Background: The interferon response is one of the early mechanisms of the innate immune system that defends host cells against infection by viruses including Influenza. When a cell becomes infected with a virus, it secretes interferons as a signaling molecule that then activates the transcription of hundreds of genes with anti-viral effects. Some of these (PKR, OAS) are well-studied, but many of the functions are poorly understood and potentially represent new pathways to target for antiviral therapies.

One of the biggest challenges in virtual reality is locomotion. The best way to experience virtual reality is through natural walking. However, virtual worlds are often much larger than the physical environments we have to explore them, so the user’s locomotion in the virtual world is limited by the constraints of the physical world. Common solutions to this problem all have major drawbacks. For example, virtual locomotion causes cybersickness and reduces the user’s sense of presence.

The presence of herbivores has a large impact on their ecosystem and the plant communities that they feed on. While there have been some studies within the Nutrient Network regarding the effect of herbivores on community diversity, this project will uniquely explore the effect on ecosystem productivity and plant respiration. Due to the difficulty of measuring NEE as a measure of carbon exchange, there are relatively few studies that explore its relation to herbivory. To understand this relationship, ten plots were set up with five being surrounded by a wire mesh cage to exclude herbivores.

There is a need to understand how polymer gene complexes (polyplexes) transfect in cells to create more effective gene therapies. Polymer mediated gene delivery is a form of gene therapy. To improve polymer mediated gene delivery mechanisms the interactions with the cell must be understood. Raman microscopy is a label-free method of understanding these interactions. Here, I have worked on improving our data collection and analysis methods to begin understanding these processes.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain cancer with an expected 5% 5-year survival rate. Cancer results from dysregulation of gene expression that causes increased cell division and metastasis driven by the cytoskeleton and myosin motor proteins. While tissue invasion can be inhibited, we must first understand the key proteins involved in cancer invasion.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has shown therapeutic promise to treat treatment-resistant obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). It is hypothesized that bilateral DBS to the mid-striatum improves decision making through promoting cognitive flexibility. Previous work in the lab concluded that bilateral DBS improved reaction time in rodents while on the Set-Shifting task. These results were promising but were unable to reveal the type of behavioral change responsible for these improvements.

Plastic microbeads serve as exfoliants and rheological modifiers in numerous personal care consumer products, such as soaps, hand sanitizers, and shampoos. While microbeads are important for the function of these products, billions of these beads enter the environment daily. Replacing plastic microbeads with biomass substitutes can negate the toxic effects on marine life that current beads impose. Multiple drip synthesis methods have been successful in tuning morphological and mechanical properties of cellulose microbeads; however, these processes are not scalable.

Background: The interferon response is one of the early mechanisms of the innate immune system that defends host cells against infection by viruses including Influenza. When a cell becomes infected with a virus, it secretes interferons as a signaling molecule that then activates the transcription of hundreds of genes with anti-viral effects. Some of these (PKR, OAS) are well-studied, but many of the functions are poorly understood and potentially represent new pathways to target for antiviral therapies.

Geobacter sulfurreducens is a bacterium that respires many forms of manganese and iron. To maximize the energy produced by reduction of these environmental metals, G. sulfurreducens modulates its expression of respiratory genes such as cbcBA. CbcBA is a cytochrome essential for reduction of Fe(III) below -0.21V vs SHE. In low redox potential environments, cbcBA transcription is induced 3,000-fold by an uncharacterized pathway.