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Description
The bleomycins are a family of glycopeptide-derived antibiotics isolated from various Streptomyces species and have been the subject of much attention from the scientific community as a consequence of their antitumor activity. Bleomycin clinically and is an integral part of a number of combination chemotherapy regimens. It has previously been

The bleomycins are a family of glycopeptide-derived antibiotics isolated from various Streptomyces species and have been the subject of much attention from the scientific community as a consequence of their antitumor activity. Bleomycin clinically and is an integral part of a number of combination chemotherapy regimens. It has previously been shown that bleomycin has the ability to selectively target tumor cells over their non-malignant counterparts. Pyrimidoblamic acid, the N-terminal metal ion binding domain of bleomycin is known to be the moiety that is responsible for O2 activation and the subsequent chemistry leading to DNA strand scission and overall antitumor activity. Chapter 1 describes bleomycin and related DNA targeting antitumor agents as well as the specific structural domains of bleomycin. Various structural analogues of pyrimidoblamic acid were synthesized and subsequently incorporated into their corresponding full deglycoBLM A6 derivatives by utilizing a solid support. Their activity was measured using a pSP64 DNA plasmid relaxation assay and is summarized in Chapter 2. The specifics of bleomycin—DNA interaction and kinetics were studied via surface plasmon resonance and are presented in Chapter 3. By utilizing carefully selected 64-nucleotide DNA hairpins with variable 16-mer regions whose sequences showed strong binding in past selection studies, a kinetic profile was obtained for several BLMs for the first time since bleomycin was discovered in 1966. The disaccharide moiety of bleomycin has been previously shown to be a specific tumor cell targeting element comprised of L-gulose-D-mannose, especially between MCF-7 (breast cancer cells) and MCF-10A ("normal" breast cells). This phenomenon was further investigated via fluorescence microscopy using multiple cancerous cell lines with matched "normal" counterparts and is fully described in Chapter 4.
ContributorsBozeman, Trevor C (Author) / Hecht, Sidney M. (Thesis advisor) / Chaput, John (Committee member) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
The growing use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) in classrooms has enabled a great amount of data to be collected about the study behavior of students. Previously, research has been conducted to interpret the collected LMS usage data in order to find the most effective study habits for students. Professors

The growing use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) in classrooms has enabled a great amount of data to be collected about the study behavior of students. Previously, research has been conducted to interpret the collected LMS usage data in order to find the most effective study habits for students. Professors can then use the interpretations to predict which students will perform well and which student will perform poorly in the rest of the course, allowing the professor to better provide assistance to students in need. However, these research attempts have largely analyzed metrics that are specific to certain graphical interfaces, ways of answering questions, or specific pages on an LMS. As a result, the analysis is only relevant to classrooms that use the specific LMS being analyzed.

For this thesis, behavior metrics obtained by the Organic Practice Environment (OPE) LMS at Arizona State University were compared to student performance in Dr. Ian Gould’s Organic Chemistry I course. Each metric gathered was generic enough to be potentially used by any LMS, allowing the results to be relevant to a larger amount of classrooms. By using a combination of bivariate correlation analysis, group mean comparisons, linear regression model generation, and outlier analysis, the metrics that correlate best to exam performance were identified. The results indicate that the total usage of the LMS, amount of cramming done before exams, correctness of the responses submitted, and duration of the responses submitted all demonstrate a strong correlation with exam scores.
ContributorsBeerman, Eric (Author) / VanLehn, Kurt (Thesis advisor) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Hsiao, Ihan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Description
Changes to a cell's DNA can result in cancer, which is permanently sustained cellular proliferation. When malfunctioning genes, oncogenes, were verified to be of human origin in the 1970s, drugs were designed to target their encoded, abnormal enzymes. Tyrosine kinases have been established as an oft-modified oncogene enzyme family, but

