1

Welcome!
On behalf of this years Steering Committee and the Center for Civic Leadership, I am pleased to present the abstract booklet for the 2015 Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS). Now in its fourteenth year, RURS
is the premiere event for undergraduates across all disciplines to present their research projects and compete for
recognition from academic schools and research centers at Rice. This event would not be possible without the
efforts of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from Rice and the Houston community who have
graciously volunteered their time to evaluate the student presentations.
We are pleased that the Deans of the academic schools are generously sponsoring prizes to recognize exceptional
merit and achievement in disciplinary research and presentation. Additionally, we are excited to offer a broad
range of special awards for outstanding projects related to the mission of the following Rice research centers:

Baker Institute for Public Policy

The Baylor College of Medicine EMS Collaborative Research Group
Center for Civic Leadership
Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences
Chao Center for Asian Studies
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Humanities Research Center
The Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology
Rice 360: Institute for Global Health Technologies
Rice Neuroscience
Rice Space Institute
Shell Center for Sustainability
Smalley Institute for Nanotechnology

We wish to thank the following individuals for their support of the event: Associate Provost Matt Taylor, Dean
John Hutchinson, Dean Peter Rossky, Dean Lyn Ragsdale, Dean Nick Shumway, Dean Ned Thomas, Dr. David
Alexander, Dr. Fars el-Dahdah, Dr. Sonia Ryang, Dr. Dominic Boyer, Dr. Mark Escott, Dr. Rafael Salaberry,
Dr. Allen Matusow, Dr. Richard Johnson, Dr. David Dickman, Dr. Gerald Rubin, Dr. Naomi Halas, Dr. Rebecca
Richards-Kortum, Dr. Jan Odegard, and Dr. Caroline Quenemoen. As RURS is a student-organized event in conjunction with the Center for Civic Leadership, we would like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Vann, Mr. Michael Domeracki, and Ms. Magdalina Rucinski for their guidance and support.
With best regards,
Samantha Chapa
Chair, RURS 2015 Steering Committee
Steering Committee Members: Tony Li-Geng and Anveet Janwadkar

Letter from the Founder

RURS was founded in 2002 by Jenessa Shapiro, then a senior psychology major at Rice University. Dr. Shapiro is
now an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California Los Angeles. Her research focuses on intergroup interaction and social stigma. Below is a message from Dr. Shapiro.
As an undergraduate I was always so impressed by my peers research projects. It was so impressive and exciting
to hear about the cutting edge, important projects to which they were contributing. I couldnt believe that Rice
didnt have a forum for students to present their work to each otheran opportunity for our friends and professors to see what everyone was working on. And so RURS was born. There was some skepticismwould Rice students want to present their work? I remember looking at the submissions on the evening of the deadline, worried
that we would have a poor turnout. However, like most academic opportunities, students were waiting until the
last minute. I couldnt believe my eyes. With one hour left to submit, the submission numbers kept climbing. We
ended up with way more submissions than we expected! Rice students were absolutely excited to present their
work! The first RURS was such a fulfilling experience. We filled the room with students presenting projects that
ranged from music to engineering.
I am so impressed with how RURS has grown! We went from the Grand Hall in the Student Center to the Tudor
Field House. We went from a handful of awards to over 30 cash prizes. What has stayed the same, though, is the
quality of the projects being presented. Flipping through the abstracts is incredible. Nothing has changedRice
students are doing amazing things. And we all know this trend will continue each year that RURS takes place.

I am so grateful to Rice, the deans, and the other funders for supporting Rice undergraduate research and for
keeping RURS alive and thriving. I am also so flattered to learn that students will select the winner of the Shapiro
Award. To know that Rice students will be the driving force behind this award is such a great honor. Have a great
conference this year!

Sincerely,
Dr. Jenessa Shapiro

Schedule
Humanities Judging, Trauber Suite 4 p.m.
Poster Judging, Autry Court
4 p.m.
Dinner
6 p.m.
Awards 7 p.m.

Table of Contents
Natural Science
5
Engineering
Solo
28
Group
34
Social Sciences
36
Humanities 41

Natural Science
1: Treating Epithelial Cancers with Combination Therapies of
Rapamycin
Moez Dawood

Targeted therapies are designed to inhibit specific pathways driving the malignant phenotype while concurrently decreasing side
effects on normal cells. However, very frequently, inhibition of the
targeted pathway activates compensatory mechanisms designed
to bring the pathway back into equilibrium allowing for cancer
cell survival, a mechanism known as adaptive drug resistance. The
purpose of this project is to identify and abrogate the adaptive
drug resistance of epithelial cancers to rapamycin, an allosteric
inhibitor of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), and to
rapamycin analogs in the PI3K (phosphoinositide-3-kinase)
pathway, the most commonly dysregulated pathway in epithelial
cancers. Using 3D-cultures, rapamycin-induced morphology
changes and cell death were recorded. Changes in protein levels
due to rapamycin-induced adaptive signaling were detected using
reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA), verified by Western blotting, and analyzed to determine potential adaptive mechanisms.
Based on screening results from RPPA, rapamycin was combined
with rationally selected drugs designed to thwart adaptive drug
resistance to rapamycin. This co-extinction reinforced rapamycin
into an effective inducer of cell death, ultimately bypassing drug
resistance mechanisms and precluding the emergence of future
therapeutic resistance. Successful combinations will be forwarded
into animal studies to demonstrate in vivo efficacy for the treatment of epithelial cancers.

2: The Role of A-myb during Embryonic Chick Corneal Development

Catherine Wu
A-myb, a member of the myb gene family, is a transcription factor
that regulates cell differentiation and proliferation in specific
tissues during development. While its role in proliferation has
been studied in human testes and breast tissue, little is known
about its role during eye development. In the cornea of the chick
embryo, A-myb has a transient expression pattern from E6 to E12.
I hypothesize that A-myb plays a role in cell proliferation in the
cornea during embryonic chick development. To investigate this,
techniques like in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry
were used to compare cell proliferation in normal chick embryonic corneas with that of A-myb knockdown chick embryonic
corneas. Results show that A-myb knockdown corneas have thinner corneas and decreased cell proliferation compared to normal
corneas.

3: Effect of Light on Gold Nanoparticle Heat Emission in Arabidopsis

Joann Pan
Gold has a variety of biomedical uses, in part due to its inertness

and relatively low toxicity. Therefore, gold nanoparticles (GNPs)

can be used in organismal application (Alkilany et al., 2013). We
have identified a novel method to identify GNPs in situ in plants.
Laser light is applied to Arabidopsis leaf surfaces, and as a result
of the formation of vapor bubbles through absorption of heat
energy, acoustic signals can be detected at the sites where where
GNP localize. Using this system, we have found that Arabidopsis
can take up GNPs through the roots and transport particles up to
the leaves. To determine whether the GNP-dependent heat generation caused by light exposure can trigger cellular heat responses
in the plants, we generated a heat-responsive transgene producing an easily detectable reporter, the beta-glucuronidase enzyme
(GUS). The reporter gene was composed of the regulatory region
of the Hsp17.4 gene fused to the GUS transgene. The transgene
was introduced into plants using a flower dipping technique, and
25 transgenic Arabidopsis were selected by growth on hygromycin
B containing media. As a control, the Hsp17.4:GUS transgenics
were exposed to high temperature (37oC) for 4 hours; blue coloration was detectable throughout the leaves. When the transgenic
plants were exposed to GNP and treated with laser light, GUS
staining was apparent around the leaf vascular tissue, consistent
with the localization of GNPs. Therefore, our work demonstrates
the feasibility of using nanobubble detection to monitor localization of GNPs in plant tissue, provides evidence of uptake and
translocation of GNPs in plants, and demonstrates GNP-dependent heat generation in Arabidopsis leaves.

4: First Review of Functional Role: White-fronted Capuchins

(Cebus albifrons equatorialis) as Seed Dispersers at La Hesperia
Biological Station, Ecuador

Rebecca Maher
A significant proportion of neotropical woody plants produce
fruits that are dispersed by animals. With the expansion of
secondary forests and increasing defaunation, the functional
role of seed dispersers within an ecosystem must be considered
in conservation strategies. At La Hesperia Biological Station in
Pichincha, Ecuador, a small troop of the critically endangered
White-fronted capuchins (Cebus albifrons equatorialis) has
established pathways traveled daily through secondary forest and
agricultural fields. A study of their home range use and dietary
habits was conducted to evaluate their effectiveness as dispersers
for native and agricultural fruiting trees within the range. From
November to early December, the troop was observed for fruit
handling and movement trends. Dispersal syndromes of reportedly preferred fruits were reviewed through direct collection in the
field and literature research. Tree assemblages were determined
within the reserve in secondary and primary forests. Of the list of
preferred fruit trees, at least 8 genera are found within the occupied home range of 55 ha with an exponential shannon diversity
of 5.9. White-fronted capuchins were found to be most effective
at dispersing the seeds of trees with small fruit that grow well in

forest gaps. The presence of agricultural fruiting trees promotes

the use of predictable movements that may limit the successful
dispersal of native species. Conservation priorities should protect
primates of all sizes.

5: Investigating host-microbe interactions in Drosophila

Meera Namireddy
Several host-defense mechanisms are conserved from Drosophila
to humans, making them ideal organisms for studies of innate
immunity. Previous studies have indicated that innate immune
cells can be primed to react more vigorously after initial infection.
In Drosophila, the cellular innate immune response is carried
out by plasmatocyte phagocytosis of microbes. We are interested
in testing how plasmatocytes react to priming. We primed the
flies by injecting them with different doses of heat-killed E. coli.
We then injected live E. coli and performed colony-forming-unit
assay to assess the bacteria clearance efficiency. We have found
that the priming response is dose-dependent and displays a bellshape dependence, in which a moderate priming dose produces
the highest efficiency. However, the priming response declines at a
higher priming dose. Since phagocytosed bacteria are destined for
lysosomal degradation, we hypothesize that lysosome processes
are required for modulating the priming response.

6: Establishing the stiffness of different layers of the developing embryonic cornea

Rebecca Federman
There is an increased demand for keratoprosthesis due to a lack of
corneal donors. It is necessary to know the tissues biomechanical
properties in order to engineer a biomimetic corneal prosthetic.
We propose to measure the stiffness of the layers in a developing
embryonic cornea to determine the biomechanical properties in
this matrix during organogenesis. Since localized protein expression contributes to the properties of the corneal tissue, correlating
the stiffness of different corneal layers to expression of matrix
proteins could give insight on how proteins can influence these
properties during organogenesis. We are going to use three corneas each from the E6, E7, E8, E10, E12, E14, E16, and E18 phases
of development. We will will immunostain for perlecan to label
the corneal basement membranes. Using Atomic Force Microscopy, we will determine the relative stiffness of each layer of the
developing corneas and will localize dynamic stiffness in the tissue to varying protein expression of perlecan. We predict that that
the posterior Descemets membrane is the stiffest followed by the
endothelium and the anterior basement membrane. The stroma
will be the softest tissue layer during early stages of development,
but will increase in stiffness after corneal condensation at E16.

7: Effects of TiO2 Nanoparticles on the Lysosomal-Authophagy

System

Vinh Tran
Autophagy is a complex pathway that mediates degradation of
cytoplasmic materials in mammalian cells. Evidence suggests
that TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) affect the autophagy pathway, but
the mechanism and outcome are unknown. We hypothesize that
TiO2 NPs activate autophagy at the transcriptional level but also
impair lysosomal stability thereby blocking autophagic clearance.
I am testing this hypothesis by monitoring lysosomal stability in
cells treated with TiO2 NPs. Particularly, I am using HeLa cells

genetically modified to overexpress the transcription factor EB, a

master regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and function. Cells were
incubated with TiO2 NPs of 15, 50, or 100nm diameter. Cellular
uptake of the NPs was determined by flow cytometry and the
relationship between cellular uptake and NP concentration in the
media was established. Lysosomal stability was analyzed using
dye quenched-bovine serum albumin, a compound designed
to display fluorescence upon cleavage by lysosomal hydrolases.
Preliminary data suggest that the effect of TiO2 NPs on lysosomal
function is size and concentration dependent. Results from this
study will lead to a detailed understanding of the effects of TiO2
NPs on lysosome activity and the autophagy pathway.

8: Phylogenetic signal of optimal mating number in Bruchid

seed beetles

Marisol Palomares
Sexual conflict is conflict that arises between the sexes due to
differing optimal fitness strategies regarding sexual reproduction.
Sexual conflict occurs in seed beetles (Family Bruchidae) in which
males harm females during mating. However, also during copulation, male ejaculate has the benefit of providing nutrients to the
female, since as adults these beetles do not feed. Therefore multiple matings might be beneficial to the female, despite physical
harm. This study examines effects of mating frequency on female
fitness for several species of closely related seed beetles. Individual
females were mated from 0 up to 7 times and their total lifespan
(in days) and fecundity (total number of eggs laid over their lifespan) were measured to determine an optimal mating number for
each trait. Variation among species was compared using phylogenetic information to answer the question of whether the degree of
sexual conflict (as measured by optimal mating number) is more
similar for more closely related species than for more distantly
related species, suggesting that traits related to sexual conflict are
evolutionarily conserved.

9: MAPK/ERK signaling in the nervous system of a Drosophila

model of MLIV

Kelly Tomasevich
In mucolipidosis type IV (MLIV), lysosomes are unable to fuse
with the late endosome because of Transient Receptor Potential-Mucolipin (TRPML) dysfunction. TRPMLs are non-specific
cation channels that function predominantly in endosomal lysosomes. TRPMLs are responsible for the release of Ca2+ ions from
the late endosome and lysosome into the cytosol, which serves as
a signal to SNARE proteins to fuse the two vesicles. MLIV is characterized by severe cognitive deficits and motor deficits, which
primarily occur during development and deteriorate slightly
throughout a patients life. The purpose of this project will be to
determine whether MAPK signaling is diminished in Drosophila
model of MLIV. Ras signaling proteins are required in groups of
7-8 (nanodomains) to facilitate the uptake via endocytosis and
return of phosphatidylserine (PS) to the plasma membrane via the
lysosome. Because of TRPML dysfunction, PS becomes trapped
in the late endosome, which is unable to fuse with the lysosome
and return to the plasma membrane. By analyzing the expression
of ERK and phosphorylated-ERK (P-ERK) in both wild type and
MLIV mutant Drosophila, and confirming a lower expression of
P-ERK in the mutant genotype, we can confirm that the ERK/
MAPK pathway is inherently linked with MLIV.

10: Tracheal Analysis of lov Mutations

Radhika Mohan, Rami Dibbs

The Beckingham lab is using the Drosophila model to determine
the function of the jim lovell gene on fruit fly development. Based
on previous work using the Gal4-UAS system, our lab unexpectedly found that lov is expressed in the tracheae after knocking
the gene out with Gal4 lines like breathless. Recently, several new
mutations in lov have been discovered within the fly community, which can help us understand the role of lov further. For our
studies, we have focused on the GS15 and NP42 transposon insertion mutations. In studying larvae homozygous for GS15 or NP42,
we initially found that the mutants exhibited sluggish behavior,
impaired locomotion, and high death rates soon after hatching.
We then set out to determine whether these phenotypes correlated with tracheal defects. We examined the dorsal trunks, transverse connectives, and the filzkorper on the spiracles. Within all
categories, both GS15 and NP42 mutations produced similar and
pronounced morphological defects. These results provide more
concrete proof that lov is involved in tracheal development. We
now wish to see whether these tracheal abnormalities correlate
with sluggish locomotion. The GS15 and NP42 mutations were
too lethal to permit these studies so we are working to address
this question with different lov mutations : - lov47, lov PZ01, and
lov PZ10.

11: Environmental DNA (eDNA) detection of the endangered

Houston toad Bufo houstonensis

Preeya Bhavsar
Species detection can be critical to the long-term survival of
species. However, species detection is often difficult in many
environments at different life stages, and in general, for populations at low density. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a sensitive
and efficient, non-invasive sampling method that relies on DNA
obtained from water samples to detect species. We aimed to apply
the eDNA approach to detect the endangered Houston toad Bufo
houstonensis. Houston toad distributions are currently described
based on auditory surveys and field captures that are difficult,
time consuming, and costly. To test the efficacy of the eDNA approach for the Houston toad, we are using Houston toad specific
primers and universal amphibian primers to test 1) simulated field
eDNA water samples that have been spiked with Houston toad
eggs and egg connective tissue and 2) eDNA water samples taken
from controlled aquaria housing Houston toads. Concurrently,
we are developing species-specific primers for the Houston toad
that can be used as probes against other closely related amphibian
species that are found in the Houston toad habitat. The results of
this study will extend the current detection capabilities for known
Houston toad populations and assist in discovering novel populations of Houston toads.

12: Identification and characterization of PEST motifs in the

adeno-associated virus stereotype 2 viral proteins and assembly-activating protein

Byunguk Kang
PEST motifs are specific amino acid sequences known to be
common protein degradation tags involved in the ubiquitin degradation pathway. PEST motifs are rare among most proteins, as
they are found in only 10% of all mammalian proteins. However,
a majority of proteins with rapid turnover rates contain PEST

motifs. To date, there have been no documented reports of investigating potential PEST motifs within our viral vector of choice,
adeno-associated virus (AAV). A quick algorithm search revealed
that AAV stereotype 2 (AAV2)s cap gene (encoding capsid viral
proteins) contains at least two potential PEST motifs (VP PEST1
and 2). The assembly-activating protein (AAP), located in an
alternative ORF of the cap gene and essential for virus capsid assembly, also contains three potential PEST motifs (AAP2 PEST13). Our preliminary data suggest that ablating VP PEST1 led to a
significant decrease in transduction output compared to wild type
AAV2. Silverstaining of these mutants shows that there was no
apparent defect in capsid assembly. In order to identify and characterize PEST proteins function in VP and AAP, we will construct
various mutants with multiple mutations within VP PEST1 and
2, as well as AAP2 PEST1-3. Silverstain or Western blot will be
conducted to assess any capsid assembly defects. We will conduct
transduction assays, internalization assays, and heparin-binding
assays to characterize and investigate the PEST motifs role in the
infectious pathway of AAV2.

13: NK Cells in the Pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis

Lindsy Pang
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuro-inflammatory disease. MS is
also considered an autoimmune disease because it is caused by
ones own immune system attacking and deteriorating the myelin
sheath. The purpose of the sheath is to accelerate the speed of
neural conduction signals. Damage to the myelin sheath that
leads to a loss of neural function is a characteristic feature of MS.
Oligodendrocytes (OL) are the only glial cells of the central nervous system that produce myelin sheaths surrounding the axons.
Natural killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes of the innate immune
system that could be associated with MS. NK cell recruitment in
the brain and its bias against secreting IFN- have been previously associated with multiple sclerosis progression and remission,
respectively. Our research so far has shown that activated but not
resting NK cell can perform demyelinating activity against human
OLs but from HLA mismatched donors. Using MO3 cells that are
HLA negative, we then found that demyelinating activity of activated NK cells does not depend on HLA haplotype. Our current
research will test as to whether activated NK cells, not resting,
result in greater demyelinating activity regardless of the presence
or absence of HLA mismatch.

14: Dynamics of Gamma Oscillations in Absence Epilepsy

Katherine Yu
Childhood absence epilepsy is one of the most common types of
pediatric epilepsy. Some anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) are known
to paradoxically increase seizure activity, but the mechanism is
not known. Stargazer and tottering mice are mutant models of
absence epilepsy secondary to unique genetic mutations. The
effect of AEDs on various frequency bands was analyzed within
the electroencephalogram (EEG) for patterns that would predict
either seizure exacerbation or freedom. Mice were recorded at
baseline and after intraperitoneal injection of AEDs. Preliminary
data show a significant increase in the baseline absolute power
across the 13-60 Hz frequency band in stargazer mice compared
to both tottering and WT mice (p<0.05). Additionally, ethosuximide reduces seizure activity and causes a relative increase in
gamma-frequency power. CPP, an NMDA-receptor antagonist as-

sociated with seizure exacerbation only in stargazer mice, causes

a reduction in relative gamma power in stargazer mice, but an increase in relative gamma power in WT and tottering mice. Finally,
flupirtine, which enhances potassium channel activity, exacerbates
seizures and reduces relative gamma power in both mutants.
Therefore, changes in relative gamma power activity during the
interictal state may serve as biomarkers for AED efficacy.

15: Novel non-invasive skin sampling agent shows efficacy in

isolating DNA

Roger Liang
There is an urgent need for novel, economical technologies to
prevent skin cancer. These cancers are diagnosed 3.5 million
times and claim 20,000 lives per year in the U.S alone. Cutaneous
squamous cell carcinoma (cuSCC) is diagnosed 700,000 times
and kills up to 8,000 per year in the USA. As of now, skin cancer
prevention screening is based on clinical examination followed by
biopsies of already-existing preneoplastic lesions. The molecular
examination of at-risk but clinically normal tissue is not currently
performed to assessed for chemoprevention. Our project includes
using the novel, non-invasive epidermal sampling agent, DXB,
to sample and isolate DNA to identify key drivers of progression
from normal tissue to preneoplastic lesion to invasive cancer.
Our goal is two-fold; we want to (1) optimize DXB in nucleic acid
yield and reliability, and (2) use DXB to create a panel of biomarkers from a controlled in vivo experiment. Here, we demonstrate
progress in optimizing DXB to produce strong DNA yields.

16: Variation in performance by Belonocnema treatae gall

wasps across live oak genotypes

Leah Topper
We examined performance differences in a population of B. treatae gall wasps on four closely related but geographically distinct
populations of live oak (Q. fusiformis from central Texas, Q.
virginiana from Louisiana, Q. virginiana from central Florida, and
Q. geminata from central Florida). We placed three saplings from
each population under a heavily-infested, mature live oak in central Texas for two weeks in Spring 2014 during optimal B. treatae
adult emergence and oviposition. Then, we housed the saplings
in a mesh tent to exclude gall wasps, predators, and parasitoids.
After galls had fully developed, we recorded: (1.) average number
of galls per leaf, (2.) average gall diameter per tree, and (3.) percentage of galls per tree population reaching two size thresholds
related to survival - the tree threshold (2.62 mm) and the natural
enemy threshold (5.82 mm). We found there were more galls per
leaf on the Q. virginiana and Q. fusiformis populations than on
Q. geminata. In addition, the few galls on Q. geminata that grew
never reached the tree or natural enemy thresholds which will
give them ~0% chance of emergence. Within Q. virginiana populations, there was significant variation in performance, but this
did not vary with geographic distance.

