My research area is biochemistry about cancer cell. Elevated levels of HMGA1 in cancer cells cause mis-regulation of gene expression and are associated with increased cancer cell proliferation and increased chemotherapy resistance. We used engineered viruses to deliver a decoy hyper binding site (HBS) for HMGA1 to the nucleus of cancer cells. The purpose of […]
A36: Heart Membrane Proteins’ Malfunction Leads to Long- QT Syndrome: Detergent Free Purification of KCNE1 Using Functionalized SMALPS
KCNE1 and KCNQ1 are membrane proteins located in the heart that are responsible for repolarization. Malfunction of these proteins can lead to “Long QT Syndrome”—a condition that can cause life threatening arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. Styrene maleic acid copolymer lipid nanoparticles (SMALPS) is a membrane mimetic system that purifies a protein and allows for […]
A10: Presence and Location of Twin Arginine Transport System in Cyanobacteria PCC 6803
The Twin Arginine Translocase system (TAT) is a translocase present both on bacteria plasma membranes and in thylakoid membranes of chloroplast-containing eukaryotes. Cyanobacteria contain both a plasma membrane and a thylakoid membrane but only one set of genes for the TAT system components. This study attempts to identify to which membrane or membranes the products […]
A12: Building a Better Protein: Site-Directed Mutagenesis of cpTatC-Hcf106 using PCR
This research was conducted within the Miami University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and specifically looked at using common biochemical techniques to modify a protein for ease of study. Proteins are the workhorses of all cells. In order to do their job, proteins need to reach a specific site of activity within the cell, and […]
A27: How Plants Adapt to Different Soils: A Phytochemical Comparison of Chamerion
The purpose of this study is to compare the chemical compositions of two plants in the genus Chamerion, and to relate their compositions to how they adapted to such different soils – river beauty preferring wet, mineral rich soil, such as around glacier streams, and fireweed preferring dry, organic rich soils, like areas that recently […]
A28: Do Plant Polyphenols Slow Climate Change?Total Phenolics Quantification using the Folin Assay
Wetlands are established as an extremely important part of the global carbon cycle. Despite covering only 2-3% of the land surface, wetlands store about ⅓ of global soil carbon, giving them a cooling effect on the climate. However, in recent years this effect has gradually decreased. Because of how much of the global soil carbon […]
A37: Investigating A Novel Family Of Proteins in Ancient Cyanobacteria
We investigate a family of proteins called pentapeptide repeat proteins in attempt to solve their structures and functions within cyanobacteria. We attempt to solve protein structures through protein X-ray crystallography and attempt to solve the function of our proteins through various methods including generating growth curves, filament length distributions, monitoring heterocyst formation frequencies and patterns, […]
A41: ATP Binding and Hydrolysis of ER Protein-Folding Chaperones BiP and JB11
Molecular chaperones are abundant and conserved proteins in the cytosol, mitochondria, nucleus and endoplasmic reticulum that help protein clients fold to their active conformation known as the native state. The structure and mechanism of these chaperones holds significance because of their association with cancer and metabolic disease. The heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) family of […]
A42: Implications of ERdj6 Mutation on Co-Chaperone Ability and Oligomerization
Within the field of biochemistry, chaperone and co-chaperone proteins are of important significance due to their vital role in assisting protein folding. ERdj6 is an Hsp40 co-chaperone that works with Hsp70 to facilitate client binding and folding. ERdj6 was grown and purified in E. Coli, with wild-type and mutant protein samples grown. Within Hsp40 proteins […]
B72: Study of Synthesis of SMA and its Interactions with Lipids to Form SMALPs
This research was to study the effects of the size lipid vesicles had on the formation of Styrene Maleic-acid lipid particles (SMALPs) when mixed with Styrene Maleic acid (SMA). this was accomplished by extruding the DMPC vesicles to 100 and 200nm and adding incremental amounts of SMA to the lipids until SMALPs formation was confirmed. […]