Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB), an important group of organisms in modern food production, are known to secrete a unique compound called exopolysaccharide (EPS). EPS is economically important because it enhances functional properties in food and may confer beneficial health effects to consumers. Novel strains of Lactococcus lactis, Streptococcus thermophilus, and...
The focus of this thesis is to design, characterize, and apply novel computational methods and molecular systems to interrogate heterogeneous human gut microbiome-related phenomena. In Chapter 2, I design, implement, and characterize a method for embedding co-occurrence patterns derived from massive 16s amplicon datasets. I use this method to 1....
Bacterial contamination of food poses a great risk to human health worldwide. A
chromatophore cell-based biosensor, utilizing B. splendens erythrophore cells, is an
emerging technology that has shown potential to detect bacterial toxicity based on
function-dependent mechanisms. Previous studies have investigated the response of
erythrophore cells to foodborne pathogens, pesticides,...
Detection of both biological and chemical environmental toxicants is essential in the assessment of risk to human health. Cell-based biosensors are capable of activity- based detection of toxicity. Chromatophore cells, responsible for the pigmentation of poikilothermic animal, have shown immense potential as cell-based biosensors in the detection of a broad...
Peptide-phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMOs) are synthetic DNA mimics that bind and silence gene targets. Through designing PPMOs that silence essential or resistance genes in pathogens, these antisense oligomers could be utilized as novel antimicrobials. Towards this end, my thesis employed minimum inhibitory concentration assays (MICs) to identify PPMOs capable of...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that infects immunocompromised individuals such as those suffering from burns or the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis. This organism utilizes a cell-cell communication mechanism known as quorum sensing (QS) to coordinate virulence gene expression and biofilm formation. It has three interconnected QS systems, namely...