17: What is the effect of flower shape on bumblebee foraging

behavior in the presence of predators?

Lauren Howe-Kerr
The flower preferences of pollinators are influenced by floral characteristics as well as by prior encounters with ambush predators.
Importantly, we might expect an interaction between flower shape
and predation risk, since predators within closed flowers may be

more difficult to detect and escape. In this study, I tested whether

flower shape influences the foraging behavior of the common
eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) in the presence of replicas
of crab spiders, known ambush predators of bumblebees. Open
and closed artificial flowers were distributed equally in a foraging
arena, and bees were allowed to forage in the arena first without
spiders and then with crab spider replicas present on half the
flowers of each type. I examined whether there was a change in
the bees preferences for open and closed flowers in the presence
and absence of crab spider replicas, whether the bees avoided
flowers with crab spider replicas, and whether foraging preference
changed throughout the duration of the trials. If encounters with
predators affect the flower shape preference of foraging bees, floral
reproductive success could also be influenced. The interaction
between flower shape and predation risk could therefore be one
of the selective pressures acting on flower diversification and
evolution.

18: Usage and Implications of the Term Social Niche

Benjamin Johnson, Rachel Marren

Since its first usage in academic literature in 1993, the term social
niche has been used with increasing frequency, often in the
context of social niche construction. We reviewed primary and
secondary literature that included the term social niche and
found that the term is usually left undefined and perceived definitions differ greatly between papers in their scope and application.
Upon review of compiled information and traditional definitions
of the ecological niche, we proposed a definition of a social niche
as, any social environment in which an individual has non-zero
fitness. We clarified the relationships between social niches and
related terms such as social roles and social behaviors. This work
will allow for more direction in future research.

19: The Role of SpeB Secreted Protease Activity in GAS Infections

Anjali Raghuram
Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a human-specific pathogen
that causes infections ranging in severity from uncomplicated
pharyngitis (strep throat) to life-threatening necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease). Secreted protease B (SpeB) is a key
GAS virulence factor for tissue destruction, dissemination, and
mortality in animal infection models and humans. Despite its
unambiguous role in virulence, the recent discovery of several
mutations in genes implicated in SpeB expression, secretion and
post-translational processing has led to the idea that GAS may be
under selection to decrease SpeB secreted protease activity during
infection. To test this hypothesis, we measured SpeB secreted
protease activity and sequenced the genome of 3615 GAS strains
taken from comprehensive population-based collections in Finland, Georgia (US), Iceland, Minnesota (US), Norway, Ontario
(Canada), Sweden and the former East Germany. The results
demonstrated that greater than 80% of GAS strains are SpeB positive. The genome data indicate that mutations in transcriptional
regulators are the most common cause of decreased SpeB secreted
protease activity. Taken together, these data confirm that most
GAS strains have a wild type SpeB phenotype and reinforce the
important role of SpeB in human infections.

20: Implications of Sea-level Rise for Whooping Cranes on the

Texas Gulf Coast

Molly Cisneros
Much of conservation biology centers on the preservation of
species and populations. However, with climate change altering
the world, new threats to species are arising, including severe
drought and sea-level rise. The whooping crane, Grus americana,
has been protected for decades under the Endangered Species Act
and the conservation actions taken have brought the flock that
over-winters in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas from
less than 20, to over 300 individuals. While the flock is growing,
their winter range lays along the Texas Gulf Coast, an area at risk
for land loss due to sea-level rise. To evaluate the severity of this
threat, we modeled five different inundation scenarios representing a variety of likelihoods for occurrence. By using GIS mapping
we were able to demonstrate that the crane habitat in the Refuge
will remain relatively un-disturbed until sea-levels rise by over
1m. However, depending on the behavior of the barrier island and
the rivers providing sediment, land may be lost due to erosion by
sea currents or reduced sediment deposition. Thus, while sea-level
rise is not an immediate threat to the survival of the flock, there
are enough unknowns that it warrants further, more in-depth
investigation.

21: Lipid biomarker of neural stem and progenitor cells affects

Nr2e1 (Tlx) transcriptional activity

Sricharan Gopakumar
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a process in the brain by
which new neurons arise from a pool of neural stem cells. This
highly regulated process takes place in the hippocampus, a region
associated with learning and memory, and declines with age,
suggesting a possible mechanism for age-related cognitive decline.
Previously, our lab utilized 1H-NMR to observe an enrichment
of molecules in neural progenitor cells (NPCs) resonating at 1.28
ppm, a lipid-based spectral signal characterized as a high concentration of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Tlx, an orphan
nuclear receptor highly expressed in NPCs, has been shown to
be a major regulator of adult neurogenesis. We hypothesize that
monounsaturated fatty acids are functionally important signaling
molecules regulating the NPC cell cycle through control of Nr2e1
transcriptional activity. Here, we demonstrate the changes in
transcriptional activity of Nr2e1 post-MUFA exposure through a
mammalian one-hybrid luciferase assay and altered gene expression of Tlx downstream targets via qPCR. Ultimately, the interaction of Tlx and endogenous lipid molecules appears to be involved
in determining NPC fate. This mechanism to better manipulate
neural progenitor cell behavior may allow us to better control and
maintain adult neurogenesis throughout life.

22: Evaluation of gnaq in the Development of a Zebrafish Port

Wine Stain Model

David Lakomy, Meron Teklu

Port Wine Stain (PWS) is a congenital defect that results in hypertrophic and dilated vasculature. Currently, PWS has no cure or
animal model. Our project aims to recreate the PWS phenotype
within zebrafish and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disorder. A single nonsynonymous somatic activating
mutation in the gene encoding for a guanine nucleotide binding protein, GNAQ, has been identified in many PWSs. We are

10

creating a Cre/lox inducible line of transgenic zebrafish expressing

wild-type gnaq, the R183Q PWS mutation, and a Q209L mutation
found in uveal melanomas. We will activate GNAQ within clones
of the vascular endothelium whereby we can observe their effects
on vessel patterning and dynamics with spatiotemporal control.
Injection of in vitro transcribed RNA of the gnaq variants indicates that early mutant gnaq expression results in a rupture of the
blastoderm attributable to epithelial monolayer integrity defects.
We have used this early phenotype to determine potential downstream effectors of GNAQ. Potentiation of the blastoderm lysis
phenotype with co-injection of yap1 and gnaq indicate possible
Hippo pathway activation through gnaq. With further developments in achieving the vascular phenotype, this model can help
elucidate PWS etiology and serve as a platform to test potential
drug therapies.

23: Organization of the vestibular signals to the navigation

circuit in the mouse brain

Dayae Jeong
The vestibular system is a sensory system that is essential for
balance and spatial orientation. Its sensory receptors, located in
the organs of the inner ear, relay information to the brainstem
vestibular nuclei and cerebellum through the afferent fibers of the
vestibulocochlear nerve. Signals from the vestibular nuclei then
project to many regions of the brain, but no anatomical map of
vestibular responding areas yet exists in rodents. We aimed to
map out the vestibular responding regions and pathways in the
mouse brain by electrically detecting the expression of a neural
activation marker (c-Fos: an immediate early release gene). In
order to activate the vestibular system, we electrically stimulated
the vestibular receptors bilaterally for 30 minutes, then perfused
the animal with 4% paraformaldehyde. The mouse brain was then
sectioned and histochemically processed for the c-fos antibody.
We observed neural activation in a number of brain regions
known to be involved in navigation, including the vestibular nuclei, the cerebellum, the hippocampus, and the entorhinal cortex.
Three dimensional contour maps and quantification of cell counts
for each of these regions are currently being performed.

24: Effects of MUC 16 Reduction on Chemotherapeutic Drug

Efficacy

Yasmin Khalfe
Large, heavily-glycosylated proteins called mucins are found on
epithelial cell surfaces and perform important functions, including protecting from pathogens, hydrating the cell surfaces, and
regulating signaling and transcription. Mucin 16, or MUC16, is
utilized as a serum marker of cancer because its irregular expression plays a role in metastasis. When cancer is present, mucins are
overexpressed and cover the entire cell surface, which can make it
difficult for chemotherapeutic drugs to reach the cell. By reducing mucin expression, this barrier can be overcome which could
allow drugs to be delivered to cells more efficiently. The project
tests whether reducing MUC16 enhances chemotherapeutic drug
effectiveness. MUC16 SiRNA-mediated knockdown was employed on the ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV3-IP, using scramble
siRNA as a control. With qRT-PCR, levels of MUC16 mRNA were
measured to show the effectiveness of the knockdown over 24, 48
and 72 hours. Results showed that the MUC16 siRNA-mediated
knockdown effectively lowered levels of MUC16. Chemother-

apeutic drugs, paclitaxel and carboplatin, were administered to

the cells. Using the LIVE/DEAD assay, the effectiveness of the
drugs was determined. Reducing MUC16 resulted in a significant
amount of dead cells as compared to the control, therefore chemotherapeutic drug efficacy was enhanced.

25: Zebrafish Immune Responses: Infection of Zebrafish

Through External Exposure to Candida

Chinenye Nnoromele
Innate immunity defends a host against infectious agents. Current
techniques used to investigate innate immune function may
not reflect the usual route of environmental challenge. Instead
they overcome the inefficiencies of environmental challenge by
injecting pathogens to bypass epithelial barriers or by co-culturing pathogens and immune cells. Unfortunately these methods
fail to recapitulate the complex interactions between hosts and
pathogens. Knowing this, the aims of this study were to determine if zebrafish could succumb to infection only from external
exposure and determine if this mode of injection is more efficient
than current injection practices. In this study, zebrafish embryos
were exposed to GFP-labeled Candida under different conditions
to determine if infection through this mechanism was possible,
efficient, and reproducible. Our data suggests that 2dpf zebrafish embryos can be infected by Candida from external exposure
in a method at a higher efficacy compared to current injection
methods in terms of number of embryos infected and time. In
future work, the aims include maximizing the reproducibility and
efficacy of this mode of infection and to utilize this technique to
better understand the immunological responses within the zebrafish experimental model.

26: The Effect of Drought on Differential Tree Species Mortality

in East Texas

Carolina Osuna
Climate change is set to have multiple effects on our global
climate, one of which is an increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts. Droughts are a major forest health stressor that
can cause long-term tree mortality and provide potential fuel
for wildfires. The record-breaking drought of 2011 in Texas was
unprecedented in its intensity. Timber lost to drought and wildfire
in 2011 resulted in a $3.4 billion economic impact on Texas. The
tolerance of different tree species was identified using 2012-2013
Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) tree species and status data for
42 counties in east Texas (the more humid and hardest hit region)
along with other relevant datasets (drought, soil moisture, elevation, etc.) provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These
datasets were assembled and converted into spatial data in ArcGIS
in order to identify highly drought tolerant or intolerant species,
along with significant characteristics that affected their survival.
With this information, east Texas forest managers can make more
informed decisions in light of climate change in order to mitigate
the consequences of future drought on Texas forest health.

27: Loss of NMNAT2 Impairs Development of the Cerebral Cortex

Daniel Connolly
Nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferases (NMNATs)
are best known as enzymes that synthesize nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide (NAD+). In mammalian brains, NMNAT2 is the
major NMNAT isoform expressed. Deleting NMNAT2 function

in mice causes significant axonal deterioration and neuronal

loss. Recent studies have found that NMNAT2 also plays roles in
neurodevelopment. It has been shown that Nmnat2 deletion leads
to defective axonal outgrowth. However, the role of NMNAT2 in
embryonic brain development is less explored. Using NMNAT2
knockout mice, we sought to elucidate the roles of NMNAT2 in
neurogenesis, neuronal survival, and neuronal migration during
the development of the cortex from a single-layered sheet of
cells to a six-layered cortex. We found that similar numbers of
neurons were born but fewer neurons survived from embryonic
day 14.5 (E14.5) to E18.5. At E14.5, the numbers of proliferating
cells within the brain were the same between Nmnat2 KO brains
and controls. However, at E18.5, there were reduced numbers
of intermediate progenitor cells and postmitotic neurons. These
findings provide evidence that NMNAT2 is important to ensure
proper migration of cortical neurons in the development of the
cerebral cortex and is also important for neuronal survival even at
embryonic stages.

28: Genetic Control of Paternally-Derived X-chromosome Inactivation in Marsupials Using CRISPR/Cas9

Shireen Usman
Random X-chromosome inactivation occurs in eutherian female
(XX) mammals to control the dosage of X-linked genes. The
non-coding RNA, Xist, is known to mediate inactivation in
eutherian mammals, but it is not found in metatherians (marsupials). Instead Rsx (RNA-on-the-silent X), a seemingly analogous
non-coding RNA, is thought to selectively inactivate the paternally inherited X-chromosome in female marsupials. Rsx activity has
been correlated to X-chromosome inactivation, which is thought
to occur as a result of the transcription of repeat-rich RNA that
coats the inactive paternally-inherited X-chromosome. However,
the function of Rsx has not yet been confirmed by examining
the reactivation of the paternal X-chromosome through mutation. Our goal is to utilize CRISPR-Cas9 knockout technology to
eliminate Rsx expression and consequently X-chromosome inactivation in the female opossum. Specifically, this study attempts to
induce CRISPR/Cas9 mutations of Rsx in female Monodelphis
domestica fibroblasts to confirm the essential role of this gene in
the process of metatherian X-inactivation. Through an analysis
of mutant opossum cells, we provide insight on the molecular
processes involved in sex chromosome regulation in marsupials
and provide a baseline for further exploration of the evolutionary
divergence between metatherians and eutherians.

29: The Co-Inheritance of Sickle Cell Anemia and Alpha-Thalassemia and Its Effect on Cerebrovascular Disease

Sean Liu
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive blood disorder in which hemoglobin, the major protein of red blood cells
(RBCs), is mutated. Deoxygenated sickle hemoglobin undergoes
intracellular polymerization and distorts the RBC into a distinctive sickle shape. Patients with sickle RBCs suffer hemolytic
anemia, recurrent acute vaso-occlusive events, inflammation, and
chronic organ damage. Cerebrovascular disease is one of the most
serious clinical complications of SCD and without clinical intervention can lead to early childhood mortality. There is evidence
that the co-inheritance of alpha-thalassemia, a deletion of one or
both of the alpha globin genes, protects patients with SCD against

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the development of cerebrovascular disease. In order to address

this hypothesis, I used polymerase chain reaction to genotype the
alpha-thalassemia status of SCD patients to determine if there is a
correlation between the incidence of cerebrovascular disease and
the co-inheritance of alpha-thalassemia. It is expected that the frequency of any alpha globin deletion will be lower in SCD patients
with a history of cerebrovascular disease, while patients more
resistant to cerebrovascular disease will have a higher frequency
of alpha-thalassemia. The results should show an evolutionarily
significant difference in the rate of cerebrovascular disease-free
survival in patients with SCD and alpha-thalassemia.

30: Inter-bioherm Grainstone Flow and Accumulation in an

Upper Cambrian Microbial Reef Complex of the Wilberns Formation (James River, Mason County, Texas)
Meron Fessahaie
Research focusing on microbialites in academia, as in industry,
has gained interest due to large discoveries of hydrocarbon in
pre-salt microbial reservoirs offshore Brazil. Surveys and research
programs have been initiated in the Upper Cambrian outcrops in
Mason County within the Wilberns Formation through a Rice/
Trinity Industry consortium to better understand the overall
heterogeneity, complexity, and interconnectivity of pre-salt reservoirs. Upper Cambrian microbial mound and reef complexes
within the Wilberns Formation crop out on cliff exposures along
Mill Creek and the Llano/James Rivers, providing a 3-D detailed
view of these microbial reef complexes. Along the James River,
two well-preserved 5-6 m high relief bioherms are separated by
a series of bioclastic grainstone layers intercalated by thin beds
of detrital fine silt and sand, which resemble surprisingly well
the environmental growth conditions of 2-3 meter tall modern
Holocene living subtidal microbial thrombolytic reefs surrounded
in the Adderly Tidal Channel on the edge of Great Bahama Bank
margin between Exuma Cays. The similarities between the Holocene subtidal microbial bioherms and the ones we study in the
Upper Cambrian Wilberns Formation will provide meaningful
comparisons for understanding the interactions between microbial hermal growth and their inter-reef sediments.

31: Does Seed Dispersal Loss Influence Treefall Gap Closure?

Kevin Czachura
Treefall gaps present unique opportunities for competitive
seedling growth by providing microclimatic differences from
surrounding forest. An important source of seeds in these gaps
comes from seed rain by birds. The functional extirpation of bird
species on Guam has led to a loss of seed dispersal. Rota and
Saipan support populations of bird species and thus serve as comparative models of normal seed dispersal. We hypothesized that
rates of closure of treefall gaps would be faster on Rota and Saipan
compared to Guam because fewer seeds would be dispersed into
gaps on Guam. To test this hypothesis, we created 44 small treefall
gaps across the three islands. We took hemispherical photographs
of each gap immediately before and after gap creation, then
monthly over the next 13 months. We used gap analysis software
to calculate canopy openness then assessed gap closure rates by
comparing canopy openness over time relative to baseline pre-gap
canopy openness. The results of this project will demonstrate the
effects that bird loss has on Guams treefall gap closure rate. This
information could provide universal insight on the impacts of

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seed dispersal loss on forest structure and could guide conservation efforts in dispersal-deficient ecosystems around the world.

32: Do the Hinge-helices in Lactose Repressor (LacI) Independently Recognize Operator DNA Sequence?

Madeleine Hewitt, Joseph Xu

The tetrameric lactose repressor, LacI, is a classic example of a
regulatory DNA-binding protein. Each LacI monomer is composed of N-terminal helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain (residues 1-50), a hinge-helix linker region (residues 51-59), and an
inducer-binding core domain (residues 60-360). Mutations in residues 51-60 result in loss of binding to operator DNA without impacting nonspecific DNA binding, suggesting that the hinge-helix
is required for specific binding. In addition, crystallographic
structures show that the hinge helices bend the DNA sequence
to allow specific binding by helix-turn-helix domains. However,
direct demonstration that the hinge-helices can promote specific
binding independently has not been established. Our research
explores several methods for investigating independent operator
sequence binding by the hinge-helices. First, LacI truncations can
be generated that contain deletions in each of the binding regions
via trypsin digestion or in vitro transcription and translation.
Binding affinity of the truncated proteins can subsequently be
assessed by DNA pull-down and/or filter binding assays. Demonstrating that hinge-helices alone exhibit specificity in recognition
could potentially benefit design of DNA binding proteins.

33: A zebrafish model for Wnt/-catenin signaling during

blood-brain barrier development

Wesley Chou
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and preventing disease in the nervous system. Wnt/
-catenin signaling has been shown to be required for proper
BBB development and maintenance, although the precise roles
of -catenin remain poorly understood since it promotes both
gene transcription and cell-cell adhesion. Using a novel transgenic
zebrafish line that expresses tissue-specific fluorescent -catenin,
this project will determine at what time points and in what cell
types Wnt/-catenin signaling is required for BBB formation.
Overexpression of fluorescent -catenin mRNA in zebrafish embryos produced mutant phenotypes, suggesting that the fluorescent form is functionally identical to the wild-type form and can
thus be used for a transgenic line. To separate the different roles of
-catenin, we created another transgenic line that expresses an inducible form of -catenin fused to an Engrailed repressor. When
activated, the dominant-negative -catenin will repress transcription of Wnt target genes in endothelial cells without disrupting
cell-cell adhesion. Overall, this study will allow for real-time
monitoring of essential tissue-specific Wnt/-catenin signaling
during BBB development.

34: Sexes Respond Differently to Water Supply Rates in a Perennial Grass

Rachel Hodge
Poa aracnifera is a dioecious grass native to the Great Plains
that shows a geographic gradient in population sex ratio. In the
moister sections of its range, populations of P. aracnifera are
dominated by females, suggesting these outperform males at high
soil moisture. We conducted a greenhouse study to determine i)

whether P. aracniferas sexes respond differently to soil moisture

and ii) whether the response of the sexes to soil moisture has a
genotypic component. We subjected three P. aracnifera genotypes
to five water supply rates over nine months. We used leaf count
as a proxy of individual fitness. Analyses indicate an interaction
between water level, sex and origin. In particular, females from
the moister section of the range are advantaged at a high water
level compared to males from the same region. This did not occur
in the other two genotypes for which water supply did not change
the hierarchy of performance between the sexes. In conclusion,
results suggest that geographical differences in sex ratios can be
partially explained by unique adaptations of the sexes. In particular in one of our genotypes females outperform males at high soil
moisture.

35: Using Volatile Chemical Production to Report on DNA Delivery to Undomesticated Microbes in Complex Settings

Tim Wang
Quantified analysis of microbial DNA delivery provides invaluable insight into the mechanisms of bacterial evolution. Through
our novel Methyl Halide Transferase (MHT) gas reporter system,
we can analyze interactions between undomesticated microbes
beyond controlled lab environments and in their natural complex environments (ie. soil, waste water, biomass, food). The
MHT gene encodes for enzymes that release methyl halide gas,
which can be monitored to correlate with DNA delivery without
disrupting the experimental environment. We will demonstrate
the viability of the MHT system by using it to quantify bacterial
conjugation efficiency. The MHT reporter gene and a hyperactive
conjugative transposon from an undomesticated Enterococci
strain will be genetically inserted into the genome of a model
Bacillus subtilis 168 (BS168). The modified bacillus will serve as
the donor of the transposon DNA to a recipient bacillus strain.
Monitoring gas levels during this process will give indication of
the sensitivity of the MHT reporter system. Thus, we hope to
exhibit the MHT gas reporter system as a systematic and quantifiable method to study microbial DNA delivery in complex
environments.

