Journal of Undergraduate Research

David Schlesinger and Dr. Alan R. Harker, Microbiology Trichloroethylene (better known as TCE) has been used for decades as a solvent for fats, waxes, oils, paints, varnishes, and rubber. This characteristic of TCE has made it useful in industry for cleaning and degreasing; hence, its wide use at airports, and military installations. Along with these […]

Christopher M. Runyan and Dr. Ronald Leavitt, Microbiology Introduction Colibacillosis is a disease found in poultry that results in various levels of morbidity and mortality. It is primarily caused by pathogenic strains of E. coli that inhabit the poults’ intestinal tracts. Antibiotics have frequently been used to protect the turkeys but with less and less […]

Friederike Roloff and Dr. Ron W. Leavitt, Microbiology Introduction Bordetella avium causes a respiratory disease in poultry which especially young turkeys are susceptible to. We are working with the Moroni Feed Company, who supplied us with 12 strains of Bordetella avium. Eleven of the strains are from outbreaks of the disease in the Southern Utah […]

Marcus C. Neuffer and Dr. Byron K. Murray, Microbiology Recent studies have suggested that vitamins and vitamin derivatives can enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs (2,3). In this study the combination of 13-cis-Retinoic Acid (RA), a Vitamin A derivative, and Vitamin E Succinate (VES) are used with the chemotherapeutic agent 5-Fluorouracil (5FU). Previous studies have […]

Jason Meyer and Dr. Gregory Burton, Microbiology The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV-infected patients can result in the reduction of plasma viral RNA levels to nearly undetectable levels. However, the existence of replication competent virus from chronically infected CD4+ T cells despite apparently successful HAART treatment suggests the existence of protective […]

Chad C. Lowe and Dr. William R. McCleary, Microbiology Within the cellular environment, the processing of essential nutrients required for cellular growth and metabolism are tightly regulated. When these essential nutrients become limited in the cells surroundings, cellular stress responses are induced. This enables the cell to maintain life in less than ideal environmental conditions. […]

Michael Fuller and Dr. Gregory Burton, Microbiology Over the last semester, I have been engaged in studying the ability of macrophages to pick up HIV from follicular dendritic cells (FDC) in the follicles of the lymph nodes. Research by Dr. Gregory F. Burton of Brigham Young University has shown that HIV virions held on the […]

Brian J. Beames and Dr. William R. McCleary, Microbiology Introduction Two component systems are an integral part of a bacterial cell. They consist of a histidine kinase and a response regulator. The histidine kinase is a receptor protein that signals from the outside of the cell to the inside. Once a ligand binds to the […]

Sam Augustine and Dr. Alan Harker, Microbiology Ecology is the study of the interactions of living organisms with each other and their environment. In microbiology there has been relatively little done in this field compared to the macro-biological world. In traditional macro-scale ecology an environment is clearly delineated by physical boundaries, access to resources and […]

Lauren Zagieboylo and Dr. Eric Wilson, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Main Text B-1 B cells are an understudied type of white blood cell that provide T cell-independent antibody production, allowing them to play an important role in the early immune response to many bacterial and viral pathogens. They are especially important for defense in mucosal […]