According to the CDC, approximately 122,000 Americans die each year due from lodged thromboemboli that are unable to be cleared following acute ischemic stroke.  Despite this, there is a lack of research on what thromboemboli properties affect the success of re-canalization and patient outcomes. An ex vivo circulatory loop, incorporating an excised bovine artery and a programmable centrifugal pump, will be developed to simulate physiological cerebral flow conditions and investigate thromboemboli lodging and adhesion.

Antibiotic resistance is a current problem throughout the world, making bacterial infections more difficult to treat. Previously, a screen of 13,000 compounds was performed to test for potential antibiotics. Of those, two of the compounds were chosen for further testing. A minimum inhibitory assay, or MIC, will be performed using gram-negative bacteria, such as M. tuberculosis and S. flexneri. The MIC will determine the potential use of the compounds as an antibiotic against these bacteria.

The role that iron plays in affective outcomes is not well studied in women of reproductive age. The hypothesis is that iron supplementation will improve overall mood and quality of life and decrease feelings of stress compared to placebo. Participants recruited from Penn State were categorized as iron depleted or sufficient. Iron treatment improved feelings of Physical and Social Functioning and decreased feelings of Bodily Pain, Stress, Tension, Anger, Depression, Confusion and Total Mood Disturbance.

Blood flow will be mimicked using an in vitro flow loop and ultrasound, a diagnostic tool used for thrombi and emboli identification, records the formation of emboli in real-time in a bovine vessel.  Afterwards, emboli development will be analyzed and quantified computationally.   Little is understood about emboli development, therefore, techniques for studying real-time formation would be crucial for prevention. 

Self-driving cars are very often in the news, and while many have speculated about their safety, there isn’t as much research about the actual efficiency of their impact on traffic. My plan for this project is to set up a scenario using Aimsun software where I can simulate the implementation of autonomous vehicles in a particular traffic stream, and add and change variables to see how much of an impact they make in different scenarios.

This project 1) identified transcriptionally active endogenous retroviruses within a population of Wyoming (WY) mule deer and 2) compared the diversity of transcriptional activity across two populations of mule deer that differ in their virus integration profile. This project was completed with Theodora Maravegias and Lei Yang under Dr. Mary L. Poss (maryposs@gmail.com). This project is intended to be submitted within the Department of Biology and presented from 5-7pm.

RNase P is a metalloenzyme which cleaves precursor tRNA. Two specific nucleotides, A90 and U93, are located in a strand of the P4 stem of the catalytic core of RNase P. This strand base-pairs with another RNA strand within the catalytic core, and the uracil and adenine nucleotides of interest are thought to 'stick out' to facilitate the binding of magnesium ions. We mutated these nucleotides to reveal their role in catalysis.

Alcohol increases estrogen signaling in mammary epithelial cells resulting in increased proliferation. We were interested in determining if PTHrP, a negative regulator of estrogen, could block the proliferative effects of alcohol. MCF-7 cells were treated with alcohol and/or PTHrP and proliferation was measured. Treatment of MCF-7 cells with alcohol caused an increase in proliferation whereas pretreatment with PTHrP inhibited these effects, suggesting that PTHrP may inhibit the growth-promoting effects of alcohol in the mammary gland.

Brazil has a rich and diverse history of admixture. It has been suggested that how individuals report “color” in Brazil is influenced by both known familial ancestry and phenotype. We examined demographic questionnaires, genomic ancestry, and pigmentation phenotypes from research participants (N=309) recruited in Brasilia, Brazil and found that both phenotype and parental ancestry likely influence how our study subjects chose to self-report “color”. Our study supports the complex nature of “color” in Brazil.

A Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) is a bacterial killing mechanism found in many Gram-negative bacteria. In an active T6SS, a cell injects a “needle-like” apparatus into a neighboring cell. This needle, coated with toxic molecules, promotes death of the prey cell. Some strains of Vibrio fischeri, however, may be using a bacterial “escape mechanism” to avoid killing by T6S. I am investigating environmental factors that may play a role in this proposed escape mechanism.