Leanne Ahronian

Biology

I'm a member of the Cancer Cell Biology Group, where I'm researching the migration of breast cancer cells in co-culture with normal fibroblasts.  I've also been studying the different morphologies of breast cancer cells when interacting with collagen.

Benjamin Cole

Bioinformatics/Molecular Biology

I work with Dr. Christopher Bystroff on dynamics of protein secondary structure, specifically the mechanism by which beta-alpha-beta units
fold preferentially right handed. I use simplified molecular dynamics to simulate folding pathways for these structures.

Jonathan Ellement

Biology, Molecular Biology/Bioinformatics

Minor: Economics

The main purpose of my research has been to analyze the sodium NADH ubiquinone reductase gene through the comparison of several bacteria. Its function is to transport sodium out of the cell membrane through the oxidation of NADH. My main focus has been isolating the NQR operon from the bacteria, which are around six kilo bases each, and then clone each into E. coli and V. cholerea. In addition, the number of organisms with NQR has been increasing ever since it was discovered and these organisms survive in all different types of environments. So one of our major questions that we are trying to solve is how this protein functions in order to adjust to such a range of surroundings. Present experiments are focusing upon growth comparisons of the NQR proteins functions at different concentrations of Na+. Another important plan in the process is protein purification, coinciding with trying to get crystallography results. Future projects include site directed mutagenesis conserved regions of each bacterium may allow for more insight to our questions. Through the use of the sequence comparisons this could eventually lead to understandings how the protein actually carries out its functions, and how it is assembled in the membrane.

Andrea Flynn

Biology

I am currently looking at osteosarcoma cells and their ineractions with normal cells in varying cell to cell ratios in vitro through anlaysis of variations in their protien profiles.

William Huser

Bioinformatics/Molecular Biology, Biochemistry/Biophysics

My research consists of discerning the topology of the Na+-NQR protein in Vibrio cholerae. This is a six subunit protein with five of the six subunits being transmembrane proteins. The orientation in the membrane is necessary because there are many cofactors and substrates that bind to the individual subunits. Each subunit has to be analyzed individually and checked against computer produced topologies to see which are correct. Each of the subunits must have fragments spanning from the N-terminus to a designated amino acid position so a computer topology could be chosen. To see this in the cell, the fragment would have to be ligated to a reporter gene, either GFP or alkaline phosphatase. When expressed, if the end of the protein is on the outside, the alkaline phosphatase would fold and the green fluorescent protein would not and vice versa in the cytoplasm with GFP being expressed. This would be the final test for orientation.

Kristie Kapinas

Biochemistry/Biophysics, Biology

I'm in the Cancer Cell Biology Group where I'm working on a mechanism of osteosarcoma migration in relation to human fibroblasts mediated by fibronectin. Fibronectin is a known ECM chemoattractant. It is possible that the fibroblasts are secreting fibronectin to cause the osteosarcoma cells to migrate via intracellular signalling, the pathway of which is being studied.

Katie Mahoney

Biochemistry/Biophysics, Applied Math

I work in Professor Koretz's lab, where I study áA- and áB-crystallins. They are members of the small heat shock protein family, and are the two chaperones proteins in the eye lens, where they help prevent the aggregation of other proteins, thus maintaining the transparency of the lens. I use a variety of methods to study the difference between the structure and function of the native and recombinant forms.

Lauren Regula

Bioinformatics/Molecular Biology and Psychology

I will be doing research with Dr. Patrick Page-McCaw involving the studies of the central nervous system of Zebrafish.

Rokhsanna Sadeghi

Biochemistry/Biophysics

I work in Dr. Barquera's lab doing a research project with Vibrio cholerae, the agent disease of cholera. Our objective is to understand the physiology and biochemistry that gives V. cholerae the ability to propagate through the external environment. My project involves the investigation of Na+- NADH:quinone oxidoreductase (Na+-NQR), a unique respiratory enzyme of V. cholerae that functions as a
primary sodium pump. The sodium metabolism of V. cholerae plays an important role in the adaptation of these bacteria to different conditions.

Nicole Schapiro

Biology, Biomedical Engineering

My current project in Dr. Plopper's lab focuses on mechanisms of osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells, namely on the role of FAK in this pathway. I used a retrovirus to introduce a mutated copy of the FAK gene and tested clones of the packaging cell line for efficiency in virus production. We are now working on showing the differences between wild type cells and cells with mutant FAK.

Kwanha Yu

Bioinformatics/Molecular Biology

I'm currently engineering plasmids that when expressed under the lag-2 promotor will express a fusion protein of green or red fluorescent protein with actin-1 or beta-tubulin, respectively. These plasmids will be used for biolistic transformation where they will be bombarded into germ lines of C. elegans in the hope of low copy numbers. When fully integrated, they will allow for the viewing of the migration of distal tip cells, through the respective cytoskeletons, in the hopes of better understanding gonadogenesis in C. elegans.