36: Effect of Predation Risk and Flower Shape on Bumblebee

Pollination

Clare Randolph
Pollinators play a large role in the reproduction of most flowering
plants. If pollination is affected, flowers may be unable to reproduce. In this study, we aimed to determine whether predation risk
and flower shape affect which flowers common eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) choose to visit and pollinate. Predation
and flower shape are related because the presence of predators
is dangerous to bumblebees, and flower shape may play a role in
how a bumblebee treats the perceived risk. We allowed bees to
forage in an arena with artificial flowers (male and female, opened
and closed), and did trials with and without crab spider replicas. We tracked pollination using powdered food dye as a pollen
replica. The quantity of dye deposited on female flowers was then
measured using a spectrophotometer. By measuring the amount
of dye stuck to female flowers, we determined their fitness and the
fitness of the male flowers when they were closed or open, and
when they had or did not have spider replicas. If spider replicas or
flower shape change the pollination behavior of bees, there could

be selection pressures that are causing flowers to evolve in the

wild. These pressures would be stronger in the wild.

37: The CRISPR Cas-9 Genome Editing System in Pancreatic

Adenocarcinoma Hypoxia Response

Peter Cabeceiras
The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats
(CRISPR) CRISPR Associated Sequences (Cas) system is a prokaryotic acquired immunity against viral and plasmid invasion.
The CRISPR Cas9 system is highly conserved throughout Bacteria
and Archaea. Recently, CRISPR/Cas has been utilized to edit
endogenous genomes in eukaryotic species. In certain contexts, it
has proven invaluable for in vitro and in vivo modeling. Currently,
CRISPR genome editing boasts unparalleled efficiency, specificity,
and cost compared to other genome editing tools like Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) and Zinc Finger
Nucleases (ZFNs). This project discusses the background theory
of CRISPR, and reports novel approaches to genome editing with
the CRISPR system in pancreatic cancer to study the hypoxia
response and tumor radioprotection.

38: In Vivo Production of Malonic Acid

Richard Tong
Malonic acid is a dicarboxylic acid used as an intermediate in
the production of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and barbiturates.
The formation of malonic acid from oxaloacetic acid (OAA) by
reaction by with hydrogen peroxide has been shown by high
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and fluorescence
assays. The project seeks to find an in-vivo method of producing
malonic acid in Escherichia coli cells via a OAA+H2O2 reaction.
Production of H2O2 is achieved through knock-out of catalase
and over-expression of NADH oxidase and formate dehydrogenase (FDH); OAA could be produced by a malate dehydrogenase
(MDH) or phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) catalyzed
reaction; The OAA+H2O2 reaction is catalyzed by a peroxidase.
Several genes will be knocked out or over-expressed in cells
accordingly, and production is tested by taking the cell lysate or
whole cells and assaying malonic acid production.

39: Modeling HCN Conductance Distribution and its Functional

Role in a Collision-Sensitive Neuron

Eric Sung
Synaptic integration plays a significant role in neuronal computations. This process is mediated by the morphological structure
of the neuron and also dendritic voltage-gated ion channels. For
instance, locusts possess an identified visual interneuron known
as the Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) which receives
and processes incoming visual inputs to mediate collision avoidance escape behavior. The LGMD possesses a class of voltage-gated ion channels known as HCN channels. Little is known about
how these channels contribute to the LGMDs function. In order
to better understand the role of these HCN channels on synaptic
integration in the LGMD, we develop a computational model that
resembles the structure of the LGMD and its extensive branching
patterns. First we uncover the HCN channel distribution. We set
up an optimization problem, fitting our model to experimental
data. Using dual dendritic recording data, we are able to determine the appropriate distribution of HCN conductance using
MATLABs optimization toolbox. Then, we model incoming

13

synaptic inputs and record the models responses. We show that

an HCN conductance can explain the responses of the LGMD to
different types of visual stimuli observed experimentally before
and after pharmacological blockade.

40: Uncovering the Kinetics of rRNA-Binding Using Novel Mutant Ribosomal S8 Proteins

Jaime Martinez
The bacterial ribosomal protein S8 is an essential component of
the 30S subunit and has a conserved, well-characterized structure.
S8 also serves as a translational regulator of the spc operon mRNA
transcript in Gram-negative bacteria, which encodes several
other ribosomal proteins. The conformational disorder seen in
Gram-negative S8, unlike its well-ordered Gram-positive counterpart, is thought to be key in its double functionality, suggesting
different RNA-binding mechanisms between these two classes of
S8. In order to determine the kinetic details of S8-RNA complex
formation, mutant S8 proteins from Gram-negative Escherichia
coli and Gram-positive Bacillus anthracis were engineered with
a non-interfering tryptophan residue directly on the RNA-binding interface, whose fluorescence is quenched substantially upon
RNA-binding. Using stopped-flow rapid mixing experiments to
study both complex association and dissociation will yield the
kinetic parameters of RNA-binding, shedding light on the mechanism of S8-RNA complex formation as it relates to the conformational disorder of the protein.

41: Measurements of Component Azimuth of USArray Transportable Array

Beineng Zhang
The Transportable Array is a network of 400 three-component
broadband seismographs placed in temporary sites across the
United States in a regular grid pattern with station spacing of
about 70 km and a residence time of two years. It is designed
to provide a foundation for integrated studies of continental
lithosphere and deep Earth structure over a wide range of scales.
For modern seismic studies, the rotation of vertical and horizontal components is critical in the separation of different types of
seismic waves. However, aligning a seismometer is a difficult task
especially when it requires site-specific declination corrections.
We analyzed the teleseismic compressional waves (P-waves)
recorded by the network in order to evaluate the north-component azimuths of the stations. For each station, we adopted an
SNR-weighted-multi-event method to calculate the azimuths that
best fit the P-wave motions of all the events. Our data include a
total of 758 stations of which 707 stations that are eligible for the
analysis recorded more than 10 earthquakes bigger than or equal
to magnitude 5. The results showed that in general, the stations
are almost perfectly installed with azimuths smaller or equal to 2
degrees while variations are present within certain stations.

42: Predicting Pandemic: A Multidimensional Analysis of

Emerging Infectious Diseases and their Potential for Global
Transmission

Jackie Olive
Infectious diseases comprise the largest cause of adolescent death
worldwide, and a leading cause of death in adults. Since the Ebola
virus disease outbreak in West Africa, it has become an urgent

14

global health need to assess the state of emerging infectious

disease epidemics. This study first analyzes the progression of and
international public health response to the Ebola epidemic. From
WHO epidemic data reports, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Avian Influenza A (H7N9) were
identified as two significant regional epidemics to focus research
and resources. Chagas Disease and Chikungunya were identified
as emerging local threats to Harris County, TX. Key epidemic
growth factors studied include human mobility and migration,
poverty, vaccine deficits, conflict regions, and in particular, concentrated vector distribution and animal reservoirs. Moreover,
it is critical to develop universal global health policies to ensure
immediate regulation of these outbreaks.

43: The Effects of Predation Risk on Bumblebee Foraging

Behavior

Angela Martini
In order to survive, prey species often alter their behavior in
response to predation threat. Here, we investigate the effects that
the threat of crab spiders has on the foraging behavior of common
eastern bumblebees (Bombus impatiens). Bumblebees evaluate
flower quality and prefer visiting high reward flowers. However,
crab spiders also evaluate flowers and prefer waiting on high quality flowers to ambush bees. To examine changes in bee behavior
in response to predation threat, we initially allowed bees to forage
individually in an arena containing equal numbers of high-reward, yellow flowers (40% w/w sucrose solution) and low-reward,
white flowers (20% w/w sucrose solution). In the second trial,
we introduced camouflaged spider models on two high-reward
flowers that were used to simulate attacks on bees. In the third
trial, we removed the spider models. From trial video-recordings
we determined flower choice, distances traveled between flowers,
and inspection times. Further analysis will reveal whether these
behaviors changed in response to predator attacks and whether
they remained altered after spiders were removed. These results
will show how prey alter their behavior when given a tradeoff
between foraging efficiently and safely and will provide insight on
how pollinators predators may affect flower trait selection.

44: Optimization of Globin Stability in Myoglobins

William Ou
Optimization of the stability of the myoglobin (Mb) fold is an
attractive goal for the design of recombinant hemoglobin-based
oxygen carriers. One region of interest is the EF loop, which connects the E and F helices that sandwich the heme-binding pocket.
To study this region, variations in Mb sequences at positions corresponding to residues 79-86 in sperm whale Mb were compared
across a variety of animal species. Based on the analyses done,
codon degeneracies at each position in the EF loop were designed
to include only the amino acids that occurred at high frequency
in aquatic species or residues that occurred in aquatic species but
not land species. The mutations were introduced into the sperm
whale Mb gene, which was previously cloned into the E. coli
expression vector pVP80K. Preliminary screening of transformed
E. coli colonies for red color and sequencing of the isolated DNA
indicated that we successfully generated a Mb library with the
desired reduced amino acid alphabets. Future work will involve
larger scale screening of the library as well as use of this semi-rational library design technique to target different regions of Mb,

again focusing on sampling various amino acid combinations

present in nature.

45: Do-It-Yourself Assembly of a new Rat Genome

Sarah Nyquist
As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to plummet, the
production of complete, end-to-end genome sequences for
individuals is becoming increasingly feasible. However, despite
reductions in sequencing cost, the process of generating end-toend sequences for all of an individuals chromosomes remains
technically challenging. In the past, such genomes have typically
been produced by consortia involving hundreds or thousands of
scientists working in tandem. Here, we describe a procedure for
end-to-end sequencing of a mammalian genome that (i) can be
performed by a single person; (ii) has the potential to be performed, from start to finish, in under a week; and (iii) costs less
than $15K. This procedure entails (a) production of a DNA-Seq
experimental library, which contains random subsequences of
the genome of interest; (b) a Hi-C experimental library, which
describes the three-dimensional folding of the genome; and (c)
an array of powerful algorithms which transform these datatypes
into a finished sequence. Although the procedure has not been
performed in its entirety, I have performed steps (a) and (b) for
the genome of an individual of the genus rattus (rat), and expect
to present a new rat assembly. This represents the first time, to our
knowledge, that a mammalian genome has been sequenced and
assembled, end-to-end, by a single person.

46: Role of Akt in Tumor Angiogenesis

Rishi Suresh
Angiogenesisthe formation of new blood vessels from preexisting blood vessels, allows tumor cells to obtain nutrients for
growth and metastasis. Previous research done in Dr. Phungs lab
has investigated the role of Akt, an important growth signaling
molecule, in tumor angiogenesis. The literature has shown that
Akt increases tumor angiogenesis. The Akt gene family has three
isoforms, Akt1, Akt2, and Akt3. Our lab has shown that Akt1
promotes angiogenesis, whereas Akt3 suppresses it. The aim of
this project is to further study the role of Akt3 in the tumor angiogenesis. Specifically, we have learned that loss of Akt3 increases
levels of HIF-1. Thus, this experiment is trying to determine
whether specific deletion of HIF-1 will rescue the Akt3-/- phenotype and consequently decrease associated tumor growth and
angiogenesis. Gene-silencing technology with short hairpin RNA
(shRNA) will be used to perform a double knockdown of both
Akt3 along with HIF-1. The results of this study will help determine whether modulating Akt3 levels is an effective anti-cancer
treatment option.

47: Survey of Native and Invasive Ant Biodiversity in Big Thicket

National Preserve
Gabriela Zambrano
Big Thicket National Preserve in East Texas, one of the most
biologically diverse areas in the United States, consists of a confluence of biomes normally found in the Eastern, Central, and
Southern regions of the United States. This overlap gives rise to an
extremely high diversity of both plant and animal species. Despite
the biodiversity of the region, however, relatively little is understood about the distribution of native ant species in the preserve.

In addition, the recent incursion of the invasive tawny crazy

ant,Nylanderia fulva, threatens to dramatically alter the existing
distribution and abundance of native ant species in the region.
In order to catalog the biodiversity and distribution of both the
native ant species of Big Thicket National Preserve and invasive
species such as N. fulva, samples were collected from every unit
in the preserve, with a focus on sites that are near waterways in
both major units and corridor units, and away from waterways
in major units, during May 2014. Our work now provides the
groundwork for a comprehensive estimate of the ant species present in Big Thicket National Preserve that can be used in future
ant species surveys and a record of N. fulva incursion that will
provide a baseline for further research.

48: The role of p53 in Xenopus embryonic kidney development

Nicholas Cho
p53 is a well-studied tumor suppressor protein that prevents
tumorigenesis by regulating the cell cycle and apoptosis of
damaged cells. This protein has been shown to regulate multiple
signaling pathways that are responsible for normal development
and differentiation, including the Wnt pathway. Upregulation
of Wnt signaling in embryonic African clawed frog, Xenopus
laevis, kidney results in reduced nephric differentiation. A similar
phenotype has also been observed upon the inhibition of p53 in
Xenopus as well. Based on this previous work, we hypothesize
that p53 plays a role in normal kidney development by interacting with components of the Wnt signaling pathway. To test this
hypothesis, stabilized antisense oligonucleotides (morpholinos)
were used to knock down p53 expression. Immunofluorescence
was used to observe the phenotype upon the knockdown within
the embryonic kidney. While we have demonstrated that p53
protein is expressed in embryos at stages in which the kidney is
developing, we were not able to detect the knockdown of p53
through Western blot. Although we are still trying to verify our
knockdown of p53 by Western blot, we observed that immunofluorescence markers for differentiated kidney were highly reduced
as compared with controls, suggesting reduced differentiation of
nephron structures.

49: The Correlation Between Chronic Hyperkalemia and T Wave

Heights in Electrocardiograms

Mohammad Alsheikh-Kassim, Ryan Pappal

Hyperkalemia, or abnormally high potassium levels, is a common condition in end stage renal disease patients that classically
manifests in a heightened T wave peak on the patients electrocardiogram. However, in recent studies, this ECG diagnostic technique
showed poor sensitivity, with as low as 32% of patients in hyperkalemia displaying peaked T waves. This retrospective study is examining end stage renal patients at the Ben Taub General Hospital Emergency Center who were eligible for emergent dialysis and received
a basic metabolic panel to assess potassium levels and a 12-lead
electrocardiogram from 2010-2012. Each patient visit was analyzed
for potassium levels and for R wave, S wave, and T wave heights as
well as T wave durations in leads V2, V3, and V4. A linear correlation test was run between T wave heights and potassium levels. An
initial analysis of 8 patients totaling to 31 data points showed no
significant correlation between T wave height and potassium level,
r(31) = 0.24, R2 = 0.056. According to our statistical analysis, T
wave height did not accurately predict serum potassium levels.

15

50: Seryl tRNA Synthetase is Implicated in Zebrafish Angiogenesis

Lawrence Zhu
tRNA synthetases are a class of enzymes that link specific tRNAs to cognate amino acids. They are important housekeeping
enzymes, without which cellular viability is impossible. Recently,
several tRNA synthetases were implicated in non-canonical activities such as apoptosis, transcriptional regulation, and splicing.
The hi3817 D. rerio mutant identified through a viral mutagenesis
screen contains an insertion in the seryl tRNA synthetase (SerRS)
gene resulting in the loss of sars mRNA. This line was crossed
into a Flk1-GFP background line to visualize vasculogenesis. The
mutant phenotype manifested as ectopic branching from intersegmental vessels (ISV) in homozygous mutants, and was able to be
rescued with microinjection of wild type sars mRNA. Furthermore, sars mRNA with defective aminoacylation activity was also
able to rescue the mutant phenotype, suggesting that the known
function of tRNA synthetase is not necessary for angiogenic
activity. Further rescue experiments using different fragments
of the sars mRNA have identified a region of the gene necessary
for normal ISV development. Current efforts to understand the
functionality of the protein are focused on showing the presence
of specific angiogenic cleavage products of SerRS using westerns,
and using tagged sars constructs to follow potential cleavage
events responsible for regulation of angiogenic activity.

51: A forward genetic screen to study salt-induced peroxisome

proliferation

Sammira Rouhani
Peroxisomes are small, membrane-enclosed organelles that contain enzymes involved in essential energy-generating metabolic
reactions, like -oxidation. Peroxisomes are derived from the
endoplasmic reticulum, and mature peroxisomes can divide to
form more peroxisomes. However, detailed mechanisms of peroxisome biogenesis or proliferation are not understood. In plants,
peroxisome abundance increases with salt treatment; additionally,
peroxisome functions, like -oxidation, may be involved in NaCl
inhibition of root growth (Kao, unpublished). We conducted a
forward-genetic screen (SB screen) to find the proteins involved
in peroxisome biogenesis or proliferation in Arabidopsis. Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) is beta-oxidized into indole-3-acetic
acid (IAA) in peroxisomes, and IAA inhibits root growth. NaCl
increases IBA potency, possibly due to increased peroxisome
abundance. We selected putative SB mutants with elongated roots
on media containing both IBA and NaCl. We are retesting physiological phenotypes and conducting immunoblotting to explore
candidate lesions. We found that SB89 lacked thiolase protein,
so it is probably a ped1 mutant. We also found a possible matrix
protein import defect in SB31, and for this mutant, we will use
whole-genome sequencing to identify causal mutations. Further
analysis of the SB mutants will elucidate the interplay of peroxisome functions and abiotic stress.

52: Studying cell-cell interactions between human salivary

acinar-like cells (hSACs) and human myoepithelial cells (hMECs)

Corina Badillo
Many head and neck cancer patients suffer from xerostomia, or
dry mouth, as a result of radiation therapy. Unfortunately, current
treatment for xerostomia is only palliative and consists of administering sialagogues or saliva substitutes. To improve the quality

16

of life of these patients, our lab focuses on generating an artificial

salivary gland in vitro from healthy cells isolated prior to therapy for re-implantation into the patient after radiation therapy to
restore saliva production. My studies focus on further characterizing human salivary acinar-like cells (hSACs) , human myoepithelial cells (hMECs), and the cell-cell interactions between the two
cell types via bright-field imaging and immunofluorescence to
inform the tissue engineering of a salivary gland project. hMECs
were isolated from human salivary gland tissue and were assessed
for myoepithelial biomarker expression (-smooth muscle actin
and cytokeratin 14) through immunofluorescence. Further work
will consist of studying the cell-cell interactions between hSACs
and hMECs to inform the salivary regeneration project.

53: Characterization of Sickle Cell Disease Hemoglobins

Kristin Sweeney
The naturally occurring Glu6 (HbS) mutation in adult human
Hb causes Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). Irreversibly damaged sickle
cells occlude capillary beds and prematurely lyse, causing inflammation of blood vessels due to damage from toxic acellular components including oxidized hemoglobin and free heme (Bunn,
1986). Damaged vascular systems result in decreased oxygen
transport, vaso-occlusion, and strokes (Belcher, 2014). The longrange goal of this project is to characterize the effects of Glu6
(HbS) and Lys (HbC) mutations on the stability and oxidative
properties of three types of recombinant hemoglobins. HbS and
HbC are being expressed in three vectors: pHb0.0, in which the
N-terminal valine is replaced with an initiator methionine in both
hemoglobin subunits; pHE2, in which methionine is added prior
to the initiator valine and cleaved by excess methionine aminopeptidase; and pHb0.1, in which the two subunits are genetically cross-linked by a glycine linker. The rates of oxygen binding,
HbS polymerization, HbC crystallization, autooxidation, heme
loss, and apoglobin unfolding will be measured for all six recombinant Hbs. The HbS and HbC variants are expected to be less
stable, and characterization of their properties will help develop
new therapies to treat patients with these genetic disorders.

54: Does RTC3 mediate sulfite-induced inhibition of ribosome

biogenesis in Candida albicans?

Neha Pal
Candida albicans is a species of yeast that lives naturally inside
humans. Under most conditions, C. albicans is not harmful to its
human host. In immune-compromised individuals, however, C.
albicans can infect its human host; this infection has a mortality
rate of forty percent. C. albicans is a particularly serious threat because of its resistance to sulfite, a chemical released by neutrophils
as a line of defense against pathogens. Understanding the way C.
albicans interacts with sulfite could have important medical implications. This project focuses on orf19.1862, referred to as RTC3,
and its interactions with sulfite and rapamycin, which is a Torc1
kinase inhibitor. RTC3 is predicted to mediate the sulfite-induced
inhibition of ribosome biogenesis. A series of experiments were
carried out to measure the gene expression of RTC3 in sulfite-treated and rapamycin-treated cells. The sensitivity to sulfite
and rapamycin of wild-type cells and RTC3 deletion mutants was
also examined.

55: Nanoscale Radiation Measurements in Proton Therapy

Beams for Radiobiology

Timothy Hallacy
Proton therapy has risen to the forefront of cancer radiotherapy
treatment due to its ability to deliver a high radiation dose to a
tumor with less damage to surrounding healthy tissue as compared to photon beams. For the same radiation dose, the relative
biological effectiveness (RBE) of proton radiation is higher compared to photon radiation. To understand the molecular mechanisms related to the higher proton RBE we developed a novel tool
to co-localize single proton tracks traversing a single cell by using
fluorescent nuclear track detectors (FNTDs). FNTDs are Al2O3:
C,Mg crystals that undergo a radiochromic transformation upon
exposure to ionizing radiation. Using confocal microscopy, this
radiochromic transformation was used to reconstruct 3D tracks
of protons passing through the FNTD and trace them back to a
layer of adherent cells growing on the FNTD substrate. Moreover,
the fluorescence intensity of the tracks can be correlated to the
linear energy transfer (LET) of the protons, providing a metric for
measuring the LET of single proton tracks. This could potentially
allow for investigations into the relationship between LET and
RBE.

