PMAT is a cation transporter that primarily takes up serotonin and dopamine. Our hypothesis was that mice with reduced or no functional levels of PMAT would have enhanced D-amphetamine sensitization in comparison to wildtypes. Over the course of 5 injection days of D-amphetamine, locomotion in males and females was recorded. Sensitization was calculated relative to locomotor activity on the first injection day. In female mice, those with lower functional PMAT displayed less sensitization to D-amphetamine than their wildtype counterparts. In males, those with reduced functional PMAT showed greater sensitization to
D-amphetamine in comparison to same-sex knockouts. Our findings indicate PMAT may contribute to the dopamine efflux caused by D-amphetamine.

Microglia are the innate immune cells of the central nervous system. They also act as the primary phagocytes of the brain, clearing pathogenic material to ensure brain health and homeostasis. Microglia exhibit a variety of morphological states. These states are related to the activation and the functionality of microglia. Our focus uses beta-amyloid peptides to better understand the role of morphology in Alzheimer's disease. This research poses to demonstrate the capabilities of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assist in making a distinct and measurable analysis of microglia characteristics in variable inflammatory conditions. The measurable alterations of microglia will assist in both our understanding of microglia’s morphological response in neurodegeneration as well as constructing therapeutics that could assist in the recovery of microglia homeostasis.

Automated control systems can be designed for oxygen therapy to adjust the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) to meet the percentage of total hemoglobin bonded with oxygen (SaO2). The goal of this summer research was to establish a computer model of neonatal oxygen transport systems to be later used as a patient model in the development of automated oxygenation control systems. The model was previously reported in the literature and was reproduced in this work in Simulink, a graphical programming environment in MATLAB. The simulated model consisted of a respiratory sub-model and a cardiovascular submodel linked together using an oxygen dissociation curve, a nonlinear curve relating the oxygen measurement in the arterial blood with SaO2. Simulation results were in agreement with those reported in the literature.

Purpose:  To determine survey reliability on the presence and impact of menstrual symptoms within collegiate athletes. Methods: Athletes completed an electronic VAS anchored with “not at all” / “often” regarding presence and “not at all” / “severely impacted” regarding the impact of menstrual symptoms twice in one day. Data were analyzed using two-tailed dependent samples ttests and ICC3,1. Results: There was a correlation
without a difference between surveys in the presence of mood swings, loneliness, headaches, backaches, and bloating. There was a correlation without a difference between surveys in the effect of cramps, breast pain, and bloating on training. Surveys differed in how often athletes felt anxious and restless, and the effect of anxiety and backaches on training. Conclusion:  Results suggest that some survey items are reliable.

With the growing obesity epidemic, we investigate mechanisms to increase caloric expenditure in mice by including muscle thermogenesis. Muscle thermogenesis can be acutely induced by predator odor; however, other stimuli may more potently activate thermogenesis. We investigated the potential multimodal activation of muscle thermogenesis in mice, hypothesizing that a greater thermogenic activation will be seen when exposed to the multimodal stimulus. After habituation to experimental conditions, mice were presented with three stimuli in randomized order: control, ferret odor, and the multimodal stimuli. We observed a trend toward a similar effect with the multimodal predator and rat odor toward muscle thermogenesis. Later studies explored different predator odors individually. Cat fur showed no significant enhancement of response, though rat odor may show significance with additional statistical power.

Ribosomal RNA modification enzyme, Ribosomal small subunit methyltransferase C (RsmC) plays a dual role of methylating the exocyclic amine of G1207 of 16S ribosomal RNA and functioning as an RNA chaperone. RsmC carries Methyltransferase active C-terminal domain and catalytically inert N-terminal domain. This project is focused on identifying the importance of the N-terminal domain and its role in the RNA chaperone activity. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to delete the C-terminal domain. Mutant proteins were purified
using affinity chromatography. Mutant protein was found to have a lower affinity to both strands of helix 34 that carries G1207. Similarly, the RsmC deletion mutant influenced the annealing of helix 34 strands. These observations reveal the molecular mechanism of RNA chaperone activity of RsmC and its role in ribosome biogenesis.

HUWE₁ is a HECT-domain ubiquitin E3 ligase that plays numerous roles in cellular processes by promoting degradation of its substrates. Although it has been discovered that mutations in HUWE₁ can lead to countless cancers or human diseases, given a number of the substrates with various cellular functions, the in vivo role of HUWE₁ remains elusive. Importantly, conventional HUWE₁ gene knockout (KO) leads to embryonic lethality, which makes it difficult to analyze the role of HUWE₁ in different tissues and organs. Here, we created whole body inducible HUWE₁ knockout mice, in which HUWE₁ was acutely deleted in 4-week-old mice. We show that inducible HUWE₁ KO did not result in lethality, and we will discuss the phenotypes of the KO mice.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a widespread neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor and non-motor deficits. Physical activity (PA) has been shown to improve sleep in healthy populations. However, individuals with PD generally show low levels of activity. The purpose of this study was to analyze survey-based outcomes in the Fox Den survey database for associations between sleep and physical activity variables in PD and individuals without PD. Data analysis & hypothesis testing was done using R and python statistical analysis software. There was a significant difference between sleep disturbance levels amongst PD vs nPD. Additionally, the days and hours of PA per week were higher in nPD than PD. Individuals with PD showed greater incidence of sleep disturbance and less physical activity than persons without PD.

Multiple Sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease is caused by the degradation of oligodendrocytes in the Central Nervous System (CNS) which results in the degradation of the neuronal myelin sheath. This study is about an in vitro model regarding myelination, demyelination, and remyelination of myelin-producing oligodendrocytes. PMA, a cell differentiating agent is administered to study various levels of myelination. Lysolecithin, a cell membrane integrating phospholipid, is used to study demyelination. The delivery of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) using nanoparticles is used for the study of remyelination. The different levels of myelin production are verified through analysis of myelin-associated mRNA, proteins lipids via qRTPCR, Western Blots, and TLC and GC/MS. The increase in myelin suggests that the remyelination therapy model was successful.

The goal of my research is to identify therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD). I have hypothesized that enhancing one carbon metabolism with the methyl donor betaine will improve mitochondria in a mouse model of AD by decreasing the levels or activity of DRP₋₁. This protein causes excess fission of mitochondria in AD which generates smaller mitochondria that are unable to make enough energy. I am testing my hypothesis by administering betaine (1%) in drinking water to 1-month and 3-month (n=3) AD mice and measuring the effects on DRP₋₁ and mitochondrial size.