Nanoparticles (NPs), particles defined by their size in a single dimension (1-100 nm), are being increasingly incorporated into commercial and industrial products due to their high surface area to volume ratio that gives them unique properties, such as optical tunability and higher reactivity than their bulk counterparts. NPs can be...
The primary goal of my study was to evaluate the effects of high dietary vitamin E on the rodent skeleton. The outcomes from my study assess the impact of high intakes of vitamin E and increased concentrations of its metabolite, carboxy ethyl hydroxy chromanol (CEHC), on bone turnover and skeletal...
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...
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in the innate immune system. Determining the pathways by which these proteins are regulated allows for modulation of their expression for better health. Two families of antimicrobial peptides have been studied in humans: cathelicidins and defensins. There is a single cathelicidin in humans...
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....
Cell signaling is often mediated by protein-protein interactions, which must be specific, tunable, and transient to allow agile responsiveness to cellular messages. Due to their unique properties, multivalent, intrinsically disordered proteins make ideal candidates to accomplish these vital tasks. A single protein with multiple binding sites may bind numerous partners,...
In biology, function and disease are closely intertwined, requiring the coordination of hundreds of intricate chemical reactions. Interdisciplinary cooperation between chemical and biological approaches is necessary to decipher the chemical links between physiological and pathological conditions. In this arena, the precision tools made possible with chemical biology can manipulate and...
Xanthohumol, a prenylated flavonoid found in hops and beer, possesses a long-standing reputation to improve health. Xanthohumol’s cytotoxicity to a wide variety of cancer cell lines is well-established. Herein we provide further insight into the cytotoxicity of not only xanthohumol, but also its non-estrogenic derivatives, to a number of colonic...
Vibrio bacteria are commonly found in freshwater, marine, and estuarine environments. Members of this genus can exist in commensal relationships with marine animals or as planktonic bacteria, however, they are well known for their roles as pathogens towards humans and animals. In this dissertation, I investigated aspects of host-bacteria relationships...
Mensacarcin is a stereogenic complex polyketide with potent anti-tumor activity produced by a soil-dwelling Streptomyces bottropensis. The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) 60 human tumor cell line anticancer drug screen (NCI-60) reveals mensacarcin’s cytostatic properties in almost all tested cell lines and distinct cytotoxic properties specifically in eight melanoma cell...