Week 6

The prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) has increased rapidly in recent decades. Genetic mechanisms of these disorders have been studied extensively; however, environmental factors contributing to NDD development remain less understood. Current evidence suggests that alterations in synaptogenesis and pruning...

Caenorhabditis elegans that hatch into an environment without any nutrients are arrested in the first larval stage of development, L1. Larvae can remain in L1 arrest for weeks and resume normal development once they receive food. However, many C. elegans...

Camila Rodriguez Mentors: Anya Varanko, Ashutosh Chilkoti, PhD. Department of Biomedical Engineering Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are proteins based off of tropoelastin, a subcomponent of elastin, that are able to change solubility under different temperatures. By combining these proteins with the...

The activation of type I interferons has long been reported to regulate pain, but the precise mechanism has remained unclear. We tested the hypothesis that type I interferons are critical pain regulators and function via a neuronal mechanism. Sensory, motor,...

Abnormal and excessive tau phosphorylation commonly characterizes Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology through neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) causing axonal dysfunction and microtubular instability. Essential to DNA repair, protein modification, and gene expression, the methionine cycle generates a methyl group upon the conversion...

A majority of Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy cases are caused by a frameshift mutation in the DMD gene and the deletion of exon 51 with CRISPR-Cas9 can restore the reading frame in many patients. However, there are thousands of gRNA sequences...

Sea urchin embryos show a great affinity to replace cells necessary for normal development through a process called transfating in which cells in the embryo express genes of other cells to compensate for the removal. Specifically, the removal of primary...

Cannabis is one of the most popular drugs consumed in the United States. While work has been done to quantify whole genome transgenerational effects of cannabis exposure, there has been little done to quantify transgenerational effects on a gene-by-gene basis....

How does the ability to do phagocytosis of a new cell population compare to other dendritic cells? The intestines are home to immune system cells whose role is to monitor the microbiota within the gut; one group of these cells...

Dystonia is a neuromuscular disorder in which muscles make involuntary contractions, leading to abnormal and often times repetitive movements. It has been found that a common mechanism for several types of dystonia—each characterized by the gene adversely affected—was an impairment...

So far during my summer of research there have a combinations of highs and lows. Leading up to now, much of my research has been spent in trying to troubleshoot the issues with my project and trying countless different approaches...

In Drosophila melanogaster, the genes Fruitless (Fru) and Doublesex  (Dsx) control sex specific sexual behavior and experience-dependent sexual behavior, respectively. Additionally, mutants of the male form of Fruitless (FruM) and flies in isolation show a lapse in sexual behavior, indicating that experience has effects...

Mice are such wonderful creatures to work with. Those that I habituate every day   have become so nice to me. But there are also those who vocalize enough to make you think yes it's gonna work and then stop...

To start off this post, I just want to say how surprised I was yesterday when I thought about how there are only 2 weeks left until BSURF ends. On Friday I performed my last RIA for the summer, and...

Cryptococcus deneoformans is an opportunistic human fungal pathogen that mainly infects immunocompromised patients, including AIDs patients and patients with organ transplants. It infects approximately 280 thousand people and contributes to about 180 thousand deaths per year. Few strategies are available in...