Drafts

Targeted drug delivery would be performed by creating 3 antibody binding domains for antigens CA125, KASH5, and HSF1 on a liposome. To test for the presence of these antigens in the HGSOC, we would perform an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for autoantibody (AAb) reactivity.  Autoantibodies for these three antigens will be present in the blood, so ELISA will would tell us if the antibodies for these particular antigens were present. To test for treatment progression, periodic ELISA assays will be performed.  If the autoantibody levels in the blood remain high, more treatment is needed.  A possible indication of cancer evolution and/or metastasis is if less than three autoantibodies remain high.  In this event, a new liposome with only the respective two monoclonal antibodies will need to be engineered.

Based upon the temperature and precipitation patterns I predict that biome 1 is a temperate shrubland/woodland biome. Temperate shrubland/woodland areas are distinct in that they have an obvious drought season in the summer months. The precipitation drops from about 110-130mm in the non-summer months to around 20mm from June-August. This is very similar to the temperate shrubland/woodland biosphere that we would encounter in Spain. Also, the temperature pattern of this biosphere closely resembles that of a typical temperate shrubland/woodland area. Temperature stays relatively consistent but sees a slight increase in the summer. This increase in temperature occurs at the same time that we see a drought season. This relationship between precipitation and temperature during the summer is characterized as an asynchrony which is a key component to temperate shrubland/woodland biomes. The average annual temperatures and precipitation counts are similar to those of Gerona Spain. This unknown biome has an average annual temperature of 13 degrees Celsius and a total annual precipitation of 1,024mm. Compared to the data of Gerona Spain which sees an average annual temperature of 16.7 degrees Celsius and a total annual precipitation of 747mm. The last observation that sticks out in regards to temperature or precipitation is the significant spike in precipitation during the month of October. Gerona Spain has a very similar spike during the same month.

S. Cerevisiaeis a unicellular, eukaryotic fungus and has the ability to grow aerobically or anaerobically in media. Cells divide through mitosis, resulting in two haploid daughter cells. Reproduction occurs between opposite genders, denoted as MATα or MATa. These two haploid cell types produce different pheromones necessary for mating which then allows the yeast to grow in a certain direction. During reproduction, cells fuse together, resulting in a diploid offspring. The cell remains in its diploid state until nitrogen starvation promotes sporulation. During sporulation, the four gametes produced are bound by a single membrane in a structure called an ascus and remain bound in this state till further environmental conditions improve. 

The budding yeast of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model organism, was chosen to analyze the effect of complementation within the adenine biosynthesis pathway. Four haploid  strains were mated together and grown on MV plates. The resulting phenotypes of these crosses were then analyzed. Utilizing the phenomenon of genetic complementation helped determine whether the mutation causing an adenine deficiency was caused by the same gene in haploid yeast strains or by different genes. The HB1 strain was determined to be an α-strain with a genotype of ade- ,while strains HA0, HA1 and HA2 were determined to all be a-strains with HA0 being ADE+ and HA1 and HA2 being ade-.

An observation notes a fact or occurrence using any of the five senses, whereas an inference explains or interprets the observation. For example, today in lab I picked up a bobcat skull and, while looking at its dentition, observed that it had carnassial teeth. This is just an observation because it involves simply noticing a characteristic of an object. Based on this observation it can be inferred that bobcats are carnivores, as only carnivores have a carnassial complex (although not all carnivores do). This inference explains the observation: carnassial teeth are present in this specific skull because the skull belongs to a carnivore.

All steps taken originated from the Biology Computer Resource Center, Room 311 in Morrill Science Center III South. I decided to study the relationship between tree roots and lichens. On emerging from the BCRC, I took a right turn to the end of the hallway, where I took another right turn onto a short hallway. I went straight ahead and on reaching the stairwell at the end of that hallway, I went down the  stairs to the second floor of the Morrill Science Center III. Right there on the second floor landing are a pair of glass doors, leading outside. I pushed the glass doors apart and came out onto a narrow tarred road. Across from me, the first maple tree on the lawn between the road and the back of the University club building had the sections of the bark close to the roots covered in green lichens. From where I stood, I took a picture to capture the whole tree using my iPhone 6 Plus camera. To get a better picture of just the lichens, I went closer to the tree, squat and took a picture. And to have something for comparison, I took a picture of a section of the tree trunk not covered in lichens. I uploaded the images to Inkscape, an open and free-source vector graphic editor, and set the pictures into three panels. I depicted the picture with a better view of the lichens as a magnification of the tree roots.

Fish exhibit many different ways of breathing through their gills. One of these ways is called pumping ventilation. Through ventilation the organism remains still but actively moves the gills continuously in order to pass water through. Other fish will move around constantly to pass water through their gills but won’t actually move their gills. This is called Ram ventilation and is seen in sharks and tuna. Squid and octopus ventilate their gills by taking water into their mantle cavities. By ejecting water though siphons they provide their gills with oxygen and propel themselves for locomotion at the same time. Overall fish gills allow for high oxygenation levels. Water leaving the gills loses 80-90% of initial oxygen content in fish. Mammals remove only 25% of oxygen present in lung air and crabs enable only 7-23%. Gills have filaments lined with lamella that help with respiration. However, when taken out of water these lamella stick together and prohibit the organism from respiring.

It is often assumed that oxygen consumption or metabolic rate occurs independently of the amount of oxygen available. However, this is not always the case. Invertebrates will sometimes increase their oxygen consumption as a function of different oxygen amounts. For some animals oxygen consumption is positively and linearly related to oxygen levels when levels are low. However, oxygen consumption obtains a plateau once levels reach a certain amount. Speckled trout are able to acclimate to low oxygen levels when maintained in low oxygen rich water. This proves that fish are able to extract oxygen from water better than most other organisms. Anaerobic metabolism is oxygen consumption without oxygen. Some organisms like internal parasites and bivalves survive only by anaerobic metabolism. Anaerobic metabolism is often associated with burst locomotion.

ONC201 also demonstrates synergistic effects with other cancer therapeutics to induce apoptosis in various types of cancers. In a study of glioblastoma, ONC201 synergized with ABT263 (Navitoclax), a small molecule inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein family and BH3-mimetic, to induce apoptosis. Reduction of tumors were observed in vivo without any adverse side effects or toxicity (Karpel-Massler et al. 2015). In another study involving pancreatic adenocarcinoma, ONC201 activated both extrinsic (TRAIL-caspase-8-dependent) and intrinsic (caspase-9-dependent) apoptosis pathways while synergizing with gemcitabine, a common chemotherapy for this cancer, to inhibit Panc-1 xenograft growth in mice (Zhang et al. 2016). This combination therapy also increased the mice’s survivability.

The idea of engineering a liposome with three monoclonal antibodies attached one liposome presents a daunting challenge.  Additionally, the binding affinity between each monoclonal antibody to its antigen must be considered carefully. It is important that the interaction between each antibody and antigen is relatively weak.  If one is too strong, the liposome will bind and inject its contents to healthy cells that merely express the antigen in normal levels, leading to cell death.