Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous contaminants formed from the incomplete combustion of organic material. These contaminants are of concern because of their widespread presence in the environment and toxic properties. In addition, PAHs encompass a class of diverse compounds with varying physicochemical properties and exist in the environment as...
Analytical chemistry is an area of chemistry primarily focused on the study and use of instruments for separation, identification, and quantification of an analyte of interest. Specifically, separation science within analytical chemistry often refers to the process of dividing mixtures into their small component parts based on differences in their...
Fluorescence has proven to be a robust and powerful method of analysis in numerous fields: forensics, pharmaceutics, geology, food science, and environmental sciences have all developed a large collection of fluorescence instruments and methods to overcome application-specific challenges. Biological applications saw the same development of a fluorescence toolkit with methods...
Fungi are capable of growth on a wide variety of carbon sources, both living and dead. They can produce an arsenal of enzymes and transporters for harvesting sugars, polysaccharides, amino acids, lipids and micronutrients from their environments [1]. Within the nucleus of a cell, transcription factors (TF) control whether genes...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread environmental contaminants that occur in complex mixtures. These environmental mixtures can consist of both parent PAHs and their derivatives. Several parent PAHs are known or suspected mutagens and/or carcinogens, and a handful of PAH derivatives are known to be more potent mutagens and/or carcinogens...
In this dissertation, I describe the experimental investigation of large superfluid helium droplets. The goal and direction of this thesis is to facilitate the use of these droplets as part of our project ss-EDI. The overall scheme of ss-EDI is to dope proteins inside helium droplets and collect a diffraction...
Zebrafish are capable of fully regenerating organs and tissue such as their caudal fin, which is similar to a human regrowing an arm or a leg. In contrast, most mammals including humans have a greatly reduced capacity for wound healing. The ability of zebrafish to undergo this regenerative process, called...
Exploring bioactive natural products has contributed largely to clinically approved drugs we have been using over the last 100 years. Especially among the anti-infective drugs, around 70% of currently used antibiotics were discovered or derived from microbial secondary metabolites, among them compounds like vancomycin, chloramphenicol, and erythromycin. Facing the unavoidable...
Atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to the death of 7 million people per year around the planet. The organic portion of PM2.5 is responsible for increases in oxidative stress, inflammation, mutation and carcinogenesis. Anthropogenic activity releases more organic material into the atmosphere, and has increased the amount...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of anthropogenic compounds gaining notoriety as contaminants of emerging concern. With the frequent detection of PFAS in the environment, drinking water, and consumer products, awareness and concern from the public regarding PFAS is increasing. The two most notorious PFAS are perfluorooctanoate (PFOA)...