STUDENT RESEARCH SHOWCASE 2020 PRESENTATIONS

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

 

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Finding the Molecular Pathway of the Twist1 Transcription Factor and its Mutants on the Regulation of Osteoblast Differentiation and Cancer Metastasis
Aishwarya Ayyanathan, American Heritage School Boca Delray

This research explores the role of the Twist1 transcription factor in early development and cancer metastasis. This is an important study as the knowledge acquired from it can be directly applied to creating therapeutics for cancer and developmental disorders.

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Combating Bacterial Biofilm: A Novel Nontoxic Approach to Stilting the Growth and Facilitating Antibiotic Penetration of Pseudomonas fluorescens Biofilm with Adjuvant Antioxidants
Shriya Bhat, Plano ISD

My project aims to overcome the limitations of current anti-biofilm strategies using antioxidants as adjuvants to eradicate and inhibit bacterial biofilm. I tested six different antioxidants at four different concentrations to determine their efficacy in eradicating bacterial biofilm and inhibiting biofilm formation. Results showed that antioxidants were effective in eradicating and inhibiting bacterial biofilm, and the application of antioxidants as adjuvants to antibiotics has the potential to reduce the morbidity and mortality from chronic bacterial biofilm-related microbial infections.

 

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Mitochondrial Small Noncoding RNAs -- It's Personal
Tess Cherlin, Thomas Jefferson University

There are thousands of small RNAs  in our cells that are made from both the nuclear and mitochondrial genome. These RNAs play a variety of roles and are important for normal cell function.  By analyzing the RNA from hundreds of people around the world, we found that small RNA fragments produced from the 12S and 16S mitochondrial RNAs depend on genetic ancestry.

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Effects of Different Interleukins combined with K-12 E. Coli on the CaCo2 Cell Line
Christian Custodio, American Heritage School Plantation

The researcher tests various immune responses and the effects they have alongside E. Coli.

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Evolutionary Analysis of non-ATG Start Codons in Bacteria
Anne Gvozdjak, Bellevue High School

Our project analyzes all available, sequenced bacterial genomes to understand the distribution of their start codons at a broader level. We then use phylogenetic patterns to identify genes that demonstrate greater tendencies to use non-standard start codons, and draw connections between these genes’ start codons to their properties.

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Improving the Catalytic Efficiency in CRISPR-Cas9
Katherine Heatzig, Pine Crest School

Using the gRNA sequence to improve the catalytic efficiency in CRISPR by performing directed evolution.

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Genetic Variants for Alzheimer's Disease
Marlie Kahan, Pine Crest School

This presentation focuses on the steps and conclusions from a systematic literature review aiming to understand the genetic components of Alzheimer's Disease in order to calculate a polygenic risk score.

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ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF TINEA PEDIS CAUSING DERMATHOPHYTES FROM COLLEGIATE RUNNERS.
Liga Astra Kalnina, St. John Fisher College 

Tinea pedis, also known as athlete’s foot, is a very common superficial cutaneous fungal infection in humans caused by several dermatophytes, especially Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and Epidermophyton floccosum. All forms of tinea pedis are pathogenic and are selective symbionts to the soles and toe webs of feet. Within the three forms of tinea pedis there is a varying degree of presentation on the host, from mild scaling and fissures, to vesicles and bullae, or being asymptomatic. Various risk factors contribute to the likelihood of one contracting tinea pedis, especially several factors unique to competitive runners. This includes the use of occlusive footwear, common locker rooms, and submission of feet to constant maceration, trauma, sweating, and having a depressed immune function. Research has shown that runners in particular are twice as susceptible when compared to the general population to have tinea pedis, and the infection is known to infect up to 70% of people worldwide at least once in their lifetime. Tinea pedis manifestation can become very resistant to treatment or even lead to secondary complications such as cellulitis and onychomycosis and severely impact the performance of runners and athletes alike. The dermatophytes found on collegiate runners were collected, isolated, and morphologically characterized as well as sequenced to confirm molecular identification.

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Novel Strategy and Computational Tool for Phage Therapy: A Method to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Infections
Emily Kang, Canyon Crest Academy

Antibiotic resistance has led to bacterial strains that are untreatable with common antibiotics. This research develops a treatment method using bacteriophage, viruses that only target bacteria, to eradicate an infection while minimizing the potential for resistance. Additionally, the study develops a computational model that can be used to optimize designing the course of treatment.

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Silencing the DENND1A Gene with Drug Treatment and RNAi to Activate Follicle Rupture in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Drosophila melanogaster
Ania Kelegama, American Heritage School Plantation

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is the most common endocrinopathy among women worldwide. This prompted me to create  a project that questioned the  development of PCOS models and the pathways of the disease. Therefore, I developed an  experiment that  took advantage of a cheap and highly accessible, invertebrate, Drosophila melanogaster.

