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An Infusion Approach to Optimizing the Mutagenesis of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Description
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and bacteria use light energy to synthesize organic compounds to use as energy. Among these organisms are a kind of purple photosynthetic bacteria called Rhodobacter sphaeroides, a non-sulfur purple bacteria that grows aerobically in the dark by respiration. There have been many…

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and bacteria use light energy to synthesize organic compounds to use as energy. Among these organisms are a kind of purple photosynthetic bacteria called Rhodobacter sphaeroides, a non-sulfur purple bacteria that grows aerobically in the dark by respiration. There have been many contributions throughout the history of this group of bacteria. Rhodobacter sphaeroides is metabolically very diverse as it has many different ways to obtain energy--aerobic respiration and anoxygenic photosynthesis being just a couple of the ways to do so. This project is part of a larger ongoing project to study different mutant strains of Rhodobacter and the different ways in which carries out electron transfer/photosynthesis. This thesis focused on the improvements made to protocol (standard procedure of site directed mutagenesis) through a more efficient technique known as infusion.
ContributorsNucuta, Diana Ileana (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis director) / Lin, Su (Committee member) / Loskutov, Andrey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
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Exploring the Role of Student Religiosity in the Biology Classroom

Description
In response to a national call within STEM to increase diversity within the sciences, there has been a growth in science education research aimed at increasing participation of underrepresented groups in science, such as women and ethnic/racial minorities. However, an underexplored underrepresented group in science are religious students. Though 82%…

In response to a national call within STEM to increase diversity within the sciences, there has been a growth in science education research aimed at increasing participation of underrepresented groups in science, such as women and ethnic/racial minorities. However, an underexplored underrepresented group in science are religious students. Though 82% of the United States population is religiously affiliated, only 52% of scientists are religious (Pew, 2009). Even further, only 32% of biologists are religious, with 25% identifying as Christian (Pew, 2009; Ecklund, 2007). One reason as to why Christian individuals are underrepresented in biology is because faculty may express biases that affect students' ability to persist in the field of biology. In this study, we explored how revealing a Christian student's religious identity on science graduate application would impact faculty's perception of the student during the biology graduate application process. We found that faculty were significantly more likely to perceive the student who revealed their religious identity to be less competent, hirable, likeable, and faculty would be less likely to mentor the student. Our study informs upon possible reasons as to why there is an underrepresentation of Christians in science. This further suggests that bias against Christians must be addressed in order to avoid real-world, negative treatment of Christians in science.
ContributorsTruong, Jasmine Maylee (Author) / Brownell, Sara (Thesis director) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Barnes, Liz (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05

Fabrication of Alignment and Chemical Gradient Scaffold for Tendon-Bone Repair using Electrospinning

Description
Heterogeneous musculoskeletal tissues, such as the tendon-bone junction, is crucial for transferring mechanical loading during human physical activity. This region, also known as the enthesis, is composed of a complex extracellular matrix with gradient fiber orientations and chemistries. These different physical and chemical properties are crucial in providing the support…

Heterogeneous musculoskeletal tissues, such as the tendon-bone junction, is crucial for transferring mechanical loading during human physical activity. This region, also known as the enthesis, is composed of a complex extracellular matrix with gradient fiber orientations and chemistries. These different physical and chemical properties are crucial in providing the support that these junctions need in handling mechanical loading of everyday activities. Currently, surgical restorative procedures for a torn enthesis entail a very invasive technique of suturing the torn tendon onto the bone. This results in improper reinjury. To circumvent this issue, one common strategy within tissue engineering is to introduce a biomaterial scaffold which acts as a template for the local damaged tissue. Electrospinning can be utilized to fabricate a fibrous material to recapitulate the structure of the extracellular matrix. Currently electrospinning techniques only allow the creation of scaffold that consists of only one orientation and material. In this work, we investigated a multicomponent, magnetically assisted, electrospinning technique to fabricate a fiber alignment and chemical gradient scaffold for tendon-bone repair
ContributorsLe, Minh (Author) / Holloway, Julianne (Thesis director) / Green, Matthew (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05