56: Characterization of lacI- araC Dual Feedback Oscillator

Derivatives

Brian Ho
Oscillations in gene expression are a driving force behind naturally occurring rhythms in organisms. The characterization of
novel oscillatory gene networks helps further the understanding
of the mechanisms of larger natural oscillatory networks. It has
been found previously that the lacI- araC dual feedback oscillator
produces robust oscillations across a wide range of parameter
values. The network is composed of transcriptional activator
araC activating itself and transcriptional repressor lacI inhibiting
itself and araC. We will create novel gene networks by editing the
existing network topology. This will be accomplished by removing
the self-feedback loops and characterizing the new networks. We
use PCR and restriction enzymes to mutate the hybrid promoter
(Plac/ara-1) to specific operator sites. The O1 and Osym sites are
deleted to remove lacI self-feedback and the I1/I2 sites are deleted
to remove araC self-feedback. Mutated plasmids will be transformed into E. coli and imaged using microfluidic-aided timelapse fluorescence microscopy. To measure the fluorescence, the
lab has developed a robust cell tracking algorithm which can track
a lineage of cells and measure their individual fluorescence. We
will also confirm the promoter knockouts were successful using
induction assays.

57: How Does the Hinge Region of the Lactose Repressor Interact with the lac Operator Sequence?
Jaskeerat Gulati, Matthew Cruz
Since its discovery by Jacob and Monod in 1963, the lac operon has been studied extensively to better understand cellular
response to external stimuli. Each dimer within the tetrameric lactose repressor protein (LacI) is able to bind lac operator
DNA, thereby affecting the level of transcription of the operon.
Of particular importance is the LacI hinge helix, comprised of
amino acid residues 51-60, which links the inducer-binding core
domain and helix-turn-helix DNA-binding domain, and inserts

as a folded dimer into the minor groove of the DNA to elicit a

bend. Without the folded hinge helices, LacI binds nonspecifically
to DNA. No studies, however, have investigated the independent
binding of the hinge helix dimer with DNA. In order to explore
this relationship, we synthesized the hinge helix with a cysteine
at position 52 to induce dimerization through the oxidation of a
disulfide linkage. We will utilize nitrocellulose filtration assay and
pulldown assay techniques to assess the degree of binding of the
dimeric peptide to the DNA. The results will reveal the specificity
with which the hinge helix independently interacts with DNA.
This work has the potential to aid in effectively being able to target
specific DNA sequences for binding and modification.

58: Characterization of OsAAE3, an Oxalyl-CoA Synthetase in

Oryza sativa

Peter Lambert
Oxalate, the smallest of the dicarboxylic acids, is produced in
many plants through a variety of mechanisms. This acid has been
shown to play an important role in both plant physiology and
defense, specifically in regards to metal detoxification, nitrogen
fixation, sucking and chewing insect deterrence, and calcium
oxalate crystal production. Recently, the confirmation of a novel
pathway of oxalate metabolism in Arabidopsis through the use
of an oxalyl-CoA synthetase AtAAE3) has sparked a search for
homologous pathways in other plants. This study identifies Oryza
sativa ACYL-ACTIVATING ENZYME3 OsAAE3: Os04g0683700)
as a gene encoding an oxalyl-CoA synthetase. This activity is
particularly interesting given that rice also possesses the more
common oxalate catabolic pathway utilizing oxalate oxidases. To
investigate the function of OsAAE3 we have produced a recombinant enzyme that demonstrates activity against oxalate in vitro,
exhibiting Michaelis-Menten kinetics with a Km of 98.24 19.94
M and a Vmax of 6.880 0.3218 mol/min/mg. Additionally,
we have introduced OsAAE3 into Ataae3 null mutants, and found
that plants expressing OsAAE3 in the mutant background have
a lower oxalate content than the Ataae3 null mutants, which correlates with the reduction in calcium oxalate crystals seen in the
OsAAE3 plants.

59: Sulfite and Gene Expression in Candida albicans

Divya Naik
Candida albicans remains harmless to most humans, but can
cause disease in immunocompromised people. Candida is
resistant to host-produced chemicals that inhibit mitochondrial
respiration, such as nitric oxide and sulfite. Metabolic pathways
convert sulfite to hydrogen sulfide, which inhibits cytochrome C.
Sulfite regulates 5 functional groups of genes, including the alternative oxidases which help Candida resistivity to nitric oxide. The
two genes of interest to this project are AOX2, which is an alternative oxidase gene activated in response to electron transport chain
inhibition, and SSU1, which is involved in sulfite removal. This
experiment works with the deletion of strains zcf2, met5, and
WTH testing of the expression of genes AOX2, SSU1, and control
gene ACT1. Cells were grown and treated with sulfite, RNA was
extracted, and then Reverse Transcriptase qPCR was performed.
My hypothesis is that AOX2 expression is increased in response to
sulfite in the zcf2 and WTH strains, but not in met5, since it is
missing the met5 enzyme of sulfite reductase, which is thought to
control the conversion from sulfite to hydrogen sulfide. Learning

17

about sulfite response is not only useful to the Candida community but also to the pharmaceutical industry in potentially developing drugs to target Candida albicans in immunocompromised
people.

60: Genetic suppressors of the Arabidopsis pex6-1 mutant

Kendall Burks
Peroxisomes are eukaryotic organelles that sequester metabolically essential oxidative reactions. In Arabidopsis thaliana, peroxisomal pex) mutants exhibit characteristic phenotypic defects that
provide a framework for understanding peroxisome biogenesis
and function. The Arabidopsis pex6-1 mutant carries a mutation
identical to one found in human patients with a heritable peroxisome biogenesis disorder. This mutant is deficient in the import of
oxidative enzymes that promote seedling growth prior to photosynthetic competence. When grown without a fixed carbon source
in the dark, pex6-1 seedlings display short hypocotyls, a phenotype that can be corrected with exogenous sucrose. To elucidate
the molecular functions of PEX6, we are screening for suppressor
mutations that restore sucrose independence to pex6-1. To date,
we have isolated 3 confirmed suppressor mutations that show
varying extents of suppression. After determining if any of these
mutations are allelic with the single pex6-1 suppressor previously described, we plan to identify the defective genes through
whole-genome sequencing. By studying peroxisomal deficiencies
in plants with the same genetic defects as humans, we may better
understand not only the functioning of peroxisomes in plants, but
also the etiology of these fatal diseases.

61: Engineered, Affordable Glycans as New Antimicrobials

Pooja Yesantharao
Though gastroenteritis is a common cause of morbidity and
mortality worldwide, especially in infants in the developing world,
vaccines against such enteric infections are largely ineffective.
This poses a need to produce an effective, economical therapy for
this disease. Human milk oligosaccharides such as 2-fucosyllactose could serve as suitable antimicrobials, because they mimic
the interactions between histoblood group antigens and viruses,
and therefore prevent pathogen-host binding. This project aims
to prepare a carbohydrate analog for viral binding and inhibition
containing a 2-fucosyllactose-like linkage. Multiple experimental
pathways have been unsuccessfully explored to synthesize 2-fucosyllactose through the use of a lacZ- lacY+ lacI- strain of MG1655
E. coli with serial deletion of the purR, fucI, and wcaJ genes. In
this study, we harvest and investigate the viral inhibitory capacity
of the O-polysaccharide component of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
on O128:B12 E. coli, which contains a Fuc1,2Gal linkage that
is similar to 2-fucosyllactose. We have engineered and optimized
O128:B12 to overexpress LPS, through altered growth conditions
or bacterial transformations with the ypdI, rcsB, or lpxC genes.
Our results will point to a powerful method for large-scale synthesis of complex carbohydrates and a new therapeutic approach
for gastroenteritis.

62: Effects of Mutation Accumulation on Relative Fitness of

Escherichia coli

Marie-Therese Valovska
Strong evolutionary selection forces lead to predictable mutations
in a species genotype, and corresponding changes in phenotypic

18

characteristics. In the case of strong selection pressure, mutations

must generate beneficial traits and increase the overall fitness
of the organism, or the species risks extinction. Adaptation to
ecologically complex environments, on the other hand, involves
weak selection forces, which yield less predictable mutations as
an increase in fitness is not necessary for survival. Under such
conditions, even the accumulation of deleterious mutations is
not fatal, and as a result, they are allowed to persist. In previous
research, we used parallel evolution to identify adaptive mutations
in twelve lines of E. coli 1 which were evolved independently in
nutrient-rich media. We determined that mutations in global
regulators ArcA and RpoS play a large role in metabolic selection
during adaptation to complex environments (Saxer et al. 2014).
Here, we designed mutation accumulation (MA) experiments to
minimize the effects of selection across independently evolved,
bottlenecked lines. We used genome sequencing and relative
fitness assays to determine the genotypic and phenotypic effects of
mutation accumulation in order to better understand the role of
weak selection forces.

63: Changes in Oligosaccharide Structure of MUC1 in Cervical

Mucus Serve as Markers of Implantation Window

Judy Yang
The timing of embryo transfer in the endometrium is important
in in vitro fertilization. MUC 1 is a mucin glycoprotein found in
high amounts in the cervical mucus with a protein core that is
heavily substituted with O-linked oligosaccharides. In previous
studies, oligosaccharide structures and assembly in female reproductive tract tissues have been shown to change in response to
hormones during the menstrual cycle. However, no studies have
used the changes in mucin-associated oligosaccharide structures
of the cervical mucus to monitor such progressions and their
effectiveness. This study aims to determine whether or not the
cervical mucus profiles of MUC1 and changes in their oligosaccharides are effective markers of the implantation window.
Changes will be determined by testing patient cervical mucus
samples on various lectins, which have different binding specificities to oligosaccharide structures. An optimized mucin capture
ELISA protocol will be followed to determine mucin levels on
these lectins.

64: Competition between the sexes

Emily Begnel
In dioecious plants, the spatial segregation of sexes (SSS) occurs
when certain traits limit each sex to a separate microhabitat. One
mechanism that could determine the SSS is competition. However, there is still limited knowledge on how males and females react
to the presence of conspecific and interspecific competitors. To
better understand how males and females respond to competition,
we studied the dioecious grass Poa arachnifera (Texas Bluegrass)
in two greenhouse experiments. In the first experiment, we
grew P. arachnifera males and females with either same-sex or
opposite-sex individuals. We found that females grew more and
exerted a stronger competitive effect than males. In the second
experiment, we grew P. arachnifera individuals with the annual
grass Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) in a combination of relative
frequencies and absolute densities of each species. Current results
suggest females exert much stronger competitive effects than
males on B. tectorum. This result further supports the finding

that the intra-and inter-specific competitive ability of females is a

contributing cause of female bias observed in certain P. arachnifera field populations.

65: The Effects of Glycosaminoglycans on Elastin Fine Structure

Nkechi Nwabueze
Every year, more than 5 million Americans learn that they have
heart valve disease. The focus of our research is the extracellular
matrix (ECM), a non-cellular component of tissues that is necessary to provide structural support in heart valves. One such ECM
component is elastin. The formation of elastin fiber involves a
glycosaminoglycan (GAG) binding to the elastin binding protein
(EBP) and greatly reducing its affinity for tropoelastin. In some
cases, this inhibits elastic fiber formation. Previous studies have
shown that GAG binding is dependent upon GAGs fine structure,
which is regulated by the length of the chain, the sulfanation pattern, and the epimerization of the GAG chain by GAG enzymes.
We hypothesize that adding shRNA of key GAG enzymes would
affect the quality of the elastin fiber. In order to assess the quality
of the shRNA enzymes, a screening was done to determine the
best shRNA sequences to use in later experiments. We discovered that CHPF and CHSY enzymes are the best to use in future
experiments. In order to test our hypothesis, we will screen these
two enzymes, host them in AAV viruses, and test their effects on
cardiomyocytes.

66: Doxycycline Inducible Cas9 Genome Editing in Murine Embryonic Stem Cells

Younghoon (Daniel) Lee

Specific gene mutations cause genetic disorders such as cancer and overgrowth syndrome. New discoveries involving the
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat
(CRISPR)-associated RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9 have made
a new method of eukaryotic genome editing feasible, facilitating
biomedical research. Cas9 can utilize short guide RNAs (sgRNA)
that target specific sequences to create mutations through nonhomologous end-joining or precise corrections through homology-directed repair. However, the Cas9 sequence is difficult to
deliver due to its large size, and prolonged expression of the Cas9
protein may lead to off target mutations. To mitigate these factors,
murine embryonic stem cells containing a gene for a doxycycline
inducible Cas9 protein were engineered via inducible cassette
exchange into the Hprt locus. An inducible Cas9 system will allow
for temporal control of Cas9 expression, decreasing off target
effects. This system would also decrease the complexity of genome
editing with Cas9, only requiring the transfection of sgRNA. After
doxycycline treatment, Cas9 expression was confirmed through
Western Blots. Cas9 functionality was tested by surveyor assays
after transfection of sgRNAs that target the sequences for Tet1,
Tet2, Tet3, and Dnmt3a proteins. An inducible Cas9 system will
enable the generation of an inducible Cas9 murine model in the
future.

67: Targeted Engager T-cell Therapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Nicholos Joseph
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a blood cancer which remains
incurable for many patients. Immunotherapy with T-cells is an
attractive treatment strategy to improve outcomes because it does
not rely on the cytotoxic mechanisms of conventional therapies.

We have developed a new genetic approach to create T-cells specific for tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) by expressing a secretable, bispecific Engager protein in T-cells. This protein binds to
a TAA present on tumor cells and CD3 expressed on T-cells. The
objective of this project is now to develop AML-specific Engager
T-cells. For our approach, we decided to target CD123, a TAA that
is expressed at high levels on AML cells. CD123-Engager T-cells
recognized and killed CD123+ AML cells as judged by cytokine
production and cytolytic activity. In addition, CD123-Engager
T-cells had potent anti-AML effects in an animal model. However, CD123 is also present at low levels on normal hematopoietic
stem cells, raising safety concerns. We are therefore evaluating
inducible suicide genes to allow the selective destruction of
CD123-Engager T-cells in the event of unwanted side effects.
In conclusion, our results obtained so far indicate that targeting
AML with CD123-Engager T-cells may present a promising therapeutic approach for AML.

68: Genetic differences in social preference among male and

female fruit flies

Meghan Hager, Francie Hessel

We aim to understand the parameters of intra-population individual differences in behavior using methods from evolutionary ecology, population genetics, and phenotypic plasticity. We use fruit
flies, Drosophila melanogaster, as the model systems in behavior
trials to quantify the social interactions and behaviors of the fruit
fly. In order to do this, we study the social preference, defined as
the desired group size composed of a standard genotype and relative location in the study habitat, of a focal individual with differing sex and genotype. By comparing the correlation between different focal individuals genotypes and their social preference for
size of group, we aim to quantify social behaviors. We hypothesized there would be a statistically significant correlation between
sex and social preference of the fruit flies. Though our research
is currently preliminary, a logistic regression statistical analysis
revealed males are more social than females, as they spend more
time on food patches. In addition, we concluded that females tend
to prefer smaller group sizes than males. These results provide an
important and interesting development into the social behavior
of fruit flies as little is understood about their group interactions
(especially female interactions). We aim to continue analysis of
our data in order to determine the mechanisms through which
diversity is maintained in situations of selection and drift.

69: Analysis of Inflammatory Caspase Activation

Jonathan Liu
Inflammatory caspases, such as caspase-1, -4, and -5, are important in regulating inflammation. These caspases are activated
by dimerization when recruited to protein complexes known as
inflammasomes. Here, we use Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation (BiFC) to measure the dimerization of inflammatory caspases. BiFC uses non-fluorescent fragments of the Venus
protein that can be fused to the caspase domain that regulates
activation. The rejoining of Venus fragments results in increased
fluorescence that represents dimerization. Previously, we have
shown activation of caspase-1 by ASC using BiFC. We confirmed
the specificity of BiFCby introducing a D59R point mutation in
caspase-1 that interfered with activation by ASC. We observed
homodimerization of caspase-1 induced by inflammasomes such

19

as ASC, NALP1, NALP3, IPAF, and AIM2. The overexpression of

such inflammasomes allowed us to reconstitute inflammasome
and caspase interactions. We also investigated the interactions between different inflammasomes and observed that the activation
of caspase-1 by ASC and NALP1/NALP3 appeared to be additive,
rather than synergistic, which suggests independent binding. We
investigated possibilities of heterodimerization and observed that
ASC, NALP1 and NALP3 induced heterodimerization between
caspase-1 and caspase-4. Further research will continue to explore
the role of inflammasomes in inducing activation of caspase
homo/heterodimers.

70: Factors Affecting Hemodialysis Treatment Outcomes in End

Stage Renal Disease Patients

Mariam Hussain, Sahar Noorani

Hemodialysis treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is
known to reduce blood pressure. Through an observational study,
we sought to determine the effects of hemodialysis on blood pressure of ESRD patients in an inner city public hospital. Medical records from 56 emergency room ESRD patients undergoing hemodialysis from June 2012-June 2013 were obtained. Patients initial
hemodialysis date, age, sex, dialysis bout time, and blood pressure
before and after hemodialysis were studied. Statistical analyses
were performed using a one-sample t-test (alpha = 0.05) and a
Wilcoxon rank sum (alpha = 0.05). On average, there was a drop
in systolic blood pressure of 6.453 points upon dialysis. There was
statistically significant correlation (p = 0.0422) between months
since first dialysis and average change in systolic blood pressure.
There was no significant correlation between age (p = 0.0591), sex
(p=0.3705), or dialysis bout time (3 hours versus 3-4 hours) (p =
0.2944) and average change in systolic blood pressure. In conclusion, within an inner city hospital population, increased dialysis
sessions over time cause smaller average systolic blood pressure
changes after treatment. Age during treatment, sex, and dialysis
bout time do not significantly affect systolic blood pressure.

71: Representation of Eccentricity in the Human Superior

Colliculus

Ibrahim Akbar
The human superior colliculus (SC), a laminar midbrain structure on the dorsal brainstem, is a critical region involved in gaze
orientation and covert visual attention. Previous animal research has demonstrated retinotopic maps for visual stimulation
in the superficial layers of the SC; other studies have confirmed
that the human SC contains retinotopic maps of polar angle
for visual stimuli. In this study, we attempted to establish the
presence of a retinotopic map for eccentricity using high-resolution fMRI. The experiments had subjects fixate on a point
while performing a speed-discrimination task on a sequence of
moving-dot stimuli displayed in annular sectors with increasing
eccentricity from the fovea. fMRI time-series data were first
processed by depth averaging through SC superficial layers. The
data were then fit with sinusoids, providing a temporal phase
that encoded the eccentricity of the stimulus upon the screen.
The results confirmed that a map of eccentricity existed in
each subjects contralateral superior colliculus. Greater understanding of the SCs retinotopic mapping gives us more insight
into the visual systems functional architecture. This creates
the potential to find future medical solutions for patients with

20

visual deficits or eye movement disorders, such as strabismus

and nystagmus.

72: Correlating dose and LET with Pulmonary function from

lung PET images

Donnie Kim
Proton therapy has many advantages over classical photon
radiation therapies due to its superior dose distribution. Proton
particles have a sharp Bragg peak and distal falloff; thus, one can
accurately deliver the dose to the target while minimizing the
damage to healthy tissues. However, one prominent uncertainty of
the proton therapy comes from our failure to completely understand the Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) of protons. To
gain a better understanding of proton RBE, one can use clinical
data to optimize the RBE and dose response models. By using the
patients post-treatment PET images, one can objectively assess
the lung toxicity levels and correlate them with dose and linear
energy transfer (LET). This can give us insight into the effects of
dose and LET on RBE.

73: TRAF4 Promotes Androgen Independent Growth in Prostate Cancer

Dileep Karri
The current challenge in prostate cancer research is to develop
effective treatments for castration-resistant prostate cancers
(CRPC). Understanding the mechanism of CRPC development
may provide potential therapeutic targets. Here we report that
TRAF4 (tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor 4),
a gene identified from a high throughput cytotoxic resistance
screening, promotes prostate cancer androgen-independent
growth and invasion; it is also overexpressed in metastatic CRPCs.
We found that TRAF4 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase, and that its
ligase activity is important for promoting androgen-independent
growth. Mass spectrometry revealed direct interaction between
TRAF4 and the androgen receptor (AR). TRAF4 ubiquitinates
the AR ligand-binding domain. In contrast to common ubiquitination-mediated protein degradation, this ubiquitination stabilized AR and increased its translocalization from the cytoplasm
to the nucleus. In addition, TRAF4 overexpression promoted
androgen-independent AR transcriptional activity. Real time
PCR showedthat upon TRAF4 overexpression, AR promotes
the transcription of a unique set of genes often upregulated in
androgen-independent growth. Our current hypothesis is that
the ubiquitination of AR by TRAF4 results in the upregulation of
genes that promote androgen-independent cell growth.

74: Modeling the Interaction Between Competition and

Traplining in Bumblebees

Nicholas Sabo
Bumblebees trapline, or build and follow paths of preferred
flowers, in order to increase their foraging efficiency. Bees will almost always, however, face competition in nature, both from their
own hive and from outside sources. This competition dynamically
changes the value of the flowers, shifting the most rewarding
foraging strategy. Here, we investigate how competition affects
the behaviors and successes produced by different traplining
strategies. Investigating these multiple variables on a large scale
is difficult both in nature and in the lab, so we developed an object-oriented Python simulation to model different field and hive
structures with changing rules of traplining. The model allows

rapid testing of rules which may have been favored by natural selection. We analyzed the success of these strategies and discussed
implications for the ecology and evolution of bumblebees.

75: Total EEG Power in Neuron Subset-Specific Pten (NS-Pten)

Knockout (KO) Mice

Santiago Avila
Neuron subset-specific Pten (NS-Pten) knockout (KO) mice
model the human disorder cortical dysplasia (CD), which is often
associated with intractable epilepsy. NS-Pten KO mice demonstrate critical aspects of CD, including abnormal EEGs. This study
focused on comparing spectral power bandwidth at 8-13wks in
KO and wild type (WT) mice. WT (n=10) and KO (n=11) mice
were EEG monitored for 4h at 8-13wks of age. 10s epochs of
baseline interictal EEG (sampling rate of 250Hz, filtered between
0.5-70Hz) were randomly chosen after the first 30m up to the end
of the recording and were analyzed using Fast Fourier Transform
to determine total and relative spectral power of (1-4Hz), (48Hz), (8-13Hz), (13-30Hz), and (30-50Hz) bands of the wild
type (WT) and KO mice at 8 and 13 weeks. A decrease in power
range and increases in and power ranges (p<0.05) at 8wks
in KO mice as compared to WT mice were demonstrated. These
differences were no longer detected at 13wks (p=NS). The spectral
power differences observed suggest developmental differences
in the neuronal networks between the KO and WT mice. Future
studies will further characterize these differences.

