Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Integrin signaling is critical for many biological functions including cell survival, cell migration, development, immunity and wound healing. Integrins perform their function through a structural change that is propagated from the...
This dissertation attempts to provide insight into the mixing, hydration and annealing of self-assembled, multilayered films based on precise counting of their doping ions and water content. Several practical applications are then...
The photophysical characteristics of 5-arylvinyl-5Oe-methyl-2, 2Oe-bipyridyls (AVMB) and their zinc complexes were investigated in order to recognize the factors that influence the emission band shift and fluorescence quantum yield change...
This dissertation studies the size- and site-dependent optical and magnetic properties of II-VI quantum dots (QDs). The first chapter provides a theoretical background used to analyze the data and the properties expected for diluted...
Large-volume protein crystals are a prerequisite for neutron diffraction studies and their production represents a bottleneck in obtaining neutron structures. Many protein crystals that permit the collection of high-resolution X-ray...
Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are localized in the nucleolus as small ribonucleoprotein particle (snoRNP) that are RNA-protein complexes and catalyze site specific modifications on the ribosomal RNA. When compared to many protein...
In the presence of water vapor, photolysis of tropospheric ozone (O3) produces the hydroxyl radical (OH), which is a strong oxidant that directly and indirectly controls a host of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. When tropospheric O3...
Solution-Phase Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchnage Monitored by Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry: Technique Development and Application to Muscle Biochemistry
Proteins are vital macromolecules of every living cell. They undertake a variety of tasks that are essential for life. Most proteins function in assemblies rather than individually. Protein function is strongly correlated to structure...
Diphtheria toxin repressor is a regulatory protein from Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causal agent of Diphtheria. The diphtheria toxin repressor (DtxR) contains an SH3-like domain that forms an intramolecular complex with a proline...
Materials synthesis far from thermodynamic equilibrium can yield hierarchical order that spans from molecular to macroscopic length scales. Here we study the formation of microscopic and macroscopic inorganic tubes during spatially...
Human glucokinase is a 52 kDa single polypeptide chain containing 465 amino acids and a single binding site. It catalyzes the ATP dependent phosphorylation of glucose in the beta pancreatic cells, which ultimately serves as the glucose...
One of the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias is the self-organization of electrical waves in the heart. These waves can anchor to scar tissue, collagen fibers, and coronary vessels. The anchoring generates stationary electrical signals...
CRISPR-cas systems have been found to confer RNA guided immunity in prokaryotes comparable to the eukaryotic RNA interference. These Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, as their name entails, are repeated sequences...
This work describes the activation profiles and regulatory cascades of the human kallikrein-related peptidases. The human kallikrein (KLK)-related peptidases are the largest family of serine peptidases, comprising 15 members (KLK1–15)...
Viral capsids must assemble into stable structures that resist dissociation in extreme environments between hosts yet they simultaneously must be unstable enough to release their genome upon infection. The conflicting functions that the...
Tissue engineering is one of the fastest growing biotechnology industries. The overarching research goals of the tissue engineering industry are highly intertwined with the field of medicine. The tissue engineering field seeks to create...
Extended Metal Atom Chains (EMACs) are compounds that consist of three or more metal atoms that are directly bonded with the support of equatorial organic ligands. This dissertation is focused on the high frequency electron magnetic...
All functional RNAs contain post-transcriptionally modified nucleotides. 2'-O-ribose methylation and pseudouridylation are the two major types of modifications, which occur by box C/D and box H/ACA ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes, ...
Fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) is an angiogenic factor with therapeutic potential for the treatment of ischemic disease. FGF-1 has low intrinsic thermostability and is characteristically formulated with heparin as a stabilizing agent...
This dissertation presents studies by magnetization, dc magnetic susceptibility and EPR spectroscopy on several new spin-frustrated polyoxometalate (POM) lattices of increasing spin sizes and complexities. Measurements have been made...
This dissertation aims to advance the understanding and applicability of nanotechnology through the use of nanoparticles as conjugated delivery agents. By providing multi-functionality of a nanoparticle and a nucleic acid therapeutic, ...
One of the primary contributors to protein structure and functioning in biological systems is the electrostatic environment experienced by the protein. This environment is caused by charged and polar chemical interactions, with the...
An essential step in the biogeochemical cycling of sulfur is the six electron reduction of sulfite (SO32-) to sulfide (S2-) catalyzed by the enzyme sulfite reductase (SiR). SiR performs the largest single atom reduction in any biological...
Changes in environmental conditions cause alterations in the metabolism of cells. The field of metabolomics seeks to assay for and understand on a whole-cell level how metabolism responds to these changes. In this dissertation, a method...
Nanoparticles are at the forefront of science and technology today. This dissertation will expand the basic fundamental understanding of the phenomenon known as resonant energy transfer. A number of analytical techniques were utilized to...
