄ were unable to traverse the membrane...
A unique, permanent root-growth arrest phenotype was observed in UV-B irradiated Arabidopsis thaliana roots lacking the DNA damage response kinase ATR. Segregation analysis suggests the dependence of this phenotype on another, unidentified gene, termed ursu. High-throughput sequencing technologies were used to map and identify the causal ursu mutation. Illumina HiSeq...
DNA segments in the fungus Fusarium graminearum were identified as possible genes encoding for chromodomain proteins (CDPs), and targeted for genetic manipulation. Targeted single-gene deletion strains, as wells as GFP-S tag fusion strains, were generated from wildtype F. graminearum protoplasts, and verified strains were screened for phenotypic differences, such as...
The planar peptide model has guided our understanding and interpretation of protein crystal structures since its origin in the 1950s. It is well understood that deviations from this model occur, but the majority of peptides are planar, as measured by the standard omega torsion angle. Here, we report the first...
In recent years, non-coding DNA has received much attention within the scientific
community. This attention has not only illuminated the mystery behind functionally
important regions like the centromere, but has also brought to light additional important
questions regarding centromere mechanisms, inheritance, and cellular recognition by the
kinetochore, a protein complex...
Cells are constantly bombarded with mutagens, both endogenous and exogenous in origin. Endogenous sources of mutation include reactive oxygen species formed during aerobic respiration, replication errors by DNA polymerase, and spontaneous deamination and depurination (Jackson 2009). Exogenous sources of mutation include UV and ionizing radiation, aflatoxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons...
The process of expressing a gene involves not just binding of proteins and enzymes to DNA to produce first RNA and eventually proteins, but rather association of these transcription factors with chromatin and structural proteins called histones. When histone H3 is trimethylated at lysine 27 to produce H3K27me3, gene silencing...
A compound series capable of reversing the antiviral effect of Ribavirin (RBV) against H1N1 was
identified from a high throughput screen designed to discover compounds capable of increasing the
fidelity of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP) n ribovirus quasispecies. Two lead compounds,
RIC-1 (EC50 of 78.4 nM) and RIC-2 (EC50...
The steroid hormone estrogen plays a crucial role in regulating certain mammalian tissues, especially female reproductive systems. Estrogen effects physiological changes in the cell by altering transcription activity for certain target genes, as a consequence of interactions between estradiol-17β (E2) and its nuclear receptor (nER). This mechanism of cellular control...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), are environmental pollutants linked to increased disease susceptibilities. Alpha-Tocopherol (αT) supplementation decreases B[a]P-DNA adducts in smokers, particularly women; but the mechanism is unknown. To test the hypothesis that αT protection from B[a]P exposure is gender-dependent, male and female rats received 7 daily subcutaneous...
The purpose of this honors thesis research project is to investigate the molecular causes of childhood and infant T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias. T-cells are the work horses of the immune system, and like any organ, must develop properly to be fully functional. Improper development of thymocytes into T-cells can lead...
In his work, The Soul of Medicine: Tales from the Bedside, Dr. Sherwin Nuland utilized narratives from his colleagues detailing their encounters with their most remarkable patients in order to characterize what he refers to as “the soul of medicine”. However, the stories contributed focused on the practice of medicine...
Modern technology has enabled the advancement of biological research through the use of powerful machines and computers as well as innovative computer programs. Advances in sequencing technology and software enable us to make de novo assemblies of organism genomes, and the development of specialized computer programs can automate routine but...
RNA silencing plays a critical role in plant defense against viral infection. Plants use virusderived
small interfering RNA to target and silence invading viruses. The antiviral silencing
pathway can be broken down into three conceptual stages: initiation, amplification, and systemic
movement. The molecular mechanisms of silencing initiation are not well...
In this study, pheromone and skin lipid samples collected from red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) were exposed directly to either full-spectrum light or full-spectrum plus UVB light. In addition, female and male snakes were exposed to daily doses of either full-spectrum or full-spectrum and UVB light, after which the...
Uveitis is a serious ophthalmological disorder characterized by intraocular infiltration of inflammatory cells. In most cases, uveitis is derived from the adaptive immune response. More specifically, CD4+ T lymphocytes play an important role in the pathogenesis of uveitis by recognizing uveitogenic antigen and orchestrating the immune response. While it is...
Several compounds have been recently identified which are effective against dengue virus, a tropical arbovirus highly prevalent in southeast Asia and central America. Initial intrinsic fluorescence characterization of the mechanism of action of compound B reveals binding affinity to the dengue capsid protein. A molecular beacon unwinding assay and malachite...
This study sought to explore the differences between the varied academic advising models in the College of Science at Oregon State University through the feedback of its undergraduate students and advisors. Using parallel surveys of students and their academic advisors, it found that the decentralized and centralized models each had...