76: 3D Mapping and Characterization of Plant Genomes

Christopher Lui
The human genome contains roughly two meters of DNA,
compacted into a nucleus with a diameter of 10 m. This suggests
that the genome folds into a complex, three dimensional conformation. To investigate how the genome folds, high-throughput
chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) is now widely used to
map genome-wide chromatin interactions. Resulting studies have
uncovered fundamental features of nuclear architecture in mammals (humans and mice), such as contact domains and chromatin
loops. It is reasonable to expect that other organisms, such as
plants and fungi, may contain genomic features that differ from
those of mammals. To date, the few papers that have applied Hi-C
to plants have focused exclusively on the model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. A larger, more diverse set of data will allow for
a more detailed comparative analysis of the physical structure of
plant genomes. I will conduct the Hi-C protocol on various plant
species, including Arabidopsis, and attempt to optimize its usage
in plants. Through analyzing the chromatin interaction data, I aim
to investigate the architecture of plant genomes, its effect on gene
regulation, and the presence of potential novel genomic features.

77: Effect of Dragonfly Larvae on Algal Standing Crop in a Simple Aquatic Community

Alexandra Thom
Previous studies of algal growth for biofuel production have
shown that the top down control of algal consumers by predatory
fish is critical for community stability and resistance to invasion
by native algae species. However, a study in Houston, Texas indicated that the absence of such fish did not significantly affect algal
growth. Here, we investigated whether similar top down control
of a simple aquatic community could be provided by dragonfly

larvae. We tested this relationship by measuring standing crops

of algae (chlorophyll a absorbance and dry mass) grown in tanks
with Daphnia pulex grazers and with or without dragonfly larvae.
If dragonfly larvae are effective controllers of Daphnia grazing,
we expect that absorbance and mass will be higher in tanks with
larvae present. This result might suggest why the Houston study
differed from previous investigations and could highlight the importance of considering regional differences in local community
composition when using open-air algal bioreactors.

78: Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in Symbiont Diversity

of Stony Corals in the northwest Gulf of Mexico

Cathy Cheng
Reefs in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
(FGBNMS) in the northwest Gulf of Mexico (NW GoM) have
among the highest coral cover in the Caribbean. Algal endosymbionts (genus Symbiodinium) can promote coral health by
helping colonies acclimatize to anthropogenic and environmental
threats; This project will help establish the first significant baseline
information regarding Symbiodinium diversity in the NW GoM.
First, we will identify the distribution of dominant Symbiodinium genotypes in reef-building corals from 2014-15 across two
main FGBNMS reefs (East and West Flower Garden Banks) via
a community fingerprinting approach (Restriction Fragment
Length Polymorphisms of 28S-like rDNA). Second, we will
measure coral colony size, density, and bleaching prevalence in
Pseudodiploria strigosa and Colpophyllia natans from 222 longterm photomonitoring plots in 2006, 2007, and 2014, using image
analysis software (area and random point assignment). This will
provide insights into colony health trajectories following the 2005
Caribbean bleaching event, especially since less is known about
symbionts in P. strigose and C. natans compared to other dominant Caribbean corals. Our results will contribute to comparisons
in coral-symbiont associations between the NW GoM and the
greater Caribbean, and add new dimensions for managing coral
recovery and conservation in the NW GoM.

79: Effects of Spread of Invasive Nylanderia fula on Ant and

Arthropod Species in the Big Thicket Region

Radina Khalid
The Tawny Crazy Ant, Nylanderia fulva, is an invasive species that
has been rapidly spreading across the Southeastern United States
since its current outbreak in Pearland, Texas in 2002. This project
intends to determine which factors contribute to where N. fulva
spreads and its impact on previously existing ant and arthropod
communities. Pitfall sampling was performed in collection localities, each containing five pitfall traps. Six major units (with twice
as many pitfalls) and six corridor units were sampled, compiling
to a total of 90 pitfalls across the Big Thicket National. Pitfall
sampling and species identification were conducted twice, once in
May and the next in September, to determine N. fulvas impact on
other ants and arthropod species and whether the spatial distribution of N. fulva has changed. It was found that N. fulva were present in the Big Thicket region and may have effects on preexisting
ant and arthropod species population dynamics. Acknowledging
the threat invasive species pose to native species, such findings
are integral in tracking N. fulva movement and growth in the Big
Thicket National Preserve, a nature preserve aiming to protect
native species.

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80: Influence of 2D vs. 3D Growth Platforms on Chemotherapeutic Treatment Outcomes Between HPV+ and HPV- Head and
Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Rahul Kothari
Head and neck cancers affect over 500,000 individuals per year
and 95% of these cases are diagnosed as head and neck squamous
cell carcinoma (HNSCC). These carcinomas are categorized into
cancers induced by human papilloma virus (HPV+) and cancers
induced by carcinogens, such as alcohol and tobacco (HPV-).
HPV- cancers, which cause mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, have distinct etiologies, clinical behaviors, and treatment outcomes compared to HPV+ cancers. In HPV+ cancers,
the HPV virus produces the E6 oncogene that blocks the p53
pathway, making HPV+ cancers mostly resilient to chemotherapy
drugs, but particularly susceptible to radiation treatments. While
many studies in 2D have been conducted, there is an absence
of studies of treatments on HNSCCs in 3D, which could theoretically provide a more accurate diagnostic tool for measuring
responses to therapies. This study aims to find any differences in
treatment outcomes between HPV+ and HPV- HNSCCs grown in
2D versus 3D. The obtained dose-response curves of treatments in
2D and 3D growth platforms can be compared to each other and
to corresponding curves in clinical trials to determine the difference in treatment outcomes and diagnostic predictability between
HPV+ and HPV- cancers grown in 2D versus 3D.

81: Can aboveground disturbances affect plant-mycorrhizal

associations?

Allie Schaich
In many ecosystems, symbiotic relationships form between
species, where both species mutually benefit from the other. A
specific type of these relationships is one between the roots of
plants and mycorrhizae. The plant depends on the fungus for
higher nutrient transfer, and the fungus depends on the plants
root as a place for colonization, meaning the fungus can form an
extensive network. However, because each partner in this symbiosis relies on the other, a disturbance to either may disrupt the
mutualism. Because mycorrhizae rely on plants to persist in the
soil, disturbance to aboveground vegetation may lead to a decline
in mycorrhizal populations in the soil, which could influence the
suitability of the soil for newly colonizing plants. We tested the
hypothesis that treefall gaps could disrupt the association between
plants and mycorrhizae. On the island of Guam we examined
the growth and mycorrhizal colonization rate of three common
tree species in three soil treatment types: closed canopy, recently created gaps and significantly older gaps. We did not find an
association between presence or treefall gap age on either plant
growth rate or mycorrhizal colonization, demonstrating that
above ground disturbance does not necessarily cause disruptions
in belowground mutualisms.

82: The Effect of MEK Inhibition through Trametinib on Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (cuSCC) progression

Varun Bansal
Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cuSCC) is an understudied disease for which no targeted therapy exists. This study
evaluated whether trametinib can be used as a therapeutic tool in
the treatment of cuSCC. Specifically, levels of the MAPK protein
phospho-ERK and the cell cycle proteins Cyclin D1 (positive cell

22

cycle regulator) and p21 (negative cell cycle regulator) were studied. Cell viability assays showed that increasing concentrations of
trametinib reduced cell viability to differing degrees in patient-derived cuSCC lines (SCCT8, RDEB3, SRB1, and SRB12), indicating
that trametinib likely reduces cuSCC cell growth. In cuSCC cells
treated with trametinib, phospho-ERK levels decreased with
increasing trametinib concentration, showing that trametinib
treatment was on-target and sufficient to suppress downstream
targets of MEK. Also, cyclin D1 levels decreased and p21 levels increased with treatment, suggesting that MAPK pathway activation
is necessary for cuSCC proliferation. In vitro efficacy was validated in a spontaneous model of cuSCC, and corresponding pathway
changes were confirmed via immunohistochemistry. Future work
may lead to the development of more effective combination therapies with trametinib.

83: MicroRNA-194 Regulates Hepatocytic Differentiation by

Targeting YAP1

Chong Zhou
As one of the most abundant classes of gene regulatory molecules,
microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to target mRNAs for
degradation or post-translational repression. Recent experiments
have revealed many of the genes targeted and thereby regulated by
miRNAs. However, the specific involvement of miRNAs in liver
development remains poorly understood. By using the HepaRG
cell line as a model for induced and controlled differentiation, we
identified miR-194 as being highly expressed in differentiated progenitor-like cells and being critical for hepatic differentiation and
development. Here, we show that overexpression of miR-194 leads
to earlier and more pronounced differentiated phenotypes. We
also identified Yap1 and Notch2 as specific target genes of miR194. Furthermore, direct knockdown of Yap1 promoted hepatocytic differentiation in HepaRG progenitor cells. Taken together,
our data suggests that miR-194 positively regulates hepatocyte
differentiation in progenitor-like HepaRG cells by repressing Yap1
expression.

84: Tumor-specific T-cell Immunotherapy Targeting Osteosarcoma

Victoria Tobin
The goal of this project is to develop an effective T-cell immunotherapy for osteosarcoma (OS), the most common primary bone
tumor. The prognosis for patients with advanced OS remains poor
and novel therapies are needed. T-cell immunotherapy has the
potential to meet this need; however, it is critical to generate T
cells that only recognize OS and expand at tumor sites to prevent
unwanted toxicities. While most solid tumors like OS do not
express a unique tumor associated antigen (TAA), they express
a unique pattern or antigen address. We have shown in a model
system that it is feasible to generate T cells that only get fully activated in the presence of 2 TAAs. The goal of this project is now to
adapt this approach to OS targeting B7-H3 and EphA2, two TAAs
expressed in OS. We will generate bispecific T cells by retroviral
transduction and test their function in vitro and in a preclinical
animal model. In conclusion, we are interested in developing T
cells with true pattern-recognition ability, and as a first step have
designed T cells that recognize two TAAs. While we are adapting
this approach to OS, our approach could be applied to other solid
tumors.

85: Effects of elevated CO2 on the effectiveness of biocontrol

James Henriksen
Climate change may alter the interactions between invasive plant
species and the biocontrol agents introduced to manage them. As
atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, changes in these organisms interactions and the efficacy of biocontrol may occur. We explored how elevated carbon dioxide levels influenced the invasive
plant (alligator weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides) and its interactions with an introduced biocontrol beetle (alligator weed flea
beetle, Agasicles hygrophila). Previous studies have shown that
warming increases biocontrol efficacy, but have not indicated the
effects of carbon dioxide. Further understanding of how climate
change effects the interactions of plants and herbivores will assist
in the management of invasive plants.

86: The Effects of Veillonella dispar on Candida albicans

Christopher VanGundy
This project examines the effects of Veillonella dispar on Candida
albicans under different environmental conditions. These include
the choice of media in which Candida albicans is grown, as well
as other factors such as the growth form and metabolism of C.
albicans through the use of homozygous mutants of the same,
in order to determine the mechanism and reasoning behind the
observed inhibition of Candida albicans by Veillonella dispar.

87: A Key Step Towards Biological Joint Replacement: Preventing Hypertrophic Differentiation of hPSC-Derived Chondrocytes

John Lee
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) can be used to derive a
wide variety of functional cells. For instance, chondroprogenitor
cells derived from hPSCs can be further differentiated to form
chondrocytes and treat cartilage injury or degenerative disorders
such as osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, these chondrocytes possess
the drawback of overmaturation (i.e. hypertrophic differentiation,
mineralization, and then conversion to bone) upon in vivo transplantation. We hypothesized that small molecules can be used to
control the signaling mechanisms known to affect chondrocyte
hypertrophic differentiation. To test our hypothesis, hPSC-derived chondroprogenitor cells were expanded and maintained in
vitro with various small molecules that upregulate cAMP (Forskolin) or inhibit the canonical Wnt pathway (Verapamil, KY0211,
and iCRT14). Upon maturation, mRNA from these cartilage
pellets were extracted and quantified through RT-PCR to measure
the levels of COL2a1 (pre-hypertrophic chondrocyte marker)
and COL10a1 (hypertrophic chondrocyte marker). While the
canonical Wnt inhibitors failed to demonstrate the repression of
hypertrophism, Forskolin-treated chondrocytes exhibited complete inhibition of hypertrophism as observed from the virtually
non-existent levels of Type X Collagen transcript. To test the in
vivo effects of Forskolin, Forskolin-treated chondrocytes have
been transplanted into mice to ideally indicate the maintenance of
cartilage in their chondrogenic state after 60 days.

88: The Effect of Kosmotrope Addition on Heating Rates of

Saline Solutions

Asad Haider
Exposure to radiofrequency (RF) has been proposed as a treatment for liver cancer. It has been found that cancer cells heat
faster than normal cells, and RF heating can be used as a hy-

perthermia treatment for cancer. Animals use kosmotropes, or

antifreeze agents, to protect themselves from the cold, as they
increase heating rate. Therefore, experiments have been done on
kosmotropes added to phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solutions
to see if heating rate increases. Different kosmotropes were tested
for their effect on heating rate, which included sucrose, maltose,
trehalose, glucose, glycerol, ethylene glycol, and propylene glycol.
It was found that sucrose and glycerol increased the heating rate
the most. Subsequent concentration-dependent studies showed
that sucrose and glycerol indeed increased heating rate with
increasing concentration. Findings so far show that glycols show
much promise in increasing the heating rate of PBS solutions.
This can hopefully be used in cancer treatment, as kosmotropes
are thought to increase the difference in heating rate between
healthy and cancer cells. In addition, glycerol and ethylene glycol
can be ingested in moderate quantities safely, providing the way
for clinical studies. In the future, more studies on the effect of
other kosmotropes on heating rate in PBS solutions will be done.

89: Discovering New Genes Associated with Parkinsons Disease

Anita Kaw
Parkinsons disease (PD) is a common and incurable neurodegenerative disorder with evidence for substantial genetic risk; up to
a third of PD patients have known family histories. So far, only a
small fraction of gene variants associated with PD have been identified. This study aims to identify novel gene variants associated
with familial PD. Whole exome sequencing and array comparative
genomic hybridization are being performed in a cohort of 100
familial PD cases in order to identify novel susceptibility variants.
Our preliminary results already reveal potential new alleles at
established risk loci such as a heterozygous p.C33W variant in
VPS35, which is involved in retrograde transport of transmembrane proteins from endosomes to trans-Golgi, and a deletion
in PARK2, which codes for a component of E3 ubiquitin ligase.
Ongoing analyses of the full data set are expected to identify
additional novel variants associated with PD, including potentially
disease-causing mutations. The discovery of PD-associated genes
may aid in earlier PD diagnosis, determining the heritability of
the disease, and ultimately improving therapies for PD.

90: Energetic and Immunological Costs of Co-infection in

Tribolium confusum

Laura Krannich
Co-infection occurs when a host is concurrently infected with
multiple parasites. Host susceptibility to new infections is predicted to be modified by imposing energetic and immunological
costs, which can have important implications for disease dynamics. Co-infection with the common gregarine parasite, Gregarina
spp, is known to increase the susceptibility of the flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) to the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
In this study, we investigated whether this effect is modulated by
the depletion of host energy or by the inability of the immune
system to respond to multiple threats simultaneously. We placed
beetle larvae into three resource quality treatments and manipulated gregarine exposure. We then infected all beetles with Bt and
analyzed time to death and gregarine and bacterial densities at
death. We predicted that, under an energetic trade-off structure,
host susceptibility would decrease with increasing resources, and
that bacterial growth would decrease with increasing gregarine

23

density. If a multiple fronts cost modulates the trade-off, then immunity should be diverted from antibacterial responses in a gregarine dose-dependent manner, leading to a positive relationship
between parasite and bacterial densities. We expect our results to
suggest that co-infection is likely to qualitatively alter predictions
for disease dynamics in insect populations.

91: Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-derived Exosomes on

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia-associated Pulmonary Hypertension

Henry Bair
Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a condition in newborns characterized by diaphragm malformation during embryogenesis and the resulting pulmonary hypertension/hypoplasia.
Abnormal angiogenesis and vasculogenesis during embryonic
pulmonary development may underlie the mortality associated
with CDH. Pathologic development of the pulmonary artery (PA)
likely drives the progression of pulmonary hypertension, though
the diseases vascular pathophysiology remains unclear, limiting
treatment targets. In animal models of pulmonary hypertension,
mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to suppress
vascular inflammation and encourage vascular remodeling. These
effects may be mediated by MSC-secreted exosomes, microvesicles containing factors with multiple cellular effects. We are
investigating the potential of MSC-derived exosomes to alter
CDH-associated pulmonary hypertension via pulmonary artery
endothelial interactions. Damaged pulmonary artery endothelial
cells are cultured and then treated with MSC-derived exosomes,
to evaluate cell architecture, proliferation, and mobility. Harvested
PAs from a CDH-rodent model is evaluated for alterations in gene
expression; furthermore, PAs were analyzed for functional changes, including contractility and receptive relaxation, in the presence
of MSC-dervied exosomes in an ex vivo organ bath. This research
may lead to development of a novel cellular/sub-cellular therapeutic method to treat CDH-associated pulmonary hypertension.

92: In colored-grapheme synesthesia, why are some graphemes

uncolored?
Swetha Sridhar
Synesthesia is a perceptual condition in which stimulation of one
modality evokes sensation in another modality. In colored-sequence synesthesia, color experiences are triggered by sequences such as letters or numbers. We have analyzed the data from
colored-sequence synesthetes in different languages phenotyped
through the Synesthesia Battery (Eagleman et al, 2007). We found
that for many synesthetes, certain letters of the alphabet are more
likely to be experienced as uncolored. The letters I and O in the
Roman alphabet, for example, are often reported to be uncolored
(black, white, grey or no color). We hypothesize that I and O
are more likely to lack synesthetic color associations because they
are simple shapes (i.e. a line and a circle) that were seen often
well before the alphabet was learned. This hypothesis is supported by our finding that the numbers 1 and 0 are equally likely to
appear as uncolored to synesthetes. In this study, we examine our
hypothesis by studying the letters that have a high probability of
being uncolored for synesthetes who use other scripts, including
Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic and Chinese.

24

93: Developing a Nitrate Sensor in Bacillus Subtilis

Nikola Dyulgyarov
Synthetic probiotics have great potential as smart therapeutic
treatments. To allow gram-positive bacteria to respond to a diseased gut we are creating an extracellular nitrate sensor in Bacillus
subtilis. Nitrate has been shown to be both a biomarker for an
inflamed gut and a promoting factor in the growth of harmful
bacteria. To detect nitrate in B. subtilis we are introducing the
NarX/NarL two-component system from E. coli. Initially we have
focused on recapitulating NarL transcriptional activity. Our first
approach used a chimeric protein with the CcaR DNA-binding
domain, which tightly regulates the CcaR promoter in B. subtilis,
and the NarL phosphorylation domain, in conjunction with a
CcaR promoter expressing sfGFP. Seven different hybrids were
tried and none of them had any effect on the CcaR promoter.
For a second approach we tested the response of an E. coli NarL
regulated promoter and two B. subtilis promoters with synthetically inserted NarL binding sites, to induction by full length NarL
protein. Neither synthetic promoter was responsive to NarL,
however the native E. coli promoter showed NarL dependent
transcription, although overall expression was low. Future work
includes designing new promoters, and mutating the NarL gene
for constitutive action.

94: Female Beetles Exhibit a Higher Cannibalism Rate in a

Population

Carly Biedul
The flour beetle, Tribolium confusum, is known to be cannibalistic; individuals eat their own eggs and larvae. Populations and
strains are known to be more cannibalistic than others, and the
beetle is able to recognize its own offspring. The next step is to
determine the non-environmental factors that influence a populations cannibalism rate. I looked at the sex-specific differences
in cannibalistic rates of a population through various male and
female ratios. Though different strains exhibit different levels of
cannibalism, the females eat more eggs than the males. With more
females in a population, more eggs are eaten and the population
exhibits a higher cannibalistic rate.

95: Behavioral Analysis of Sugar Sensing in Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Alexandra Bulga
In an article by Mishra et al (Cell. 2013; 23: 1466-1471), brain
neurons were determined as necessary and sufficient for determining the main dietary sugars within a potential food source.
This activation of certain neural pathways influences larvaes
behavior in terms of preference for certain types of food and may
be attributed to a post-ingestive mechanism of converting carbohydrates into fructose, a major energy source. The aim of this
experiment was to reproduce the original results of Mishra and
expand on the primary study using alternate nutrient forms.

96: Role of aPKC Phosphorylation on the Tumor Suppressor

Function of Merlin

Tina Chu
Merlin, the protein product of the NF2 tumor suppressor gene,
regulates cell adhesion and polarity by promoting formation of
the junctional polarity complex (JPC), by linking the adherens
junction (AJ) protein -catenin to the apical polarity proteins

Par3 and atypical protein kinase C (aPKC). The JPC is crucial for
establishing apicobasal polarity, forming functional epithelial cell
contacts, and regulating the actin cytoskeleton. We have found
that Merlin function at the JPC is regulated by post-translational
phosphorylation by aPKC. We showed that Merlin is phosphorylated at one or more serine residues by aPKC. My study investigates the interaction between Merlin and aPKC and aPKC to
determine if there is differential regulation of Merlin between the
two isoforms. I hypothesize that Merlin is phosphorylated at more
than one serine residue by different aPKC isoforms resulting in
specific regulation of Merlin at the JPC. We have found that specific serine phosphorylation sites of Merlin effects either Merlin
mediated actin organization or formation of functional TJ. This
data indicates an intricate means of post-translational regulation
of Merlin function at the JPC in epithelial cells suggesting that
alterations in this mode of control could alter epithelial tissue
function.

