Maeling Tapp - Advisor, Valeria Milam, PhD

"Exploring the Effects of Incubating Gold Nanoparticle Seeds with Nucleotides and Oligonucleotides"

Aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotide sequences that exhibit high affinity and specificity binding for non-nucleotide targets. The nature of aptamer-target interactions, whether base sequence-specific or structure-specific, are not well-understood. Here, we examine the effect of incubating gold nanoparticle seeds for 7 days with nucleotides, single-stranded DNA or double-stranded DNA sequences.

Aubrey Tiernan - Advisor, Anthanassios Sambanis, PhD

"Development of a Pancreatic Substitute Based on Genetically Engineered Intestinal Endocrine Cells"

A tissue engineered pancreatic substitute constitutes a promising cell-based insulin therapy to achieve tight glycemic regulation in diabetes patients. The objective of this study is to generate a recombinant system of bioluminescent and insulin-secreting intestinal L-cells to directly monitor graft survival and successfully treat diabetic mice.