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Isolation of Myosin from Mammalian Blood Platelets
Blake Kravitz, Pine Crest School

I isolated the myosin protein from pig, rabbit, bovine and human blood platelets, with the intention of determining if any of the mammalian platelets could be used in place of typically-used human blood platelets for research involving the inhibition of myosin and more generally, substance use disorder therapeutic research.

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Engineering  a  Physiomimetic  Glomerulus-on-Chip to Model  Diabetic  Kidney  Disease
Raj Kumar, Pine Crest School

I conducted research using organ-on-chip technology. Organ-on-chips are microfluidic devices that recapitulate organ-level-function. I worked on a glomerulus-on-chip to tackle the problem of Diabetic Kidney Disease, which results in flawed kidney filtration.

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Effect of AML-175 and Osmotic Stress on the Fitness of Caenorhabditis Elegans
Deeksha Kumaresh, American Heritage School Boca Delray

The purpose of this experiment was to test the effect of AML-175 and osmotic stress onthe fitness of Caenorhabditis Elegans. The hypothesis was that if osmotic stress was applied to both the wild type and calcium-insensitive strain, then the wild type would respond better because calcium acts as a ligand when maintaining homeostasis. In the experiment, both strains were tested in the different levels of osmotic stress to test reproduction rates, and worms from both the strains were also separately placed in a hyper-tonic environment to record percent decrease in volume.

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Evaluating the Effectiveness of SEMAR (Single Energy Metal Artifact Reducer) in CT Scans for Prostate Cancer Patients with Hip Replacement
Maya Neeranjun, American Heritage School Plantation

This project was done to figure out if SEMAR, Single Energy Metal Artifact Reducer, helps physicist give a better visualization of the prostate cancer for patients with high replacement. It was also done in hopes for patients to get the optimum plan for their treatment.

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Novel Small Peptides M3 and LP17 Successfully Inhibit eCIRP-induced Inflammation, Introducing Clinical Avenue for Sepsis Mediation
Benjamin Nicastro, Bronx High School of Science

This project introduces a biochemical means of controlling and inhibiting the body’s deleterious inflammatory response to infection and trauma, a process known as sepsis. Two small peptides, known as M3 and LP17, have been shown to substantially reduce sepsis, specifically through the inhibition of the largest contributor to sepsis, receptor TREM-1 and its ligand eCIRP.

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The Effect of Galla Chinensis on the Biofilm Formation of Gram-negative vs. Gram-positive Bacteria
Angelina Ning, American Heritage School Boca Delray

In this study, I investigated whether the Gram-type of biofilm would impact the extent to which the herbal treatment Galla chinensis could inhibit biofilm growth.

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C. elegans Electroshock Behavior Modulation
Naven Parthasarathy, American Heritage School Boca Delray

Behavior modulation in model organism Caenorhabditis elegans through use of electroconvulsive shock induced seizure assay and antiepileptic drugs.

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Effects on the Growth of Thioflavin T in the Cerebral Cortex and the Basal Ganglia When Undergoing Corticobasal Neurodegeneration
Amay Patel, American Heritage School Boca Delray

This project was about experimenting different concentrations of two phenolic acids on Thioflavin T in the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia when undergoing corticobasal neurodegeneration.

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Transfection by Cell-Penetrating Peptide Penetratin-Arg of MCF7 Breast Adenocarcinoma to Display Preprocalcitonin-presenting TAP1 Antigen
Briya Patel, American Heritage School Plantation

The presentation will explore the procedures, results, and conclusions of my research, and the reasoning behind the steps I took and choosing this particular topic.

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Rbm24 Function in Early Eye and Lens Development
Shaili Patel, University of Delaware

The eye is a specialized organ that enables the sense of vision. It is made of distinct tissue components and cell types that function to refract and focus light and convert its photon-based information into signals that are interpreted by the brain as vision. When eye development is faulty, it causes birth defects such as anophthalmia (absence of eye), microphthalmia (abnormally small eye) or cataract (unclear lens). We developed a bioinformatics-based tool called iSyTE and used it to predict that a new RNA-binding protein, Rbm24 (RNA-Binding Motif Protein 24), is involved with eye development. Indeed, we find that mice deficient for Rbm24 exhibit anophthalmia and/or microphthalmia. Additionally, initial analysis in frog shows similar eye defects during development, hence showing the conservation among different vertebrates. Therefore, the goal of my research is to uncover a new pathological mechanism underlying these eye defects in early eye and lens development in mouse and frog.