97: Quantifying degranulation between NK and target cells

using imaging flow cytometry

Dixita Viswanath
Natural Killer (NK) cells are lymphocytes critical to human innate
immunity that primarily participate in the survey and killing of
virally infected, transformed, or stressed cells within the body.
This function is dependent upon the formation of an immunological synapse (IS), a specialized signaling platform through which
the NK cell secretes lysosomal organelles containing cytotoxic
perforin and granzymes. Traditionally, structural and functional
studies of the IS have used high resolution microscopy, which is
time-consuming and requires relatively large sample volumes. In
this study, we have developed a novel approach of studying NK
cell cytoxicity using Imaging Flow Cytometry (IFC). Applications
of the approach have been used to define the immune synapse
(IS) and to quantify directed versus non-directed secretion of lytic
granules at the IS. Through this work, IFC has been optimized as
a powerful tool for immunologic investigation of small volume
sampling.

98: Comparison of Risk Scores Performance in the Evaluation

and Identification of High-Risk Patients Presenting with Chest
Pain in the the Emergency Department

Emily Huang
In the United States, chest pain and other symptoms consistent
with acute coronary syndrome are the second most common reason for presenting to the emergency department. Of these, only a
certain percentage are high-risk patients, who need to be seen and
treated immediately. Emergency departments employ a number
of lengthy and sometimes expensive procedures in order to form
conclusive differential diagnoses regarding the patients condition
and begin the proper treatment plan. Various studies have been
conducted in order to create a more organized and rapid method
of diagnosis, and as a result, several risk scores are currently in
circulation. The primary goal of this study is to compare the capability of each risk score in identifying patients of high risk. Data
consisting of the clinical assessment, history, and lab results as
well as records of the following 30 days has been compiled for 334
patients and will be analyzed for a comparison of how effective
each score is in predicting the patients level of risk. The pending
results of this project will be significant in the world of emer-

gency medicine as they can be applied to encouraging increased

implementation of the most competent risk score in emergency
departments.

99: PICC Line Infection Rates in Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients: A Retrospective Study

Anoosha Moturu
Peripherally Inserted Central Cathers (PICCs) are commonly
used in pediatrics as they are placed using minimally invasive
procedure and provide stable vascular access for repeated drug
delivery and blood sampling. This access is essential for many
patient populations including children diagnosed with Acute
Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A common complication of having a
PICC is line infection. Children undergoing treatment for AML
have an increased risk of infection due to the immune suppressive
side effects of their chemotherapy regimen. This retrospective
study was designed to analyze PICC line infection rates in AML
patients based on a variety of risk factors including line securement, length of time the line is in place, and location of line placement. It is hypothesized that in AML patients there is increased
incidence of line infections and that varying these risk factors
may increase or decrease infection rates. Data on risk factors
was collected from AML patient records from Texas Childrens
Hospital. The pending results of this study will show the correlation between the discussed risk factors and infection rates in AML
patients. These results can be used to reconsider proper precautionary measures to minimize infection rates when placing PICC
lines in these and similar patient populations.

100: Cell Specific Profiling of Translated mRNA during Fungal

Infection of Zebrafish

Neena Pai
There is still much to learn about pathogen-host immune system
dynamics. Better understanding of these processes can be applied
to improving pathogen resistance in humans and healthcare.
While other studies investigate the stress response in C. albicans
and the immune response in D. rerio in isolation, this study seeks
to investigate the interactions between the two organisms in vivo.
By studying yeast and zebrafish simultaneously in their entirety,
this better accounts for the complexities that intact organisms
provide. The ultimate goal of this study is to identify which genes
are active during different time points of infection within both
organisms. To accomplish this, primers specific for each species
have been selected through qPCR experiments. A unique DNA
extraction protocol sensitive to zebrafish and yeast DNA has
been developed, and is currently in the process of being studied.
Lastly, a plasmid enabling the fluorescence and epitope-tagging
of yeast ribosomes is in its second stage of development. Each of
these three components brings the study one step closer to the
extraction of mRNA from active yeast ribosomes, which will be
used to determine which genes are active during infection.

101: Determining the Function of Candida albicans Genes

through Knockout Strains

Harry Liu
Candida albicans are a species of eukaryotic fungi from the family
Saccharomycetaceae. C. albicans exist in two shapes: a yeast cell
and a virulent hyphae cell. It is possible for this family of fungi to
switch between the two shapes. These fungi live inside almost all

25

humans, and they have adapted to us. However, this fungus can
become deadly, especially to those with a compromised immune
system. Although the genes of C. albicans have been sequenced,
the purposes of all of these genes have not been discovered. One
of the largest families of genes is the IFA family. This family of
genes appeared recently, but the purpose of its thirty genes has
not been discovered. All that is known is that when expression
of these genes is tampered with, the growth of its hyphae will
change. This study used IFA 10 and IFA 21 to attempt to discover
some of the purposes of these genes. Non-phosphorylatable C.
albicans mutants were created with phusion PCR being run on
IFA 10 and IFA 21 primers to create mutants. After successful
creation of these mutants, their phenotypes were examined to
determine whether phosphorylation sites have an influence on
hyphae growth. The CRISPR-Cas system was also used to knock
out multiple genes. The reasoning is that multiple IFA genes may
be contributing to hyphae growth rather than just one IFA gene.
Knocking out all the related genes may show a more significant
difference in hyphae growth.

102: Developing Gas Biosensor to Understand Biochar Effects on

Microbial Communication

Nebula (Jiaying) Han

Biochar, produced by pyrolysis of biomass, is a prospective approach to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide and increase agricultural productivity as a soil amendment. Yet the performance
of biochar is not consistent and not well understood. A previous
study demonstrated that the sorption of cellular signals by biochar
potentially affects microbial growth and communication, which
influences carbon storage. We hereby developed a gas biosensor to
report on the concentration of N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl-L-homoserine lactone, an acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL) quorum sensing
molecule used by many gram-negative soil microbes. We designed
an experimental scheme that is composed of sender cells that produce AHL signaling molecules and receiver cells that synthesize
non-toxic methyl halide gas upon receiving AHL molecules. The
characterization of methyl halide transferase (MHT) in terms of
its thermostability, catalytic activity, and specificity and the identification of the conditions, in which methyl halide production applies minimum burden on cellular fitness, allow us to optimize the
gas biosensor in ideal conditions before testing in the real matrix.
While the characterization of MHTs is still in progress, our measurements on cell growth rates in various conditions revealed that
culture media and intracellular MHT level, which controlling by
the strength of ribosomal binding sites (RBS), have no effect on
cellular fitness. The engineering of MHT gas biosenors provides
more evident output of microbial communication in biochar/soil
matrix than visual reporter proteins and can be further applied to
monitor other chemical contents in opaque matrix.

103: The effect of priming immunocompromised fruit flies on

their innate immune system response to bacterial infection

Malvika Govil
Drosophila melanogaster, or fruit flies, rely on their innate
immune system to defend themselves against bacterial infection,
which heavily involves macrophages that engulf and destroy
bacteria. The PGRP-LE gene, conserved in flies and humans,
codes for the only cytosolic pattern recognition receptor in a large
family of these receptors. It senses bacteria and activates appro-

26

priate transcription factors, serving as a link between bacterial

detection and degradation. Its loss of function reduces the efficacy
of the flies immune response to bacterial infection. It is hypothesized that exposing flies to dead, innocuous bacteria before the
live bacteria, a process known as priming, will rescue the loss of
function mutation of PGRP-LE. To test this, mutant flies are injected with dead innocuous E. coli, and after 48 hours are injected
again with live ampicillin-resistant E. coli, ground up after a day,
and their contents are plated so that bacterial colony growth can
be counted. This enables a quantitative comparison with controls
to determine the difference in immune response due to priming. These results could potentially reveal mechanisms in innate
immunity that are suggestive of adaptive immunity, which could
provide new insights into mammalian immunology.

104: Protein Crystallography of Adenylate Kinase

Marisa Hudson, Lydia Dick, Jack Toups, Allison Skinkle

ADK is an enzyme that plays an important role in cellular energy
homeostasis by catalyzing the transfer of a phosphate from ATP
to AMP in the reaction 2 ADP <----> 1 ATP + 1 AMP. ADK has
a dynamic structure, with an active and inactive state. Though
information about each state is known, the transitions involved
during reactions are difficult to define because ADK lacks structural stability during these transitions. Therefore, the long-term
goal of this project is to characterize the transitions of the reaction
from substrate binding to product release. The short-term goal
of this project is to link GFP with ADK in an attempt to stabilize
it. To do so, we will create a protein construct of ADK protein
linked to GFP using a type of PCR known as Polymerase Incomplete Primer Extension, or the PIPE cloning method. This process
involves designing a primer and performing bacterial transformation. From here, the structure of ADK can be analyzed using
protein crystallography, a process that reveals structural information from protein crystal trays.

105: Association Between Andricus quercuslanigera Gall Formation and Oak Leaf Abscission on Quercus virginiana

Alex Espana
Host plants defend themselves against insect herbivores using a
range of adaptations. Premature leaf abscission has been suggested as a response to protect against certain kinds of herbivores
that feed internally, such as cynipid gall wasps. Cynipid wasps
induce tumor-like growths of plant tissue called galls on their host
plants that serve as a protective shelter and food source for their
offspring. The southern live oak, Quercus virginiana, is a common
tree species found on the Rice University campus, which is often
parasitized by the gall wasp Andricus quercuslanigera that forms
fuzzy galls on the underside of leaves. To determine whether Q.
virginiana abscises galled leaves at a higher rate, we monitored
26 trees across campus. At each tree, we measured galling density
on leaves attached to the tree and leaves that had been abscised
underneath the tree. We found that across Q. virginiana trees
galled by A. lanigera there was a significantly higher proportion
of abscised leaves with galls compared with leaves still attached,
which is consistent with Q. virginiana specifically shedding galled
leaves as a defense against herbivores. Future work will explore
alternative explanations to this pattern and the actual impacts on
gall wasp fitness.

106: The Role of (lov) in (Drosophila melanogaster) Larval

Tracheal Systems

Karen Qiang
Research in the Beckingham Lab is focused on the function of the
recently identified (jim lovell) gene (lov) of (Drosophila melanogaster). Studies using the Gal4-UAS system have established that
(lov) is expressed in not only CNS and PNS neurons, but also
tracheal and spiracle cells. Interfering with (lov) function in the
tracheae causes the larvae to exhibit a hypoxia-like behavioral
phenotype. This phenotype is characterized by a refusal to enter
the food paste and a lack of burrowing into the surface medium
during the later wandering phase. My work for this past year has
been to characterize qualitatively and quantitatively these hypoxia-like behavioral traits using different Gal4 lines to express (lov)
RNAi or UAS-(lov) in the tracheae. I am currently using (lov)91Y,
a PGawB transposon into the (lov) gene itself, and the (cut) and
(breathless) Gal4 lines.

107: Intracellular Transport of Antigens Delivered via Gold

Nanoparticles

Angel Garces
Current methods of treating cancer, such as chemotherapy, often
have negative repercussions on the body after sustained use.
However, developments in cancer immunotherapy could lower
the negative effects of cancer treatment to the body by training
the natural immune system to recognize and destroy tumors.
Currently, gold nanoparticles (AuNP-s) are being developed to
transport antigens to immune cells because AuNP-s have been
shown to accumulate primarily in liver and spleen cells, such as B
cells, T cells, and dendritic cells. Previously, our lab demonstrated
that gold nanoparticles delivered the ovalbumin (OVA) antigen
to antigen presenting cells, eliciting an immune response such
that the particles functioned as both a vaccine and a therapeutic
. However, the mechanism of antigen processing and presentation is unknown. JAWS-II dendritic cells serve as our model to
understand the mechanism of antigen delivery and presentation.
The antigens are observed by fluorescently labeling the peptides
and visualized using confocal microscopy. This work will provide
the foundation of our knowledge of antigen delivery in order to
improve the design of nanoparticles for cancer immunotherapy.

108: Defining Hypoxia Phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster

larvae
Sierra Cowan, Corrinne Dunbar, Jane Lee, Joyce Saborio
Hypoxia in Drosophila melanogaster larvae is caused by a
contorted and collapsed trachea. According to observations in
the Beckingham Lab, hypoxia-inducing gene mutations seem to
correlate to burrowing behaviors in larvae during their feeding
and wandering stages. Our goal is to establish these findings by
observing larvae containing the uninflatable mutations, uif1A15
and uif2B7, which are known to cause tracheal collapse in larvae.
Therefore, if our observations of these alternative hypoxia-inducing mutations are comparable with those of the Beckingham Lab,
they will contribute to further characterization of the phenotypes of hypoxia. / Hypothesis: The larvae mutants of the tested
mutations will not demonstrate burrowing behavior due to their
hypoxia.

109: Red Blood Cell Coagulation

Hector Picon, Anamely Salgado, Leo Onor, Danielle Robertson

Our principal task is to find a substance that causes red blood
cells to coagulate and separate from blood plasma. The blood
plasma must be separated so that it can be tested for high levels of
bilirubin, which is a substance found in bile that breaks down red
blood cells. Too much bilirubin in the bloodstream can indicate
liver problems. Traditional methods of testing include the use of a
centrifuge, but we are attempting to cut costs as much as possible
in order to make testing available in limited resource areas. Paper
strips will be used to see the separation between the red blood
cells and the plasma, which will show the effectiveness of the coagulant. Proper concentration of the coagulant must also be tested
to ensure that the red blood cells are not lysed. Chitosan and
Poly(allylamine) will be tested. The positively charged chitosan
will affect the negative charge on the red blood cells, allowing
them to bind to one another and separating the red blood cells
from the plasma. Poly(allylamine) exhibits a positive charge at a
pH of less than 9, and the pH of blood is 7.4-7.5. Thus, its positive
charge will attract the negatively charged red blood cells.

110: A Key Step Towards Biological Joint Replacement: Preventing Hypertrophic Differentiation of hPSC-Derived Chondrocytes

John Lee
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) can be used to derive a
wide variety of functional cells. Namely, chondroprogenitor cells
derived from hPSCs can be further differentiated to form chondrocytes and treat cartilage injuries or degenerative disorders
such as osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, these chondrocytes possess
the drawback of overmaturation (i.e. hypertrophic differentiation, mineralization, and then conversion to bone) upon in vivo
transplantation. We hypothesized that the manipulation of cyclic
nucleotide levels can inhibit chondrocyte hypertrophic differentiation. To test our hypothesis, hPSC-derived chondroprogenitor cells were induced to form cartilage particles in vitro in the
presence of various small molecules that upregulate intracellular
cAMP. The mRNA from these cartilage pellets were extracted, and
the levels of COL2A1 (pre-hypertrophic chondrocyte marker) and
COL10A1 (hypertrophic chondrocyte marker) were quantified by
real-time RT-PCR. Treatment with cAMP-increasing agents resulted in near complete inhibition of hypertrophic differentiation
of chondrocytes as indicated by the virtual absence of COL10A1
expression and the maintenance of COL2A1 expression. To test
whether the resulting cartilage is stably maintained at the non-hypertrophic state in vivo, as in the case of joint cartilage, such
cartilage particles have been transplanted into mice.

111: Identifying the Putative Factors in Veillonella dispar Causing Inhibition of Growth in Candida albicans
Vinita Shivakumar
Veillonella dispar is a gram-negative anaeraobe found in the intestines and mouth. This organism is found to inhibit the growth
of Candida albicans, a fungus found in the same niche. Our goal
is to identify the pathway which causes this inhibition. Currently,
it is known that conditioned media from Veillonella dispar cells
do not affect the growth of Candida albicans. I am investigating
whether a component of Veillonella dispar outer membrane is
responsible for the inhibition by isolating outer membranes and
outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) from Veillonella dispar.

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112: Phenotypic and Genotypic Analysis of CUG clade species

Shelby Priest
Candida species are the most common source of fungal infections
in hospitals today, and non-albicans species are responsible for
half of all cases of disseminated Candidiasis; the CUG clade is
comprised of these Candida species. Within this clade, there is a
wide spectrum of clinical significance amongst the species from
commonly isolated species, such as C. albicans and C. tropicalis,
to less common ones, including C. parapsilosis, C. guilliermondii, C. dubliniensis, and C. lusitaniae, to rare pathogens like L.
elongisporus and D. hansenii. This range of pathogenic potential
offers a tool to understand virulence adaptations that underlie the
success of C. albicans and C. tropicalis relative to the other species. We have begun phenotypic characterization using a variety
of in vitro assays including growth in the presence of host-relevant stressors, interactions with phagocytes, morphology, and
biofilm formation. Phenotypic differences within the clade were
most strongly correlated with virulence during interactions with
phagocytes and appear to offer a facile model for understanding
the pathogenic adaptations within this species clade. Currently,
we are working to understand gene regulation in each species
during interaction with phagocytes and its role in relative virulence through RNA sequencing and genetic manipulation.

113: Modeling of Planet Formation in the Early Solar System

Sal Tijerina
The first major steps toward modeling a protoplanetary disk
were taken by Weidenschilling (1977) and Hayashi (1981) with
the Minimum Mass Solar Nebula (MMSN). Using the surface
density profile derived from the composition of the disk model,
we observe the evolution of the disk as the larger Jovian planets
undergo Type II planetary migration toward the Sun, sweeping
out material in the process. The resulting disk is observed to

have large gaps where material has condensed into denser regions
or has been expelled from the inner solar system. The heavy gaseous planets then obtain orbital resonances and migrate outwards
toward their current locations. Over time, material in the denser
regions of the disk form planetesimals, which then collide to
form terrestrial planets. We make use of the 3D hydrodynamical
code FARGO3D and the radiative transfer code RADMC3D to
simulate the gaseous interactions within the disk and the effects
of radiative transfer to obtain sub-millimeter wavelength images, much like the images produced by the ALMA millimeter
telescope. Comparing these observed images with the ones we
produce, we gain an understanding of the history of observed
protoplanetary disks and the history of our own solar system.

114: Role of sulfur-containing biosynthetic pathways in the

production of biofilms in C. albicans

Matthew Avalos
Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that lives
in the mouth, skin, and gut of humans. This fungus is known
to take on hyphal morphology under certain conditions, which
allows it to form biofilms on plastic surfaces. Previous research
has indicated some importance of sulfide in the production of
biofilms on plastic. Sulfide is produced by MET5 and MET10 at
the end of the biosynthetic pathway of methionine. MET5, a gene
that produces an enzyme subunit for sulfite reductase, has been
shown to have some role in how much biofilm is formed. MET5
mutants in this study have shown a significant decrease in biofilm
production in XTT plate-reader assays on sterile multi-well plastic plates when compared to wild-type and other mutants of the
methionine synthesis pathway. Further testing using resazurin
assays will be done to confirm this result, but this data indicates
some importance in the role of MET5 and of sulfide in biofilm
production.

Engineering
115: Character ization of E-Regulated Stress Response Networks in M. tuberculosis

Joao Ascensao
Tuberculosis (TB) is a prevalent and potentially fatal infectious
disease that affects millions of people around the globe, primarily
in developing countries. TB is notoriously difficult to treatthe
infection requires a six to twelve month course of antibiotics and
relapse is common. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the infectious
agent of TB infection, is able to cause such an infection because
of a molecular persistance switch is activated in the presence of
stressful conditions, slowing down growth and allowing the cells
to survive antibiotics and the hosts immune system. Previous
work has shown that the network regulating sigma factor E (E)
produces a bistable response and is known to be highly expressed
in cells in hostile environments, so it may be associated with the
persistence switch. We aimed to computationally determine the

28

structure of two E-regulated networksicl1 and gltA1. Using

monotone systems theory as well as molecular genetics and qRTPCR data on network components, we have constructed appropriate mathematical models and identified possible network topologies. Ultimately, we hope that this research could help to identify
new drug targets for the treatment of TB infection, possibly to
shorten the course of antibiotics and help prevent relapse of the
disease.

116: Modular engineering of bacterial two-component systems

to encode novel signaling properties
Ravi Sheth
Humans are populated by trillions of bacteria that sense and
respond to host-, microbe-, and diet-derived molecules. A major
goal of synthetic biology is to engineer microbes with custom
sense-respond behaviors for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Two-component systems (TCSs) are the primary means by

which bacteria sense the environment. However, natural TCSs

contain specific steady-state and dynamical input/output (I/O)
properties that have evolved to permit the organism to best adapt
to different environmental signals. To leverage and multiplex the
tens of thousands of TCSs known from sequence, a generalizable
strategy for designing desired TCS signaling properties is needed. Here, we exploit the modular protein domain architecture
of TCSs to program diverse signaling properties. Using our E.
coli light-switchable TCSs, we identify domains and conserved
mutations to create new signaling modules that can increase or
decrease pathway activity, and show that this approach is generalizable across different TCSs. Furthermore, using these elements
we engineer simple feedback and feedforward loops to encode
ultrasensitivity, acceleration, pulsing, delay, and memory. We are
applying this framework to engineer probiotic bacteria that can
sense and remember exposure to diagnostic profiles of disease-associated metabolites and respond with therapeutic molecules.

117: Investigation of Nanodiamond Foil Product for H- Stripping to Support Spallation Neutron Source

Rachel Lim
Diamond is an ideal material as an H- stripper foil for spallation neutron source (SNS) applications due to its high thermal
conductivity, low molecular weight, and strength. Polycrystalline
diamond is characterized by a high degree of internal stress,
which causes the foil to curl when not supported by the substrate.
Hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) was used to
grow diamond on a silicon substrate. A 1.2 cm diameter window
was etched in the silicon using a 1:1:3 solution of hydrofluoric,
nitric, and acetic acids so that the diamond foil would be suspended while being supported on all sides by the silicon. Wax and
diamond were used as masks to protect the outer silicon from
etching. Raman spectroscopy verified a high quality diamond foil.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed that the foil originally
against the substrate had an average roughness of 6.7 nm while
the foil away from the substrate had an average roughness of 13.2
nm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed no cracks in
the suspended foil.

