MicroRNA-10b (miR-10b) is considered a marker of disease aggressiveness in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), in view of the fact that lower levels of miR-10b are associated with better response to neoadjuvant therapy, likelihood of surgical...
Estradiol is a key regulator of immune protection in the female reproductive tract (FRT). Its concentration varies during the menstrual cycle, leading to changes in innate immune protection. In this thesis, I demonstrate the multiple levels at...
This thesis presents data from ground camera observations of the aurora conducted from Alaska during the winters of 2005 through 2007. In conjunction with these camera observations, conjugate radar observations of the auroral ionosphere were...
Fluorescence molecular imaging will have an important clinical impact in the area of guided oncology surgery, where emerging technologies are poised to provide the surgeon with real-time molecular information to guide resection, using targeted...
Studies presented in this dissertation focus on the transcriptional targets and cellular functions of [Delta]Np63[alpha], the predominant TP63 isoform expressed in epithelial stem cell compartments. TP63, a member of the p53 family of...
Temperature has powerful effects on all scales of biological organization from biochemical reactions to ecosystem processes. Despite the well-appreciated influence and thorough understanding of the physiological and population consequences of...
RNA binding proteins are fundamental components of crucial biological processes in all domains of life. The development of techniques to study RNA binding protein complexes is, therefore, broadly impactful. I employed multiple genome-wide...
Proteins are ubiquitous in cells and are essential to a wide range of biological processes. Since existing proteins occupy only a small portion of the space of possible amino acid composition, understanding their sequence-structure-function...
Increased fetal hemoglobin (HbF) expression is beneficial for [beta]-hemoglobinopathy patients; however, most inducing agents do not possess the ideal combination of efficacy, safety and availability. Better understanding the mechanisms involved in...
Molecular imaging of cancer features is a critical part of advancing better tools for oncology management and drug discovery, yet it is still evolving as a useful tool. Diffuse Fluorescence Tomography (FT) is one approach to molecular imaging, used...
Robustness to genetic perturbations is a fundamental property of all living things. The genetic code is degenerate, RNA secondary structure is robust to sequence changes, and protein structure is robust to amino acid substitutions. Complex systems...
From deciding what to eat first or what stock to invest in, the order in which we prefer to experience events and the amount of risk we are willing to undertake are factors that influence our choices. However, the mechanisms underlying order and...
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the cells that can give rise to all different lineages of differentiated/mature blood cells. HSCs are capable of self-renewal and maintaining the homeostasis of differentiated cells for specific functions. The...
ID proteins are naturally occurring dominant negative HLH-transcription factors that are highly expressed during development but generally not expressed in adult tissue except for selected cell types and some stem cells. Also, aberrant expression...
Vibrio cholerae is the etiologic agent of cholera in humans. Intestinal colonization occurs via ingestion of contaminated food and water and results in symptoms that include the production of the characteristic rice water stool, vomiting, and...
Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders which affect a variety of different animal species including humans. The central pathogenic event underlying prion diseases is the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrP C )...
Bradyrhizobium japonicum forms a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with soybean. Signaling events, such as production of flavonoids and Nod factor, initiate the interaction, leading to formation of specialized root organs called nodules. A B. japonicum...
APETALA3 ( AP3 ) and PISTILLATA ( PI ) are floral organ identity genes that are necessary and sufficient for petal and stamen development. Surprisingly little is known about molecular mechanisms by which AP3 and PI proteins direct floral organ...
Since its discovery in the 1930's, the Cherenkov effect has been paramount in the development of high-energy physics research. It results in light emission from charged particles traveling faster than the local speed of light in a dielectric...
While Cherenkov emission was discovered more than eighty years ago, the potential applications of imaging this during radiation therapy have just recently been explored. With approximately half of all cancer patients being treated by radiation at...
Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are highly curable with cisplatin-based therapy. The p53 tumor suppressor is induced in response to a variety of cellular stresses. Our previous work has implicated an important role for p53 in TGCT...
Despite immunogenicity, melanoma-specific vaccines have demonstrated minimal clinical efficacy in patients with established disease, but enhance survival when administered in the adjuvant setting. It has been shown that T cell infiltration of...
Morbidity and complexity involved in lymph node staging via surgical resection and biopsy could ideally be overcome using node assay techniques that are non-invasive. Visible blue dyes, fluorophores and radio-tracers are often used to locate the...
LP-BM5 murine retroviral infection induces murine AIDS (MAIDS), and is characterized by profound and broad immunosuppression of T- and B-cell responses. Adaptive immune response to LP-BM5 infection, including the pathogenic role of CD4+ T-cells and...
All cells must organize their cytoplasm in order to carry out functions properly and survive in different environments, and the requirement for organization is increased in large, multinucleate cells. It has long been known that membrane-bound...
How the genome is shaped directly influences how it is expressed. In fact, the genome is organized at many different levels, each imparting specific regulation over transcription. Fundamental principles regulating genome organization are poorly...
In a variety of applications spanning mobile devices, performance computing, and even renewable energy and automotive, power management and power delivery are an increasing bottleneck in reducing size and cost, improving reliability, and even...
As the human population increases, it is imperative that we develop strategies to improve agricultural productivity to meet the growing demand for food, fuel and fiber. More than 2 billion people suffer from "hidden hunger" (a lack of essential...
The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway controls numerous biological processes from embryogenesis to adult homeostasis; aberrant Wnt signaling underlies a wide range of human diseases. In the absence of Wnt stimulation, a multiprotein “destruction...
Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) is a neurovisceral disease that causes intracellular accumulation of cholesterol and other lipids. The exact mechanism how the defects in cholesterol trafficking pathways result in the progressive neurological damage is...