The relationship between protein structure and the specificity of substrate oxidation remains a key problem in the study of the lipoxygenase enzyme family. Polyunsaturated lipid substrates reach the non-heme iron contained within the...
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease currently affecting about five million Americans. The devastating impact of Alzheimer's disease and the growing cost of the disease make it an emerging public health problem causing...
With the advent of two "soft" ionization techniques in the late 1980s—electrospray ionization (ESI) and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) for the routine and general formation of intact molecular ions—and continuing...
During the last decade, homogeneous gold catalysis emerged as one of the most efficient tools for C-C and C-X (O, N, S ') formations in the organic chemist's tool box. Gold catalysis enriched the world of synthetic organic chemistry with...
Carbon is an extraordinary element due its facile bonding properties. Nowhere is this uniqueness more evident than in the variety of structures that spontaneously form in carbon vapor. Structural transitions as a function of increasing...
The scope of this dissertation is two-fold: assembly of histidine-tagged peptides and proteins directly to the surface of a 1.5 nm AuNP and the assembly and delivery of nano-medical materials for MR imaging and gene therapy. Chapter 1 is...
Myosin activity and actomyosin interaction play key roles in normal and pathological cardiac muscle contraction. Factors that modulate actomyosin have the potential to exert changes in cardiac contraction that may be necessary for normal...
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a family of enzymes known for their proteolytic activities on processing extracellular matrix substrates, may play an integral role in blood-brain barrier opening following an ischemic stroke. Several...
Self-sustaining oscillators regulate diverse aspects of physiology in mammals such as insulin secretion, cell cycle regulation, and circadian rhythmicity. The circadian clock is based upon several interacting feedback loops, which affect...
The prevalence of metabolic syndrome has paralleled the sharp increase in obesity. Given its tremendous physical, emotional, and financial burden, it is of critical importance to identify who is most at risk and the potential points of...
Structural biology has been successful in the characterization of soluble protein, which has given insight in the inner working of several thousands of proteins. However, structural characterization of proteins has been limited in two...
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) regulates an array of physiological functions and acts as a second messenger at low levels. However, the elevation of these levels can lead to oxidative stress, a state that is implicated in the progression of...
Solid-state NMR takes advantage of studying membrane proteins in a native membrane-like lipid bilayer and has been used for generating exciting results. The magic angle spinning ssNMR of randomly oriented liposomes provides complementary...
The work described in this thesis details the development of a quintuple-detector SEC separation to measure chemical heterogeneity and determine the solution conformation for copolymers and polymer blends. Chemical heterogeneity affects...
A critical consideration in the process of de novo protein architecture design and protein evolution is the folding pathway and behavior a protein undertakes in transitioning to its functional tertiary structure. Of particular interest...
Determining the Solution Conformational Entropy of Oligosaccharides: Isolating the Effects of Anomeric Configuration, Glycosidic Linkage, Degree of Polymerization, Linearity versus Cyclicity and Hydrogen Bonding
Oligosaccharides have various fundamental roles, ranging from providing nutritional and flavoring support to being involved in fertilization and parasite infection processes. Maltooligosaccharides are used heavily in the food and...
Structural foams reinforced with carbon nanotubes could prove to be beneficial in numerous industrial applications. High internal phase emulsion foams are emerging as new and important forms of microcellular foams. Microcellular foams, ...
Scientists have used computers to model a plethora of systems since the rise of the computer age. The most common use of modeling is to analyze an existing system. With a complete model of an existing system the parameters can be changed...
Radical and electrophile-promoted nucleophilic closure cascade reactions have been used for the synthesis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and carbon nanoribbons. Chapter 1 provides a discussion on radical cascade reactions, ...
The Baldwin rules are among the most successful stereoelectronic guidelines to date, describing the favorable and unfavorable modes of ring formation at the expense of a single (-tet), double (-trig), or triple bond (-dig)....
Biogenesis of eukaryotic ribosomes is a complicated process that needs to be highly coordinated and tightly regulated. The small nucleolar ribonucleoprotein particles (snoRNPs) mediate the first step of ribosome biogenesis by carrying...
Human mesenchymal stem cells are a class of adult multipotent cells that are of interest to researchers for their clinical potential. While this cell type has been intensely investigated, there is still a significant amount to be learned...
The structure of human acidic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-1) is classified a b-trefoil structure, one of the fundamental protein superfolds. The x-ray crystal structures of wild type and various mutants of FGF-1 have been solved in...
Over the last decades, the enzyme Glucokinase (GCK) has interested biochemists due to its physiological and kinetic characteristics. GCK is vital for glucose homeostasis, as it controls the levels of insulin and glycogen synthesis in the...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