118: LNA Inhibition of miRNA 146a In a Mouse Hind Limb Ischemia Model Has No Effect on Arteriogenesis or Angiogenesis,
Some Effect on Reperfusion

Gabriela Balicas
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) affects 20% of Americans
ages 60 and over, and in severe cases, progresses to critical limb
ischemia, which leads to death or limb amputation in 50% of
cases within one year.1,2 PAD occurs when a blockage is present
in a downstream artery, causing ischemia in downstream tissue.
Current treatments for PAD are only temporary fixes. Surgical
interventions usually only target one occlusion when several occlusions are present, often resulting in restenosis of the artery.3,4
Poor methods for targeting occlusions, such as oral dosage drugs,
exist but affect the whole body rather than a localized blockage.
Our team investigated microRNAs as a potential localized therapeutic agent for PAD. A cone and plate viscometer was used to
simulate sheer stress on human umbilical vein endothelial cells.
A cDNA microarray and RT PCR were used to single out miR
146a. Mice were injected with locked nucleic acid antagomir-146a
pre-ligation, causing attenuation of miR-146a. Laser doppler per-

fusion imaging was used to monitor reperfusion during a 14 day

time span. The gracilis muscles were then analyzed for collateral
artery diameters and the gastrocnemius muscles were evaluated
for capillary and muscle fiber counts. Our studies indicated that
antagomir-146a treatments had no effect on arteriogenesis nor
angiogenesis, however they impaired reperfusion.

119: Biomimetic Hydrogels as a Scaffold for Aortic Valve Tissue

Engineering

Zoe Punkse
The creation of a tissue-engineered heart valve would significantly improve outcomes for patients who undergo an aortic valve
replacement. To ensure cells grow and develop the properties of a
natural valve, the scaffold material should mimic the native extracellular matrix in the valve. PEGDA based hydrogels are a fitting
choice for the scaffold material because they can be mechanically
tuned, resist fouling and non-specific protein adsorption, can be
modified with specific bioactive cues, and support cell encapsulation for 3D cell culture. However PEGDA alone is not a suitable scaffold for the cells, as it does not mimic the natural valve
environment well. The PEGDA gels must be modified to fill the
specific needs of this tissue engineering project. The goal of this
particular study is to assess the ability of hydrogels to behave as
a scaffold for a tissue-engineered heart valve. The hydrogels will
be assessed by measuring the glycosaminoglycan and collagen
present in both the gels and the culture media. Zymography will
be performed to measure the activity levels of matrix degrading
enzymes in the samples. The expected results will indicate that
the modified hydrogels will recapitulate the natural cell behavior
better than blank slate PEGDA gels.

120: Controlled Release of Antibiotics from Poly(methylmethacrylate)-based Space Maintainers

Jennifer Walker
Infection is a major complication associated with implanted
biomaterials. Because of this, strategies to improve the design and
function of implanted devices include the controlled release of
antibiotics. In this project, the biodegradable polymer poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) was investigated as a carrier for the controlled
release of antibiotics. Specifically, the release kinetics of antibiotics
from composite constructs containing poly(methyl methacrylate)
(PMMA), an aqueous hydrogel porogen, and PLGA microparticles were characterized. Different antibiotics were incorporated
into the constructs through three methods: bulk-loading in the
hydrogel porogen, loading directly into PLGA microparticles, or
adsorption of antibiotics onto unloaded PLGA microparticles. It
was hypothesized that release kinetics would be affected by the
molecular weight, charge, and presence of amine groups on the
antibiotic. Specifically, it was hypothesized that antibiotics with
high molecular weight, high charge, and amine groups would
demonstrate extended release when loaded directly into PLGA
microparticles compared to adsorption onto blank PLGA microparticles in the composite constructs. Conversely, lower molecular weight drugs with neutral or negative charge and no amine
groups would show similar release kinetics when loaded directly
into PLGA microparticles and when adsorbed onto blank PLGA
microparticles in the composite constructs.

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121: Optimizing and Characterizing 3D printing of Biocompatible Materials via Digital Light Processing

Alexander Zaita
Three-dimensional (3-D) printing offers a lucrative method to
create highly accurate renderings of cellular architectures to mimic the architectural heterogeneity observed in vivo. The ability to
create any 3D pattern with high resolution allows us to achieve 3D
models that may offer a solution to the challenges of mass transport and cell survivability. Using digital light processing (DLP),
high precision scaffolds were created using photopolymerizable
biomaterials in order to ultimately enhance mass transport. This
experiment investigated the viability of a visible light photolithography technique using a customized DLP system. The main goals
were to further characterize the printing process and improve the
layer resolution of the printed architectures. Optimization of the
50 micron layer process was achieved and was shown to exhibit scaffolds with higher resolution and finer control of channel
architecture. Additionally, the viability of the process was further
characterized by investigating the properties of the biomaterial
scaffold. These properties were quantified using a combination of
fluorescence microscopy and micro computed tomography techniques, which were utilized to generate reconstructed images of
the 3-D printed scaffolds. These reconstructed images were then
subsequently converted into 3-D models to generate computerized flow models to visualize and enumerate the biomaterials
mass transport abilities.

122: Engineering Protease Activatable Viruses for Cardiovascular Disease Therapy

Momona Yamagami
A major issue with gene therapy aided by the adeno-associated virus (AAV) is that gene delivery is nonspecific. It is widely
known that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are upregulated in
various diseases. Protease Activatable Viruses (PAVs) are viruses that have been engineered to include locks on its capsid that
will not transduce cells until specific MMPs activate the virus by
proteolytically cleaving off the locks, allowing the virus to deliver
genes to diseased cells. For my project, I am designing PAVs for
cardiovascular disease therapy. It is known that AAV9, one of
the serotypes of AAV, has the highest transduction efficiency in
vivo for the cardiac cells. By creating an AAV9-based PAV that
is activated specifically by MMPs, I am hoping to create a virus
that will transduce the diseased cardiac cells only in the presence
of MMPs. So far, we have created over a dozen mutants that we
have tested for switchable behavior. Only one so far has shown an
increase in transduction efficiency after activation with MMPs.
We are currently in the process of characterizing the PAV mutants
created so far and determining the rate-limiting step of the transduction process to guide our future PAV design.

123: Negative CRISPRi Autoregulation for Growth-Rate Independent Genetic Circuits

Ken Groszman
Synthetic biological systems often exhibit unpredictable behavior
due to stochastic variation protein production rates among cells
and context effects such as growth conditions. It has been shown
that this effect can be attenuated using negative autoregulation, a
naturally-occurring network motif, over a wide range of growth
rates [1]. Traditionally, negative autoregulation has been achieved

30

using repressor proteins, such as TetR. However, the production

of Tet repressors introduces a significant metabolic load onto the
cell, and only 16 orthogonal Tet repressors have been identified
[2]. A simpler and less limited negative autoregulation module
utilizes CRISPRi, where the 20-bp targeting sequence of a short
guide RNA (sgRNA) complexed with the dCas9 protein represses
a specific cognate promoter. By co-expressing the sgRNA with
a reporter protein, the circuit output should be independent to
changing growth conditions. These results are confirmed through
a mathematical model, and in vivo experiments using Escherichia
coli are underway. This module, attached to all components of a
genetic circuit, should effectively eliminate context-dependence
of genetic circuits, thus allowing for greater reliability of genetic
circuits from lab-to-lab and effectively engineering away a large
hurdle in synthetic biology.

124: Optimization of Neurogenic Differentiation methods for

Amniotic-Fluid Derived Stem Cells

Nikhil Shamapant
More than 300,000 babies are born annually with neural tube defects. For spina bifida, a common neural tube defect, surgical closure of the defect has minimal impact on improving spinal cord
function. Our goal is to find a minimally invasive method to close
the defect in utero and reduce the neurological damage using
amniotic-fluid derived stem cells (AFSCs). For the treatment of
congenital neural tube defects, where methods of acquiring stem
cells for use in a fetus or neonate are limited, AFSCs are an ideal
source of stem cells with neurogenic potential. While there are
many established methods to induce neurogenic differentiation,
no single method has been optimized for use with AFSCs. This
project will compare the use of Neurogenic Growth Factor (NGF),
Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor (bFGF), and all-trans-retinoic
acid (RA) for inducing neurogenic differentiation. To compare
these media components, AFSCs were grown in differentiation
media with eight unique combinations of NGF, bFGF, and RA and
stained to quantify the presence of Nestin, an early marker of neurogenic lineage. The results of this study should provide a basis for
optimizing neurogenic differentiation of AFSCs and sets the stage
for the use of AFSCs in closing the spina bifida defect.

125: Deep Learning Sentiment Analysis on Movie Reviews: Can

We Predict How Positive a Review is?

Lily Wen
Sentiment Analysis is an emerging field in Machine Learning that
focuses on emotion recognition and extracting polarity from text.
My research project aims to categorize Rotten Tomatoes movie
reviews into five classes of varying positivity/negativity using deep
learning techniques. Currently with a random forest classifier
utilizing bag of words, synsets, and percent of positive/negative
words, I obtained an accuracy of 66% without taking into account
grammatical structure. By building a neural network feature (that
will also be fed into the classifier), I can extract more meaning
from labeling significant parts of speech such as prepositions.
Being able to capture emotions from the large amounts of online
content available is invaluable to learning more about people and
our changing opinions.

126: Modeling Vascular Architectures to Meet the Metabolic

Requirements of Engineering Vascularized Tissues

Caroline Brigham
Bioprinting is rapidly advancing, but currently limited by our
understanding of vascular infrastructure and technology; development involves synthetic chemistry, molecular imaging, and
engineering layer-by-layer to direct cultured human cells and
assess the therapeutic potential of matrix modeling. 3D Bioprinting technologies, such as light-projection photolithography
and syringe-based extrusion allow for the selective deposition of
tissues in reproducible and heterogeneous patterns. The challenge
remains mass transport getting oxygen and nutrients in and
waste products out of constructs. I am testing design solutions
and evaluating which are best suitable for the mass transport
of human cells, with the ultimate goal to configure functional
organs for millions of patients in need. Architecture can provide
significant insight to solutions. I have explored predominantly
Lindenmayer models, in which all branches of the dichotomical
structures are cylindrical and symmetric. Air and fluid mechanics
follow the Navier-Stokes equation, which describes the conservation of momentum for linearly viscous, incompressible fluid flow.
I utilize a computational fluid dynamics program, COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0, to simulate laminar and turbulent flows, ensuring
mass conservation and robust convergence. Architecture will help
us discover applications to tissue engineering and regenerative
medicine to address and assist the growing need for transplantable tissues and organs.

127: Engineering Libraries of Constitutive and Inducible Promoters for Lactobacillus

Nikitha Cherayil
The human microbiome interacts greatly with the health and
disease processes of the body. Lactobacillus reuteri, a human-associated probiotic bacteria, could be easily engineered to deliver
precise doses of therapeutic compounds in the human body.
However, we currently lack the ability to control the levels of
therapeutic gene delivery. Here, we develop a library of constitutive and inducible promoters for L. reuteri to enable therapeutic
applications. First, I am engineering a pH stable, fluorescent
reporter mCherry into L. reuteri, which will allow for quantitative measurement of transcriptional activity via flow cytometry.
Next, by bioinformatically determining the consensus sequence of
16s rRNA promoters and building a degenerate set of promoters
based on this sequence, I will develop a library of constitutive
promoters of varying strengths. Leveraging these promoters, I will
incorporate two orthogonal inducible promoter systems based
on the widely-used repressors TetR and LacI. This collection of
genetic components will enable us to tune the expression levels of
a gene of interest in L. reuteri. This will allow us to engineer the
vector into a viable synthetic probiotic that is able to deliver safe,
yet effective doses of therapy within the human body.

128: LabVIEW Program Development for Angle- Multiplexed

Spatial-Spectral Interferometry (SSI)
Bilan Yang

The measurement of spectral phase and polarization to characterize radially polarized laser pulses is very important in the approach of direct electron acceleration in plasma channels. Based
on an angle-multiplexed spatial-spectral interferometric measure-

ment, a novel method is demonstrated to extract these properties

of an ultrashort laser pulse. Previously data was collected by
CCD LabVIEW program and analyzed by MATLAB TADPOLE
program. The LabVIEW interface for SSI Instrument can combine
data acquisition and analysis together, allowing for real time analysis during data collection and thus high-fidelity measurements of
laser pulses.

129: Approaches to Determine Solubility Parameter at High

Temperature and Pressure

Calvin Tsay
Solubility parameter (SP), the square root of energy required to
vaporize one mole of liquid, is a key thermodynamic parameter
that describes miscibility and also a molecular parameter directly
related to fluid properties, such as density and refractive index.
The goal of this work is to predict solubility parameters of simple
solvents at high temperature and pressure conditions. With
modern computational abilities, simulations can be employed to
determine these properties. Different approaches to calculating
SP are explored, including using equations relating SP and density
via equations of state, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations,
and experimental results. Currently, there are no literature values
for SP at high temperature and pressure, but the data presented is
consistent between different approaches and with literature values
at ambient conditions. These approaches ultimately can be extended to finding SP of more complex solvents and mixtures. One
application of this work of interest to our group is to understand
the solubility parameters, and therefore stability, of asphaltenes
in crude oil. This work is an important step towards increasing
the understanding of asphaltene behavior and deposition (which
leads to significant operational and economic loss) in reservoirs
and wellbores.

130: PEST Motifs in AAV

Veronica Gough
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is an attractive vector for gene
therapy because it is small, simple and non-pathogenic. Polypeptide sequences rich in proline, glutamic acid, serine, and
threonine and uninterrupted by positively charged residues are
termed PEST motifs, and typically target proteins for rapid
degradation. We used a PEST Find algorithm to discover that
several serotypes of AAV, including AAV1, 2, 4, 6 and 11, contain PEST motifs. We initially hypothesized that interrupting or
deleting the PEST motifs in AAV2 would increase transduction
efficiency, because fewer viruses would be tagged for degradation
before reaching the nucleus. However, the transduction efficiency
of two AAV2 mutants, one with the PEST motif deleted and one
with a positive arginine insertion, was 12 times lower than wild
type. Given these unexpected results, we decided to investigate
differences in PEST motifs between different AAV serotypes. We
are initially focusing on AAV5, 6, 8, 9 and 11 to evaluate the possibility that different PEST motifs contribute to the different tissue
tropisms of these serotypes. We are also adding, strengthening,
disrupting, and switching PEST motifs in the different serotypes
to learn more about the role of a PEST motif in AAVs intracellular trafficking pathway.

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131: Clarifying the Impact of Underlying Scaffold Geometry on

Growth and Angiogenesis in Valvular Endothelial Cell Cultures

Elizabeth Godfrey
Extracellular matrix (ECM) and its physical geometry have
far-reaching effects on the physiology of the cells it surrounds,
including cell polarity and motion, how susceptible cells are to
anticancer drugs like cisplatin, and even which path of differentiation mesenchymal stem cells are likely to follow. Studies have
suggested that cellular signaling is impacted by ECM configuration as well. In order to follow this line of inquiry as it applies to
calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), the most common single
form of heart disease, biomimetic gel scaffolds with geometrically
patterned upper surfaces have been constructed as a controlled
substitute for ECM in order to identify the impact of matrix properties on growth of valvular endothelial cell cultures (VECs). Gels
in the key geometries have been produced (square, triangle, line)
using a different method than previous studies to ensure proper
cell adherence, and VECs will be cultured on them. Cell network
formation will be quantified and analyzed and a computational
method will be applied to determine cell motion and directionality in relation to the other cells in culture. In addition, a selection
of proteins in the Rho GTPase family, signaling molecules associated with differentiation and actin-myosin cytoskeletal changes,
will be quantified for cultured cells.

132: Development of Protein Labeled Polystyrene Bead Controls for an Immunocytochemistry-based Oral Cancer Diagnostic
Assay
Ahmad Razi
Without controls, diagnostic medical assays would have no way to
ensure the validity of test results. The assay in focus has a membrane that captures cells from a brush biopsy of an oral lesion and
then conducts immunolabeling using Ki-67 antibodies that bind
to the Ki-67 antigen, which is linked to cell proliferation. The
fluorescence of the cells is then quantified, and a risk factor/score
is given as an indication of a patients oral cancer severity. In order
to safeguard the test results from variations in reagent quality,
sample amount, and more, protein labeled polystyrene beads are
used as indicators of assay integrity and validity. This study aims
to tailor the protein-labeled beads to be responsive in a biologically relevant range. These engineered cells would have a vital role
in the processing of large amounts of patient samples by serving
as an indicator of assay performance and quality.

133: Does Mechanical Strain Inhibit Pathological Vessel Formation in Aortic Valve Endothelial Cells?

Jonathon Berg
The aortic valve operates in one of the most dynamic and strenuous mechanical environments in the body, and is prone to
narrowing and failure that causes over 20,000 deaths annually in
the US. The development of a non-surgical treatment requires
understanding of the biochemical and mechanical progression of
valve failure. This study examines the effect of mechanical stimulation on the development of pathological vessel-like structures
of Porcine Aortic Valve Endothelial Cells (PAVECs). Cells were
grown in static and mechanically strained environments, and
subsequently compared for vessel formation and biochemical
signaling markers. Preliminary results suggest that strain decreases the propensity for PAVECs to form disease-related vessels,

32

indicating that damaged mechanical function of the aortic valve

further perpetuates disease progression and degeneration.

134: Utilization of Virus Nanoparticles to Activate Autophagy in

Neurodegenerative Disease

Whitney Orji
Autophagy (AP), a homeostatic process regulating degradation
of cytoplasmic materials through the lysosomes, is defective in
several neurologic diseases characterized by buildup of lipid and
protein substrates. AP activation must be paired with lysosomal
biogenesis (LB) for effective protein clearance; however, current
drugs are not specific to AP and fail to promote LB. Advantageously, research has displayed the coordinated regulation of AP
and LB by transcription factor EB (TFEB), making it a promising
therapeutic target. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has been shown
to cause translocation of TFEB to the nucleus, and AAV serotype
9 can cross the BBB. So, we explored AAVs viability as a therapeutic that activates AP and LB, enhancing clearance in vitro.
We also sought to determine the step of infection responsible for
TFEB activation, hypothesizing that activation is dependent on
cellular uptake, not infectivity because a virus mutant unable to
infect cells activated TFEB. We are in the process of developing
and characterizing three virus mutants defective in steps of AAV
infection (cell-surface receptor binding, endosomal escape, and
nuclear localization) to determine which are necessary for TFEB
activation.

135: Principal Component Analysis for Angular Data: A Comparison of Techniques

Konstantinos Varvarezos
The study of protein conformational flexibility is exceedingly important in computational biology, with applications in medicine
and biotechnology. To understand the conformational flexibility
of a protein, it is often useful to distinguish coordinated motion
from insignificant noise. To this end, a data analysis technique
called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is often used for
Cartesian data and Dihedral PCA (dPCA) for angular data. The
latter method introduces errors due to the trigonometric transformation of the data, and the goal of this project is to determine
how large these errors are and under what conditions dPCA can
be an acceptable approximation. We hypothesized that the errors
would increase as the angular variation increases. To test this, we
performed several experiments using mathematical and artificial
data, computing both dPCA and regular PCA. The results should
allow us to quantify the deviation of dPCA from regular PCA. So
far, the outcomes confirm our hypothesis that an increase in the
range of angle variation results in greater errors. However, errors
are in an acceptable range, confirming the reliability of dPCA.
Our work will improve our understanding of dPCA for angular
data as well as its limitations.

136.High Contrast Geometric Orifice Area Analysis of a Stent

Mounted Pediatric Heart Valve

Samir Saidi
Heart valve replacement for children with congenital heart defects
currently requires open-heart surgery, using cadaver-sourced
biological valves that are in short supply. Our lab has developed
an artificial stent-mounted valve that can be delivered via minimally-invasive catheter-based methods. Heart valve function can

be assessed by measuring the valves maximum open cross-sectional area, or geometric orifice area (GOA). Valve function
was simulated using a pulse duplicator instrument, which pumps
saline through the valve at physiological pressures and flow rates.
GOA can be directly imaged with a high-speed camera, but
accurate imaging requires high contrast between the valve leaflet
edges and surrounding structures. In the present study, valve
leaflet bodies were modified with dark pigment to highlight the
edges and reduce unwanted background. This method improves
upon previous efforts, by increasing signal-to-noise, and reducing
measurement bias. Image analysis was conducted via a custom
MATLAB algorithm, which automatically detected leaflet edges
and plotted GOA for multiple valves, across several heartbeats, as
a function of time. In the present work, we modified our MATLAB algorithm to increase its efficiency tenfold over previous
efforts. This system is directly transferable to other pulse duplicators, and offers substantial improvements in data collection, with
<5 ms resolution.

137: Versatile Automated Optical Cell Counting

Adam Ferguson
Cell counting is a valuable tool used to quantify results in a wide
variety of tissue culture experiments. While a number of methods have been devised to accomplish the task of cell counting,
existing options are either too noisy, limited in dynamic range, or
require cells to be in suspension. In addition, a robust technique
for quantitating multiple cell types in tissue culture does not exist.
The method presented here provides a system for counting one or
multiple adherent cell types with high statistical confidence. Using
any microscope with a motorized x, y and z axis and the opensource software CellProfiler, a variety of staining methods can be
used to quantitate one or multiple cells of interest in most if not
all experimental setups.

138: Performance and Stability Analysis of a Non-linear Tuned

Mass Damper

Verner Vilsainen
Combatting the violent vibrations of large structures is a major
area of research in structural engineering. Excitation near or at
the characteristic frequencies of a structure due to strong wind or
earthquakes can result in dangerous large amplitude vibrations. A
popular method for addressing this problem is the addition of a
tuned mass damper system to the structure in order to attenuate
the vibrations. In this research, the performance of non-linear
tuned mass damper systems for attenuating the vibrations of
linear and non-linear structures is studied by using numerical
simulations which are prepared and implemented with MATLAB. By studying vibration attenuation performance for a range
of values for each of the system parameters, the best conditions
are identified in order to address the undesirable vibrations.
Both hardening and softening conditions are considered for the
non-linear stiffness properties of the system. In order to gain a
greater understanding of the observed dynamic behavior, Floquet
theory is applied to the results to determine the relative stability of
the responses associated with the calculated frequency-response
curves.

