Scholars Week 2014

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Browsing Scholars Week 2014 by Department "Biology"
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    Drug Discovery: Primary screening of Traditional Chinese Medicines for anti-cancer activity using high-throughput screening
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2014-2-25) Ridings, Amy ; Altman, Elliot ; Gao, Iris ; Biology
    Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been practiced in Asia for over two thousand years, however it has been mostly overlooked in drug discovery studies. Cancer is one the deadliest and most complicated diseases on the planet. Effective treatment usually involves highly toxic chemotherapies that reduce the patient s quality of life, and many cancers can develop resistance to currently available therapies. New drugs that eliminate these challenges are a must in order to treat cancer effectively. A handful of new drugs for cancer treatment such as Paclitaxel, Arsenic Trioxide and Camptothecin derivatives have come from the TCM vault, but there are thousands more remedies that have yet to be thoroughly studied as potential drugs for cancer treatment. The Tennessee Center for Botanical Medicine Research (TCBMR) has taken on the task of studying TCMs for their potential in the western drug market, and one of its goals is to find new drugs to fight cancer. One of the earliest steps in this process is primary screening, which involves in vitro testing of TCM extracts for cytotoxicity on lung and breast cancer cells and very low toxicity on healthy cells. Using a high-throughput screening technique and fluorescence indicator AlarmarBlue, the effectiveness of each extract sample can be characterized. High throughput screening will allow a large number of extracts and concentrations to be tested simultaneously. AlarmarBlue, which is initially blue in color will be converted to a highly fluorescent pink compound in the presence of viable cells. Completion of primary screening provides information needed for further study of promising extracts and advances them to the next step in the long process of drug discovery.
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    Incidence and Thermal Biology of an Invasive Cladoceran, Daphnia lumholtzi
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2014-2-25) Marcy-Quay, Jessica ; White, Jeffrey ; Pompilius, Melissa ; Fischer, Robert ; Fischer, Robert ; Biology
    Nearly every wetland and aquatic ecosystem in the U.S. is being impacted by non-indigenous species (NIS). Among these, the Southeast Atlantic-Gulf region has the greatest number of aquatic species introductions. In addition to documenting introductions and assessing their impacts, it is important to summarize the traits that characterize successful invaders. One NIS that is generating increasing interest is the subtropical zooplankton Daphnia lumholtzi, which has spread to aquatic systems throughout the US. Many studies have documented the success of D. lumholtzi in reservoirs and lakes, where high thermal tolerance allows it to exploit a vacant thermal niche. However, to date there has been limited characterization of its establishment in estuarine environments. The Alabama River delta offers a unique opportunity to investigate D. lumholtzi distribution compared to native species, as well as how thermal factors may affect its invasive potential in this ecosystem. We collected monthly zooplankton samples from 8 sites across the Alabama River delta system over a two-year period, which confirmed that D. lumholtzi has established a population in the estuary and is most often found during warmer summer months. We are currently conducting studies to determine how thermal factors affect its survival and life history characteristics in the estuary.
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    A preliminary analysis of GK-12 graduate fellow classroom interactions on secondary students perceptions of science
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2014-2-25) Lytle, Rachel ; Sadler, Kim ; Farone, Anthony ; Farone, Mary ; Rowell, Ginger ; Biology
    "The NSF GK-12 program at MTSU partners graduate students and high school teachers with biotechnology companies to promote STEM learning opportunities. Graduate Fellows spend one year in high school biology classrooms mentoring student research projects. The purpose of the study was to determine if introducing Graduate Fellows into high school science classrooms to engage with students during the year influences the students attitudes toward science. We hypothesize that implementing programs such as GK-12 may generate a positive perception of science and increase interest in pursuing a science career.