Gluten intolerance is a condition that affects a significant portion of the world’s
population. While awareness about the condition has recently increased, the condition
remains poorly understood and therefore commonly mis- and underdiagnosed. In this
paper, I examine the challenges in obtaining a gluten intolerant diagnosis and attempt to
capture...
Gene regulatory networks control the state of a cell. Models of such networks have been produced for sea urchin development and suggest that cell type may be defined by distinct network kernels. Such kernels are composed of a set of sequence specific DNA-binding transcription factors (SSTFs) that maintain each other’s...
Seven schools of thought, varying in cosmology and age, were studied in order to
glean the ethical precepts and virtues to which each school of thought adhered. These
injunctions were put in list-form and compared with respect to both semantics and
content. The purpose of this investigation was to look...
Two different types of Phosphorodiamidate Morpholino Oligomers (PMOs) were used to
inhibit growth in pure cultures of Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium and in mouse
macrophages infected with S. typhimurium. Both PMOs were 11 bases long and
complementary to bases 6-16 of acyl carrier protein mRNA. A membrane-penetrating
peptide, (RXR)4XB, was...
Eukaryotic cells have developed elaborate biochemical processes to counteract oxidative stress, electrophiles, or carcinogens due to environmental insults. One of these important cellular defense mechanisms is mediated by the transcription factor Nrf2 that have been shown to have decrease activity with age. While the process of which Nrf2 is involved...
Genomic integrity is crucial for the viability and function of a cell. One key pathway that acts to
maintain genomic integrity is DNA mismatch repair (MMR). MMR acts to correct base pair
mismatches hat have escaped proofreading during DNA replication. The process of MMR is
dependent on the protein heterodimer...
One of the distinctive features of mitochondria is that they have their own DNA. When compared to nuclear DNA, it is known that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) not only has a much higher rate of spontaneous mutation, but also arises from metabolically distinct precursor pools. Others from our laboratory have demonstrated...
Approximately five to eight percent of domestic rams demonstrate a sexual attraction
towards other rams, directing no sexual behaviors towards estrous ewes. It has been
observed that these male-oriented rams (MORs) have a greater abundance of prolactin
mRNA than female-oriented rams in the medial preoptic area of the anterior
hypothalamus...
Legislation to reduce the annual limit of field burning in Oregon has led to increased study of
alternative non-thermal grass-seed management methods. Of these methods, non-thermal residue
management, in combination with crop rotations and different tillage practices, offer potential to
equal or exceed crop production of conventional thermal production systems....
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a crucial organelle in the cell where protein folding and processing occurs, and conditions that negatively affect ER functions are highly detrimental to the cell. The accumulation of unfolded/misfolded proteins in the ER leads to a condition known as ER Stress. The ER has developed...
Inflammation is one of the first, most important responses of the immune system when presented with infection and is mediated primarily by eicosanoids and cytokines. The goal of this research was to generate monoclonal antibodies against murine IL17C, a poorly characterized cytokine involved in inflammation and linked to inflammatory conditions....
Lynch individuals have a predisposition to developing colorectal and other cancers due to inherited defects in their mismatch repair (MMR) system. Although mutations in MMR have been directly implicated in Lynch Syndrome, the precise mechanism(s) of MMR functions have yet to be elucidated. One essential complex, MutL (a dimer of...
An inducible, mutant virus, designated vvtetO:I7L/G1L, was used to study the morphogenic proteolysis step of the vaccinia virus life cycle. The vvtetO:I7L/G1L controlled the expression of two genes, I7L, a cysteine proteinase, and G1L, a putative metalloproteinase. These proteins are involved in the maturation of viral core proteins, p4a, p4b,...
Mitochondria provide energy for biological cells to function, but this process is also a source of oxygen radicals that are capable of damaging nearby proteins. Mitochondrial protein damage can eventually lead to cell death, especially in the case of heart cells, where mitochondria are present in the highest concentrations. As...
DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is an evolutionary conserved process that functions to maintain genomic integrity through the correction of mismatches that have escaped proofreading. Mutations in the MMR gene Mlh1 are associated with approximately 50% of all cases of Lynch syndrome, a hereditary predisposition to colorectal cancer, through varying and...
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a phenotypically variable disorder of hemoglobin that leads to abnormally shaped and dysfunctional red blood cells. Several studies have attempted to construct early predictive models for SCD, including Miller et al.’s (2000) model which uses easily identifiable predictors in early life. The primary aim of...
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, but rates around the world vary greatly. Americans have the highest incidence rates in the world, 4 to 5 times those of Spain. The hypothesis of this thesis was that vitamin D metabolism is a factor in prostate cancer development...
Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) is an emerging form of liver disease associated with obesity, type II diabetes and dyslipidemia. As the prevalence of these metabolic conditions increases, so too has the occurrence of NASH in all sectors of the population. The pathology of this disease is similar to its alcoholic form,...