Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: LaBelle, Jeffrey
- Creators: Meldrum, Deirdre R.
Description
The purpose of this research was to determine and evaluate glutamate oxidase's ability to detect levels of glutamate as part of a working sensor capable of quantifying and detecting stress within the body in the case of adverse neurological events such as traumatic brain injury. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), a linear dynamic range of glutamate was detected with a slope of 36.604 z/ohm/[pg/mL], a lower detection limit at 12.417 pg/mL, correlation of 0.97, and an optimal binding frequency of 117.20 Hz. After running through a frequency sweep the binding frequency was determined based on the highest consistent reproducibility and slope. The sensor was found to be specific against literature researched non-targets glucose, albumin, and epinephrine and working in dilutions of whole blood up to a concentration of 25%. With the implementation of Nafion, the sensor had a 250% improvement in signal and 155% improvement in correlation in 90% whole blood, illustrating the promise of a working blood sensor. Future work includes longitudinal studies and utilizing mesoporous carbon as the immobilization platform and incorporating this as part of a continuous, multiplexed blood sensor with glucose oxidase.
ContributorsLam, Alexandria Nicole (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Ankeny, Casey (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Inflammation is part of the body’s response to invading pathogens, injury, and a wide range of diseases. Although inflammation is paramount to maintain a healthy immune system, unregulated inflammation can aggravate chronic conditions or cause severe, acute pathologies. Pyroptosis, a caspase-1-dependent, pro-inflammatory cell death that results in the release of IL-1β and IL-18, has been implicated in propagating an inflammatory response in the body. Pyroptosis has been shown to result from the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Furthermore, multiple reports have demonstrated that intracellular potassium efflux and spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) activity are both essential for facilitating the assembly of the NLRP3 inflammasome and proper processing and release of IL-1β and IL-18. The focus of this thesis was to determine the relationship between intracellular potassium efflux and Syk during key regulatory events in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by identifying their effect on pro-inflammatory cytokine release, inflammasome assembly, mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS) generation, and cell death. Both inhibiting potassium efflux from occurring and deactivating Syk significantly reduced the amount of pro-inflammatory cytokine released (70-100% reduction), the number of inflammasomes assembled (60-80% reduction), the amount of mROS generation, and the quantity of cell death (50-90% reduction). Moreover, it was discovered that potassium efflux was required for Syk activation, but Syk activation had no effect on potassium efflux. Their relationship proved to be unidirectional. This study provides the first demonstration of ion flux-dependent regulation of kinase activation in the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway and provides support for targeting ion regulation mechanisms and Syk kinase activity to manipulate macrophage-mediate inflammatory processes.
ContributorsRao, Mounica Yarlagadda (Author) / Meldrum, Deirdre R. (Thesis director) / Ankeny, Casey (Committee member) / Glenn, Honor (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05