Julius Adebayo and Dr. Sean Warnick, Department of Computer Science Networks of controlled dynamical systems exhibit a variety of interconnection patterns that can be interpreted as the structure of a system. One such interpretation of system structure is a system’s signal structure, characterized as the open-loop causal dependencies among manifest variables and represented by its dynamical structure function […]
Search Results for: disease
Developing an Instrument to Assess Immunization Requirements Among Utah Health Care Workers in the Outpatient Setting
Nathan Wiley and Dr. Beth Luthy, College of Nursing The health care environment is ideal for the spread of immunization-preventable and communicable diseases (Goldstein, Kincade, Gamble, & Bearman, 2004). Communicable diseases, such as pertussis, are highly contagious and easily transmitted by health care workers (HCWs) to at-risk patients (CDC, 1997; Sandora, Gidengil, & Lee, 2008). […]
Adults with Type 1 Diabetes; Lifetime perspectives
Laura Boone and Dr. Donna Freeborn, College of Nursing The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the stressors experienced throughout childhood and adolescence of adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Identification of stressors can be a helpful tool in improving the child and family’s quality of life and current treatment methodologies. T1D is […]
Endocannabinoid Biosynthetic Enzymes in Hippocampal Interneurons
Ryan Williamson and Dr. Jeff Edwards, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology The hippocampus is a region of the brain that mediates learning and memory formation by changing the properties of synapses within its circuitry [2]. The plastic nature of these synapses allows the brain to alter how sensitive one neuron is to stimulation from […]
Rescuing the Collagen 2A1 Gene in Mouse Model to Alleviate Stickler Syndrome Symptoms
Jamie Twiggs and Dr. Robert Seegmiller, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology Stickler Syndrome is a severe disease with no cure that occurs in 1/7500 births resulting in extreme ocular, craniofacial, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular problems for those diagnosed. It is caused by mutations in the collagen genes, most often a premature stop codon in the […]
Search for Mitochondrial DNA Mutation in a Family With Myopathies and Lactic Acidosis
Mary Rennick and Dr. Brent Nielsen, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology Beginnings This research focused on the search for the probable mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation in one family affected with fibromyalgia and lactic acidosis. The hypothesis was that there is mixture of normal and mutated mtDNA, called heteroplasmy. I first obtained the four patients’ […]
Assessing the Effects of the IRF5 Exon 1B on Translation
Jared Lambert and Dr. Brian Poole, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology With our lab’s previous finding revealing a hairpin folding structure in exon 1B (IRF5 risk allele), not found in the other first exons, this project was focused towards more fully understanding the role of IRF5 exon 1B’s hairpin structure and its effect on […]
Detection of Genetic Variants Affecting MMP Protein Expression: A genome-wide association study approach
Krista Klingler and Dr. John Kauwe, Department of Biology Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting over 35 million people worldwide. However, the pathology of the disease is not fully understood. Because of this, no cure for the disease currently exists, and once a patient has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, death […]
Rho Kinase Pathway Inhibition and Its Effect on Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Jacob Hoj and Dr. Marc Hansen, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology The Rho Kinase Pathway is a cellular pathway that is thought to be involved in cancer metastasis, as previous research has indicated1. As indicated by the name, the Rho group of proteins are central to this pathway. Over the past year, we set […]
Identifying Proteins that Interact with Human PAS kinase
Tacie Hall and Dr. Julianne Grose, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology When PAS kinase is knocked out in mice placed on high-fat diets, these mice show such symptoms as decreased weight gain, hypermetabolic phenotype, decreased liver triglyceride accumulation, and retained insulin sensitivity when compared with their wild type littermates.1 These symptoms are highly associated […]