Browsing FAS Theses and Dissertations by Title
Now showing items 488-507 of 6136
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Biological Characterization of Differential Function and Activation Between Closely-Related TGFβ Family Ligands
(2021-07-12)Growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) and GDF8 (also known as myostatin/MSTN) are closely-related members of the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) family of extracellular ligands. Due to the high sequence identity of ... -
Biological Insights From Population Differentiation
(2017-05-13)Population genetics studies the genetic variation within and between populations to gain understanding of human history and insight into underlying biological processes. My dissertation introduces three distinct methods: ... -
Biologically-Aware Algorithms for Connectomics
(2021-05-13)With billions of neurons and trillions of synapses in humans, the inner workings of the brain remain one of the great open mysteries of the universe. A complete understanding of the brains of even tiny organisms such as ... -
Biologically-Inspired Deep Predictive Learning for Episodic Memory Event Segmentation
(2022-05-23)Computational modeling for event segmentation in the literature has been directed towards detailing individual regions of the brain, mainly the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and substantia nigra and the role they play in ... -
Biology at single-molecule and single-cell level: chromosome organization, gene expression and beyond
(2014-06-06)Single molecules and single cells are the fundamental building blocks in biology. Facilitated by the advancement of technology, quantitative single-molecule and single-cell measurements provide a unique perspective toward ... -
Biology of Type 2 Phosphatidylinositol-5-Phosphate 4-Kinase
(2015-09-22)Type 2 phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinase (PI5P4K) converts phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate to phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate. Mammals have three genes, PIP4K2A, PIP4K2B and PIP4K2C that encode the enzymes ... -
Biomaterial scaffold-based vaccines sustain robust immune responses through the lymph nodes
(2022-05-05)Emergent vaccine therapies aim to engineer the multi-scale interactions that naturally occur within lymph nodes (LNs), from cellular behavior to tissue dynamics. Therapeutic cancer vaccines have demonstrated safety and ... -
Biomaterials-Inspired Advances to CAR T Cell Therapy: Strategies to Recognize Tumors and Enhance T Cell Activity
(2021-11-16)Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, among other adoptive cell transfer approaches, has emerged as a promising strategy to introduce tumor-specific T cells into patients. CAR T cell therapy, in particular targeting ... -
Biomechanical Therapy: A Soft Robotic Drug Delivery Device
(2017-07-14)This work establishes proof of concept and major progress towards a novel soft implantable drug delivery device, capable of controlled biological and mechanical therapy. -
The Biomechanics and Evolution of High-Speed Throwing
(2012-10-31)Throwing with power and accuracy is a uniquely human behavior and a potentially important mode of early hunting. Chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, do occasionally throw, although with much less velocity. At some ... -
The biomechanics and evolution of impact resistance in human walking and running
(2016-01-12)How do humans generate and resist repetitive impact forces beneath the heel during walking and heel strike running? Due to the evolution of long day ranges and larger body sizes in the hominin lineage modern human ... -
Biometric Navigation with Ultrasound
(2013-04-16)We have designed and demonstrated a new class of medical navigation methods that use the fingerprint-like biometrically distinct ultrasound echo patterns produced by different locations in tissue. As an example of this new ... -
Biomimetic 4D Printing
(2016-05-12)Advances in the design of adaptive matter capable of programmable, environmentally-responsive changes in shape would enable myriad applications including smart textiles, scaffolds for tissue engineering, and smart machines. ... -
Biomimetic and Biodegradable Adhesive Hydrogels for Tendon Immunomodulation
(2022-06-03)Tendon has a weak intrinsic self-repair and healing ability due to its low cellularity. Following tendon rupture, healing may last over six months and often suffers from post-treatment complications. Variation in healing ... -
Biomimetic Engineering of Patterned Surfaces to Control Crystallization: From Colloids to Ice
(2013-02-13)Numerous natural organisms use chemical and structural patterning to manipulate complex crystal growth and control their aqueous environment. Structural templates such as vesicles and cell walls aid in the growth of nano- ... -
Biomimetic Tympanic Membrane Grafts
(2020-11-23)The tympanic membrane (TM), commonly known as the eardrum, is a thin tissue that captures sound waves from the environment and transmits them to the ossicles of the middle ear. Importantly, its circumferential and radial ... -
Biomimetics through nanoelectronics: development of three-dimensional macroporous nanoelectronics for building smart materials, cyborg tissues and injectable biomedical electronics.
(2014-06-06)Nanoscale materials enable unique opportunities at the interface between physical and life sciences. The interface between nanoelectronic devices and biological systems makes possible communication between these two diverse ... -
Biophysical and Molecular Determinants in Cell Tension-Mediated Fibronectin Unfolding that Drive Fibrillogenesis
(2013-02-20)Assembly of the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein fibronectin (FN) is a mechanical process that involves cell binding to FN through cell surface integrin receptors and application of tensional forces generated in the ... -
Biophysical Studies of the Lpt Pathway
(2017-07-06)The outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria is impermeable to many antibiotics because its outer leaflet is composed entirely of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a large glycolipid with an extracellular saccharide that is ... -
Biophysics of Kinetochore Microtubules in Human Mitotic Spindles
(2022-09-12)During eukaryotic cell division, chromosomes are linked to microtubules in the spindle by a macromolecular complex called the kinetochore. Regulation of these bound kinetochore micro- tubules is crucial to ensuring accurate ...