For our project, we explored the growth of the ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) from a standard university research lab to a COVID-19 testing facility through a business lens. The lab has pioneered the saliva-test in the Western United States. This thesis analyzes the laboratory from various business concepts and aspects. The business agility of the lab and it’s quickness to innovation has allowed the lab to enjoy great success. Looking into the future, the laboratory has a promising future and will need to answer many questions to remain the premier COVID-19 testing institution in Arizona.

Over the last few decades, sustainability has become a great focus for individuals as well as businesses globally. The focus of this study was to understand why businesses purchase certain office supplies and why they may not be choosing to purchase the most sustainable options. The research question asked, “why are certain businesses reluctant to make positive, sustainable changes to their usage of office materials in their workplace environments?” Most companies do not look for alternatives that would benefit the environment when purchasing products for their office space. The reasons behind this hesitancy to change was studied through current literature on the topic as well as interviews conducted with Office Managers of several different businesses. Comparisons were made between each businesses’ decision patterns in order to find the root cause or causes of why companies do not choose more sustainable options when purchasing products for their workspaces. The interviews revealed that cost and quality are the most important factors these businesses take into consideration when purchasing office supplies. While some companies have looked into alternative products for their supplies, they ultimately choose to still purchase the less sustainable option. This is because the less sustainable option is often cheaper, and the company knows what quality to expect for the item. Overall, all of the Office Managers who were interviewed acknowledged some sort of sustainable practice that their company was taking part in, even if it did not directly relate to the types of office supplies that they purchase. This inclusion of general sustainable practices demonstrates how businesses are making efforts one way or another towards a more sustainable future. Therefore, this awareness to sustainability suggests that most, if not all businesses will eventually end up purchasing sustainable alternatives for their office supplies. However, the timeframe for which this occurs for each company will likely vary.

In the current age of global climate crisis, corporations must confront the rising pressure to mitigate their environmental impacts. The goal of this research paper is to provide corporations with a resource to manage waste through the implementation of a circular economy and by increasing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Navigating this large and complex system required the use of various methodologies including: the investigation of the relationships between waste management systems and sustainable development across major companies; literature reviews of scholarly articles about CSR, circular economies, recycling, and releases of company reports on sustainable development and financials. Lastly, interviews and a survey were conducted to gain deeper insight into the problems that make circular economies so difficult to achieve at scale.

Honored Brow is a local, non-profit, start-up business that specializes in brow lamination and lash lifts with tinting services. The business is founded and operated by four students enrolled in Arizona State University, Barrett, The Honors College. Honored Brow’s mission, through the thesis project, is to connect and provide brow and lash services to enhance natural beauty and empower women. This project was completed as part of Founders Lab.

Redox homeostasis is described as the net physiologic balance between inter-convertible oxidized and reduced equivalents within subcellular compartments that remain in a dynamic equilibrium. This equilibrium is impacted by reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are natural by-products of normal cellular activity. Studies have shown that cancer cells have high ROS levels and altered redox homeostasis due to increased basal metabolic activity, mitochondrial dysfunction, peroxisome activity, as well as the enhanced activity of NADPH oxidase, cyclooxygenases, and lipoxygenases. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most prevalent primary brain tumor in adults with a median survival of 15 months. GBM is characterized by its extreme resistance to therapeutic interventions as well as an elevated metabolic rate that results in the exacerbated production of ROS. Therefore, many agents with either antioxidant or pro-oxidant mechanisms of action have been rigorously employed in preclinical as well as clinical settings for treating GBM by inducing oxidative stress within the tumor. Among those agents are well-known antioxidant vitamin C and small molecular weight SOD mimic BMX-001, both of which are presently in clinical trials on GBM patients. Despite the wealth of investigations, limited data is available on the response of normal brain vs glioblastoma tissue to these therapeutic interventions. Currently, a sensitive and rapid liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was established for the quantification of a panel of oxidative stress biomarkers: glutathione (GSH), cysteine (Cys), glutathione disulfide (GSSG), and cysteine disulfide in human-derived brain tumor and mouse brain samples; this method will be enriched with additional oxidative stress biomarkers homocysteine (Hcy), methionine (Met), and cystathionine (Cyst). Using this enriched method, we propose to evaluate the thiol homeostasis and the redox state of both normal brain and GBM in mice after exposure with redox-active therapeutics. Our results showed that, compared to normal brain (in intact mice), GBM tissue has significantly lower GSH/GSSG and Cys/CySS ratios indicating much higher oxidative stress levels. Contralateral “normal” brain tissue collected from the mice with intracranial GBM were also under significant oxidative stress compared to normal brains collected from the intact mice. Importantly, normal brain tissue in both studies retained the ability to restore redox homeostasis after treatment with a redox-active therapeutic within 24 hours while glioblastoma tissue does not. Ultimately, elucidating the differential redox response of normal vs tumor tissue will allow for the development of more redox-active agents with therapeutic benefit.