Changes to a cell's DNA can result in cancer, which is permanently sustained cellular proliferation. When malfunctioning genes, oncogenes, were verified to be of human origin in the 1970s, drugs were designed to target their encoded, abnormal enzymes. Tyrosine kinases have been established as an oft-modified oncogene enzyme family, but the protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) were not investigated as thoroughly. PTPs have gradually been established as relevant enzymes that work in tandem with tyrosine kinases in cell signaling and are not just "house-keeping" enzymes. Some PTPs are thought to initiate tumorigenesis, and others may play a complementary role after the onset of cancer by extending the duration of cellular signals. Reversible inhibition of these enzymes by an oxalylamino group substituted on an ortho-carboxy aryl have been described in the literature. Modification of the oxalylamino group to favor irreversible inhibition of these cysteine-dependent enzymes may prevent inhibitor efflux by cells and subsequent mutation to gain resistance. Replacement of the oxalylamino group with halogenated propanoate and propenoate esters minimally inhibited cancer cell growth but did not inhibit activity of PTPs. Of the ortho-carboxy aryl structures, a methyl dichloropropanoate (compound 24) and a lactone alkene (compound 29) inhibited cell growth by 50% (GI-50) at micromolar concentrations. The GI-50s for compounds 24 and 29 were 19.9 (DU-145, prostate carcinoma) and 9.4 micromolar (A549, lung cancer), respectively. In contrast, brominated nitro lactones were able to inhibit both cancer cell growth and the activity of PTPs. In a sulforhodamine B assay, these compounds were able to achieve GI-50s as low 5.3 micromolar (compound 33 against BXPC-3, pancreatic adenocarcinoma), and some killed 50% of cancer cells (LC-50) at micromolar concentrations. Compound 33 displayed LC-50 of 23.3 micromolar (BXPC-3), and compound 35 had LC-50s of 32.9 and 32.7 micromolar against BXPC-3 and colon adenocarcinoma (KM20L2), respectively. A single concentration (100 micromolar) inhibition assay of inhibitor PTPs resulted in no enzyme activity for 4 out of 5 PTPs tested with compound 33. Similar results were obtained for compounds 35 and 37. Future analysis will determine if these bromo nitro lactones are irreversibly inhibiting PTPs.
ContributorsFadgen, Casey Joseph (Author) / Rose, Seth D (Thesis advisor) / Francisco, Wilson (Committee member) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
A potential new class of cancer chemotherapeutic agents has been synthesized by varying the 2 position of a benzimidazole based extended amidine. Compounds 6-amino-2-chloromethyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1A) and 6-amino-2-hydroxypropyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1B) were assayed at the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Developmental Therapeutic Program (DTP) and found to be cytotoxic at sub-micromolar concentrations, and have

A potential new class of cancer chemotherapeutic agents has been synthesized by varying the 2 position of a benzimidazole based extended amidine. Compounds 6-amino-2-chloromethyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1A) and 6-amino-2-hydroxypropyl-4-imino-1-(2-methansulfonoxyethyl)-5-methyl-1H-benzimidazole-7-one (1B) were assayed at the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Developmental Therapeutic Program (DTP) and found to be cytotoxic at sub-micromolar concentrations, and have shown between a 100 and a 1000-fold increase in specificity towards lung, colon, CNS, and melanoma cell lines. These ATP mimics have been found to correlate with sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1), a protein implicated in drug resistance and cell survival in various cancer cell lines. Using the DTP COMPARE algorithm, compounds 1A and 1B were shown to correlate to each other at 77%, but failed to correlate with other benzimidazole based extended amidines previously synthesized in this laboratory suggesting they operate through a different biological mechanism.
ContributorsDarzi, Evan (Author) / Skibo, Edward (Thesis advisor) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Francisco, Wilson (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Due to its difficult nature, organic chemistry is receiving much research attention across the nation to develop more efficient and effective means to teach it. As part of that, Dr. Ian Gould at ASU is developing an online organic chemistry educational website that provides help to students, adapts to their

Due to its difficult nature, organic chemistry is receiving much research attention across the nation to develop more efficient and effective means to teach it. As part of that, Dr. Ian Gould at ASU is developing an online organic chemistry educational website that provides help to students, adapts to their responses, and collects data about their performance. This thesis creative project addresses the design and implementation of an input parser for organic chemistry reagent questions, to appear on his website. After students used the form to submit questions throughout the Spring 2013 semester in Dr. Gould's organic chemistry class, the data gathered from their usage was analyzed, and feedback was collected. The feedback obtained from students was positive, and suggested that the input parser accomplished the educational goals that it sought to meet.
ContributorsBeerman, Eric Christopher (Author) / Gould, Ian (Thesis director) / Wilkerson, Kelly (Committee member) / Mosca, Vince (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05