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The Effects of Electrical Frequency on Frozen A375 Melanoma Cells
William Rhodes, American Heritage School Boca Delray

This experiment sought to answer whether or not there exists a non-invasive alternative to mohs procedure. Mohs procedure is a medical procedure wherein regions of cancerous epidermis are removed until the risk of cancer in the epidermal region is minimized. This procedure is effective in reducing cell vitality, but it is less than optimal because it leaves significant damage on the regions where it is applied. It is also costly to perform biopsies every time regions of the epidermis are removed, which can be 5-6 times per patient. Overall, this experiment sought to reduce the invasiveness and cost of skin cancer treatment by introducing an apparatus that would substantially reduce residual melanocyte vitality after being frozen. This was done by applying electrical frequency via a  frequency generator on malignant A375 melanoma cells in a CaCO3 solution after being frozen.  The experiment was successful with a trend that showed the procedure would eventually cripple cell vitality in a given area. Through statistical analysis, it was found that after 19 minutes of treatment, cell vitality would approach zero (although it is unlikely that cell vitality in a given area would ever reach zero, the risk of melanoma is minimized). The trials were standardized, and all of the trials were conducted at exactly 21.1MHz, 5V, and a -2.5V offset with an initial cell count of 2515 cells/cm3. Finally, there was statistically significant evidence to reject the hypothesis that electrical frequency would not kill residual cells after being frozen.

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The Effect of Genetic Modification using Chromogenic Proteins on the Growth of Escherichia Coli
Areesh Sobhani, American Heritage School Boca Delray

The purpose of this investigation was to test how modification of bacteria using chromogenic bacteria affects growth. My hypothesis was that the modified bacteria would grow more as the bacteria is all the same and the modification shouldn’t adversely affect it. The procedure consisted of preparing the agar plates, some with ampicillin and others with IPTG, making the cells chemically competent so they could be modified, and using the chromogenic proteins to modify the bacteria, (using heat shock and other methods in both of these processes) and letting them incubate, and recording the results using Red-Green-Blue (RGB) percentages. The results showed that after 19 hours of incubation, the modified bacteria seemed to grow more, but after a total of 34 hours, the bacteria that was unmodified ended growing more. The hypothesis ended up not being supported, and this can be applied to real life through E. Coli’s connection to other living organisms and what different effects mean for different fields.

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Investigating the Effects of Simarouba Glauca on Reducing Cell Inflammation and Regulating the Tumor Necrosis Factor-ɑ Pathway in Colorectal Cells
Anjali Vadlamudi, American Heritage School Boca Delray

The purpose of this project was to find an alternative treatment to ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease, by focusing on the TNF- alpha pathway. I investigated the effect of different concentrations of the simarouba glauca plant leaf decoctions on the apoptosis rate of colon cancer cells that had the same TNF-alpha pathway that is being regulated by current ulcerative colitis treatments.

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BRAF and KRAS Hotspot Analysis of TSA and TA Precursor Lesions in FAP  Patients
Alexander Wilentz, Pine Crest School

This study investigated specific hotspot mutations in the KRAS and BRAF oncogenes in colorectal cancer precursor lesions TSA and TA in FAP patients.

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Using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) to Correct the Huntington’s Gene Mutation (Htt) in C. elegans with the Disease
Gracey Wyles, Archer School for Girls

My presentation gives a detailed account of my project and procedures. It offers specificity on key concepts and explains techniques used. Additionally, it explain the significance and novelty of my research.

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Computational Analysis of the Fruit Fly Nuclear Receptor E75B Reveals a Conservation of the HODE Binding Function with Human PPAR-γ
Erin Yang, Bronx High School of Science

The eicosanoid pathway is a vital pathway for many bodily functions in mammals and for a long time, it was thought to not exist in many model organisms like flies. Model organisms are used to make studying complicated systems easier so it is important to study the similarities between the eicosanoid pathway in flies and humans. In my project, I analyzed if E75, a protein in the eicosanoid pathway of flies, binds to the same ligands as PPAR-gamma, a protein in the eicosanoid pathway of mammals like humans. The protein sequence of the ZnF_C4 domain of the E75 protein was identified in BLAST. Models were found using ProSA-web and Verify3D and the final model was selected by Modfold. Ten possible docking scenarios for the binding of HODE and ODE were found by PatchDock and Pymol was used to examine them. Ligplot was then used to find the most viable models through the analysis of the chemical bonds. It can be seen that E75 also binds to HODEs and ODEs showing that PPAR-gamma in the eicosanoid biosynthesis pathway in mammals and insects are similar and serve the same function.

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