139: Developing a Natural Fibrin Based Scaffold for Tissue

Engineering Applications

Francisca Acosta
Approximately 4,000 out of the 200,000 yearly heart-valve replacements are pediatric cases due to congenital heart defects. At
the moment, mechanical and tissue-based options have limited efficacy due to calcification. In addition, these valves have a
high-replacement rate since they do not grow as the child grows.
There is a need for a solution which would increase the effectiveness of application and minimize the number of invasive surgeries
a patient has to go through in tissue engineering application,
such as a pediatric heart-valve. A natural fibrin based hydrogel
scaffold comprised of combining Fibrinogen + MCEC cells in
DMEM and a clotting solution consisting of Hyaluronan in FBS
and Thrombin + Tranexamic acid was developed. The scaffold is
designed to be easy-to-make, made of ingredients already found
in the body, and have the ability to grow with the patient, thereby
reducing and possibly eliminating numerous invasive replacement
surgeries. Voerhoff s Hematoxylin, MSB, and Herovicis histological staining was performed and quantified on scaffolds from time
points of 3, 7, 14, and 21 days. Through this analysis, we were able
to conclude that our scaffold formulation has the capability of
ECM formation through the results of increased fibrin, collagen,
and elastin maturity and formation.

140: In Vitro Characterization of Hydrogel Coated Polyurethane

Mesh for Cardiac Patch Purposes
YuTong (Julia) Zhang
Congenital Heart Defects generally require surgical placement
of a patch across the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) in
an area that normally consists of contractile myocardial tissue.
Current materials for RVOT repair induce an inflammatory
foreign-body response, resulting in formation of fibrous scarlike tissue that does not degrade, grow, contract or conduct. As
a result, patients with heart patches have an increased risk of
complications. The objective of this study was to characterize a
cardiovascular tissue engineered device that can reduce the drawbacks associated with current cardiac patches. To minimize the
likelihood of inducing an immune response, quicker degradation
of the cardiac patch materials must be achieved. In this study, a
hydrogel coated electrospinned polyurethane patch was investigated. The degradation rate of the polyurethane was characterized with degradation tests in a physiologic environment over
a one-month period. Preliminary results demonstrate that with
appropriate neutralization, polyurethane is a good biomimetic
material for a cardiac patch. The patch was then subjected to in
vitro testing with extracted neonatal rat ventricular myocytes to
observe cell growth and maturation. After seven days of culture,
there appeared to be good migration of ventricular myocytes into
the cardiac patch and resulted in spontaneously beating scaffolds.

141: Controlled Release of Growth Factors from 3D Biomimetic

Scaffolds

Jae Hyuk (Evan) Byun

The main goal in regenerative medicine is to promote regeneration and remodel target tissue by recreating the in vivo biochemical environment that can support and enhance cell growth. The
Tasciotti lab has recently developed a platform for developing
scaffolds that mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) of target

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tissue and supplying the growth factors to the cells in a sustained

and controlled manner. In this study, we optimized the newly
developed 3D collagen-based scaffold integrated with Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid-Porous silicon microspheres (PLGA-pSi) for
the release of Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 (BMP-2) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). The release kinetics of the
growth factors will be analyzed to see whether they are ideal for
osteoblast differentiation and angiogenesis in repairing damaged
bone and the osteochondral region. We will also optimize the
platform to accomplish spatially and temporally controlled release
that mimics the natural biochemical concentrations present in the
target tissue. The ultimate goal will be to identify and optimize
the scaffold formulation able to trigger the desired biological
outcomes, prior to in vivo testing. The results will contribute to
developing biomedical devices for the in vivo temporospatially
controlled release of factors for multiple tissue engineering applications.

142: Characterization of Clustering of Piezo1 and Resulting

Electrophysiological Response

Erin Anderson
The aim of this project is to determine if Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel protein, exhibits a clustering pattern on
HEK293 cell membranes and if this clustering results in variation
in electrophysiological response as a function of varying the site
of mechanical stimulation on the cell membrane. HEK293 cells
expressing a Piezo1-RFP fusion protein were analyzed via confocal fluorescence imaging and statistical analysis to qualify the
degree of Piezo1 clustering. Patch clamp combined with mechanical stimulation allowed us to measure the electrophysiological
response of the cell depending on the relationship between the
spatial distribution of Piezo1 and the site of mechanical stimulation. The implication of the project is that it will help elucidate the
properties of Piezo1, which is currently not well characterized,
and facilitate engineering of the protein.

143: Dysregulation of Hyaluronan Homeostasis and Metabolisms Effect on Aortic Valve Interstitial Cells

Charles Wanna
Valvular Interstitial Cells (VICs), the dominant mechanosensitive
cells in the valve leaflets, are primarily responsible for the synthesizing the components of the valve ECM. GAG misexpression, in
particular impaired regulation of HA homeostasis, in the valve
ECM leads to the calcification of human valve leaflets, a characteristic of AVD. HA homeostasis is maintained through a balance
between the enzymes HA synthases (HAS) and halyuronidases
(HYAL), and receptors such as CD44. Mechanical Strain with
TGF results in abnormal ECM remodeling. Unfortunately, differential ECM misregulation in canonical (pSMAD) vs. non-canonical (PERK1/2) TGF during AVD, rescue of HA homeostasis
by TGF inhibitors prior to disease onset, and metabolic precursors of ECM synthesis and associated defects in AVD all remain
vague. The purpose of this project is to determine the effects of
external TGF pathway inhibition (using SB431524 for canonical
and U0126 for non-canonical pathway) and biomechanical strain
on aortic VICs control of HA homeostasis and metabolic mediators. The hypothesis of this investigation is that inhibition of the
canonical and non-canonical pathways of TGF receptors reduces
the likelihood of AVD onset late in life by correcting the early

34

defective regulation of HA homeostasis in VICs. In order to verify

the hypothesis, porcine VIC cultures from 1-3 month old pigs will
be exposed to TGF (2 ng/L) SB431542 (3 M) and U0126 (5
M) pathway inhibitors for 48 hrs.

144: Metabolic Pathfinding Using Graph-based Search

Karen Wong
Although molecular databases contain information about
thousands of chemicals, organizing this information to deduce
useful applications is a tedious process by hand. Computational
metabolic modelling automates the retrieval of chemical data and
infers how chemicals are connected in a cells biochemical pathways. Previous research has constructed models with a graph-theoretical approach, representing metabolites as interconnected
nodes that form a web of potential pathways. Our work improves
the relevance of graph-theoretical search results by incorporating
free energy (G) calculations to eliminate thermodynamically
unfavorable pathways. The increased biological feasibility of our
search results enables experimental methods to test our predictions.

145: Low-cost Automated Ventilatory Support for the Developing World

Matthew Stampfl, Katharine Li, Wei Shi, Angela Liao, Qiuyi Wu

Worldwide, mechanical ventilation is a vital component to preserving life in both hospital and prehospital emergency situations.
When patients are no longer able to breathe independently as a
result of a critical condition, mechanical ventilation is used to
help the patient breathe artificially by pushing air into the lungs.
Such conditions include but are not limited to acute lung injury,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, heart
failure, surgical procedures, and severe sepsis. Ideally, to provide
mechanical ventilation, a sophisticated portable or permanent
hospital machine accurately provides a specified volume of air
at a precise rate. In low resource hospitals where these machines
are unavailable, a common alternative solution to mechanical
ventilation is the bag valve mask (BVM). While cheap, the BVM
is an ineffective solution because of its low accuracy and precision
in delivering tidal volumes and breath rates as well as the requirement for continuous manual labor. With these problems in mind,
we are developing a robust, mechanized system to interface with
the existing bag-valve system and replace the human operator
for ventilation in low-resource setting. The ultimate goal of this
project is to provide a low-cost, low-tech, reliable and simple-touse ventilatory support device.

146: Acceledyne, an orthodontic treatment accelerating medical device

Michael Pan, Stephen Wahlig, William Choi, David Li, Olivia Hu

Our overarching goal is to design a medical device, Acceledyne,
which reduces the duration of orthodontic corrective procedures, such as braces, through mechanical stimulation of teeth,
working at the cellular level to expedite bone remodeling. When
whole bone tissue is loaded, it is ultimately distorted in reaction
to complex loading patterns and forces. 0.04-0.3% whole tissue
strains are physiological and important to bone maintenance; but,
in vitro culture models require up to 1-10% strain to elicit bone
cell responses, which, if translated to whole tissue strains, would
break your bones. There are mechanisms in place within your

bone to amplify these whole tissue strains at the cellular level to

elicit bone cell responses, and much research has guided the field
to understanding the magnitude and frequency loads necessary
to elicit bone remodeling. Current methods for bone stimulation
involve using a mouthpiece to vibrate all of the teeth at 0.25 N
and 30 Hz. Acceledyne, however, delivers this stimulation to local
areas rather than the entire dentitia, in order to target problem
areas that would otherwise not be stimulated with current methods. This will improve tooth locomotion, maximize comfort and
convenience, and minimize manufacture cost and complexity for
orthodontic health for those with extensive misalignment.

147: Non-Linear Dynamics in Atomic Force Microscopy

Joshua Cohen, Ameilia (Qingyun) Bian

Since its introduction in the 1980s, the atomic force microscope
(AFM) has been an important tool in micro- and nano-scale
research. Atomic force microscopes use oscillating flexible
cantilever probes in order to feel the contours of a surface and
measure topography with nano-scale resolution. During scanning, the probe is generally excited at its fundamental frequency
in order to maximize the response amplitude for more effective
measurement. The mathematical models used to study the probe
consist of single mode approximations and is used in predicting
and controlling the cantilevers response amplitude. Our research
will use MATLAB to create an accurate mathematical model to
numerically simulate the oscillating probe by using a three-mode
approximation. By using this model, we will study the response of
the beam with a proportional-integral (PI) controller to investigate measurement performance. The controller actively adjusts
the position of the cantilever above the sample so that it remains
within optimal scanning range. Excitation with multiple frequencies will be studied toward the development of new methods with
enhanced AFM capabilities.

150: From Mouth to Paper: Music Transcription

Stephen Xia, Zichao Wang

In the past century, music has been immensely shaped by technological advances in systems and signal processing. Technologies such as electrical instruments and soundboards introduce
unique sounds, never before available, that composers can utilize
to create works to their pleasing. The digitalization of real-world
signals has allowed composers to produce and easily spread
quality recordings of their works to audiences all across the world.
These technologies allow for a greater variety of musical styles
and allow for musicians to more easily expand their audiences
and networks. Instead of creating a system that expands the tools
that musicians can use to vary and proliferate their musical styles,
we propose a system that directly aids musicians in creating and
documenting their music. The system takes in, as input, an audio
signal and outputs a musical score containing the tune in the
audio signal. This way, musicians would not have to transcribe
their ideas completely from scratch. Whenever they have an idea,
musicians can sing into system to obtain a paper transcription of
their idea and not have to race against time to manually transcribe
their basis before it leaves their head.

151: Algae-Based Solutions for Environmental and Economic

Relief in Tanzania

Parth Agrawal, Chang Da, Nicholas DAmbrosio, Lynn Gai, Dongheon Lee
Tanzania is currently facing issues with deforestation as much of
the local plant growth is being burned and used for cooking fires
by the local populations. This is despite large stores of coal and
other natural resources which could be utilized in relatively low
quantities and in turn preserve the wilderness habitats. Although
a centralized rail network connects the country, a lack of viable
fuel prevents using these transportation networks to alleviate the
problem. Our project focuses on a mechanism to produce bio-diesel fuels for use in these train networks to allow Tanzania to use
its natural resources to both reduce deforestation and improve
economic activity in the area. Specifically our project does this in
a way that minimizes the carbon footprint while taking advantage
of existing infrastructure and transportation vehicles.

152: A UV Clothing Sanitization System for Deep Space Exploration

Chris Chuckran, Neel Radia, Tealim Roh, Jeffrey Tsang, Gustavo

Villarreal
One of many challenges astronauts will face as they depart
Earths orbit will be a limited supply of clean clothes due to a lack
of sustainable cleaning systems and difficulties in resupply. To
enable astronauts to survive in space without worry of wearing
microbe infested clothing, Team SUDS has designed an ultraviolet light based clothing sanitization system. Our system requires
low levels of user interaction and has demonstrated up to 80%
microbial knockdown in dirty clothes over an 8 hour exposure.
Furthermore, the UV systems electric energy consumption is on
par or significantly less than that of major electronics on board
the International Space Station. Several advantages of our design
over existing systems include no consumable resources such as
detergents or water, increased safety from not utilizing hazardous
gases or liquids, and better storage due to its built in collapsibility.
Moreover, an effective UV clothing sanitization system can benefit
any long term, low resource environments back on Earth.

153: FirstHug Neonatal Warming System: Preventing Neonatal

Hypothermia in Low-Resource Settings

Pooja Yesantharao, Linh Nguyen, Yara Aboshady, Carlos Carames,

Michael Gwede
Whether a neonate is provided with adequate warmth immediately after birth could literally lead to the difference between life
and death for the young child. If not given immediate and proper
care, a neonates body temperature can fall by as much as 4 Celsius within the first few hours of life. Without sustained care, the
neonate will suffer even greater temperature drops in subsequent
hours. In developing nations, over 50% of neonates show signs
of potentially fatal hypothermia upon admittance to the NICU.
This project develops an effective warming system to significantly
reduce the incidence of neonatal hypothermia in low-resource
healthcare settings. This project involves a multidimensional design process, first focusing on the creation of a model to accurately simulate neonatal thermoregulation. Given that the warming
system itself is to be implemented in low-resource settings,
precedence is placed on minimizing costs and maximizing intuitiveness and cultural sensitivity. Existing warming technologies
or methodologies were evaluated using the neonatal thermoregu-

35

latory model, and this data was used to design a novel, integrated
system. The system is currently being tested for the efficacy with
which it prevents neonatal hypothermia, and preliminary findings

have shown successful results, leading to over 80% reduction of

hypothermic cases.

Social Sciences
154: Gated Communities and Social Fragmentation in Gran
Buenos Aires

the project are focused on the differences between the 370th and
the other white units stationed at Camp Logan. Funded by the
Center for Civic Leadership and the Department of Anthropology, this project worked with community archaeologists and the
City of Houston Parks Department. The team utilized geophysical
surveys, systematic and unsystematic pedestrian surveys to record
features of the camp and to determine the viable areas for excavation. This work discovered building foundations and artifact
scatters related to four infantry units. Excavation and shovel test
pits focused on the area of the 370th, revealing evidence of intact
archaeological deposits related to the Camp Logan occupation.
The project findings indicate that this is a viable site for further
research, and offers preliminary evidence about the material lives
of African-American soldiers as they trained to fight in WWI.

155: Emerging Latino Leaders Fellowship Program

157: Media Effects on Disease Knowledge and Attitudes: Ebola,

HIV and the Availability Heuristic

Vera Ranneft
This paper analyzes the connection between social fragmentation
in Buenos Aires Northern and the rapid growth of gated communities in the same area. Primarily focusing on the municipalities
of Tigre and Pilar, this paper explores the development of gated
communities in low-income neighborhoods, government involvement in the process, and the impact of these communities on
socio-economic inequality. This study of gated communities reflects the summation of previous research on the subject through
a literature review, and a comparison of census data in various
municipalities to reflect the changes in socio-economic wellbeing
associated with the growth of gated communities.

Daniel Cortez
The Emerging Latino Leaders Fellowship is an 8-month-long
program designed for Latino youth ages 16 through 20. Beginning
in early April, the fellowship kicks off with a youth summit where
fellows are introduced to the fellowship, participate in workshops
on leadership development and community mobilization, and
begin to plan out their very own service projects. These projects, focused on encouraging civic engagement, are led by small
cohorts of fellows working together. Over the summer fellows
meet twice a month with their mentors and program sponsors
who guide them through the project planning phase. Then, in the
fall, fellows implement the service projects in their schools and
surrounding neighborhoods. Finally, in November, fellows attend
an awards banquet honoring their achievements as well as the
accomplishments of prominent community members. The mission of the Emerging Latino Leaders Fellowship is to educate and
empower future Latino leaders. To provide them with the confidence, support, and skills necessary so they can take an active role
in their communitys development. By empowering the youth of
today, we can work towards building a healthy and vibrant society
for tomorrow.

156: Finding Camp Logan: the Archaeology of a World War I

Training Camp in Houston, TX

Dylan Dickens, Jake Krauss, Lauren Howe-Kerr, Chynna Foucek

Beneath Memorial Park in Houston, Texas lay the remnants of a
World War I training camp, Camp Logan. Erected in 1917, the
camp was used for only 20 months before the land was donated
for the park in 1924. In early 2015, archaeological investigations
of Camp Logan focused on the 370th infantry, a regiment of
African American soldiers from Illinois. The long-term goals of

36

Danielle Gardner
The 2014 Ebola outbreak has raised much panic in the US as well
as internationally. This panic and widespread concern is reminiscent in many ways of the hysteria surrounding the 1980s early
HIV epidemic. One influential contributor to the concern around
both diseases is the media. Based on Tversky and Kahnemans
(1973) discussion of the availability heuristic, we hypothesized
that increased media exposure can increase disease-related concern, as well as negatively impact disease-related knowledge. A
survey study of 351 participants exposed to varying amounts of
either HIV or Ebola related media found statistically significant
evidence that increased media exposure can increase participants
tendencies to overestimate the effects of a disease. Such findings
have multiple implications on the ways in which disease-related
media should be presented and consumed.

158: Imagining ((System Reimagining)): Forecasting Metros

Weekend Bus Ridership

Kelsey Walker
In August of 2015, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris
County will implement System Reimagining, a complete overhaul of its current bus network. For a high proportion of the
new systems routes, buses will run approximately every fifteen
minutes, on all seven days of the week. Currently, buses run much
less frequently on weekends than they do on weekdays, so the new
system will effectively double the service offered on Saturday and
in some cases triple the service on Sundays. How will ridership
respond to these unprecedented increases in weekend service?
This study uses Geographical Information Systems, multiple
regression analysis, and Metros April 2014 ride counts to identify

the predictors of bus ridership by bus stop and bus route on

Saturdays and Sundays. The predictors are then incorporated into
a ridership forecasting model that generates weekend ridership
estimates for the routes of System Reimagining.

159: The Effect of Mexican Accent on Compensation Package

Negotiation

Lyangela Gutierrez
Mexican immigrants are becoming a sizable segment of the U.S.
population, and it is therefore important to understand how they
are perceived. Previous studies suggest accent is negatively stereotyped, particularly Spanish-accented English. However, the effect
of accent and gender on negotiations has not been addressed in
the current literature. This study proposes an experimental design
to test how Mexican-accented English affects negotiation results
in a job offer. In this experiment, 180 participants were recruited
through Mechanical Turk. Participants saw a companys first offer
to a job candidate and then heard a recording of the job candidate
negotiating more benefits. In the recording, the job candidates
gender and accent strength (none, slight, strong) varied based on
the condition. Afterward, participants determined which benefits they would give and also completed measures of perceived
competence and likeability of the candidate. My study hypothesizes that Mexican-accented, women confederates will be given
fewer benefits and evaluated more negatively by participants than
unaccented, male confederates. Furthermore, negative perceptions of Mexican-accented candidates and women candidates
should mediate the effects of accent and gender on negotiation.
Assuming the results support these hypotheses, they will reveal an
important obstacle to the full integration of Mexican immigrants
in U.S. society.

160: Texas Tow-st - Evaluation of Transportation Policy

Madhuri Venkateswar, Jacob Jaffe, Carolina Osuna

Highway traffic incidents commonly cause additional roadway
problems, including congestion, property damage, bodily injury
and mortality. Research shows that they also cause secondary
collisionscollisions that result directly from primary incidents.
In response, many local governments have established Incident
Management Programs that aim to clear incidents quickly and
resume normal traffic flow. Our research used Houstons SafeClear Incident Management Program (a policy that separates the
highway system into 29 segments, each controlled by a specific
tow company), to determine the relationship between the time
a primary incident remains on the road (duration time) and
the probability of a secondary collision. We developed a more
rigorous definition of secondary collisions than those employed
by most researchers, and used it to measure the relationship
between primary incidents and secondary collisions on Houstons roadways between 2005-2013. We analyzed approximately
400,000 incidents and established a direct, statistically significant
relationship between duration time and the probability of a secondary collision. From this conclusion, we recommended several
methods by which Houston could decrease the duration time of
incidents, such as redistributing first responders and redesigning
segment boundaries. Based on our research, Houston has hired a
team of Rice students to redesign the programs segments.

161: The Dynamic Neurological Patterns of Behavior: Anatomical and Functional Brain Connectivity in Nicotine Addicts

Selina Baeza Loya

Patients with mental health problems such as addiction and
depression have altered brain connectivity. The anterior cingulate
cortex (ACC) is theorized to be involved in reward anticipation,
decision making, and emotion regulation. Previously observed
functional changes in the cingulate cortex in addicts indicate
a possible measureable change in neuronal connectivity. Using
functional magnetic resonance imaging methods, we measure water diffusion, and indirectly the connectivity, of anterior cingulate
primary neural pathways. A stronger addiction and the resulting
withdrawal symptoms could indicate fewer tracts, reduced water
diffusion, and therefore reduced connectivity. We hypothesize
that heavy nicotine users will have relatively decreased fractional
anisotropy and fewer measured tracts in the anterior cingulate
cortex relative to healthy, non-addicted controls. Analysis of
diffusion tensor images of a sample of nicotine addicts (n =30)
and control subjects (n = 38) indicates that nicotine addicts have
significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in the anterior cingulate in the right hemisphere. There were no significant differences
in the fractional anisotropy in the left hemisphere, the number or
length of tracts between users and controls. By better understanding these physiological implications of addiction, we can better
understand how to treat addiction at a deeper therapeutic level by
potentially targeting these brain areas.

162: In-School Suspension: Systems, Processes, and Implementation

Aminat Adegabi
Houston Independent School Districts (HISD) goal is to provide a high quality education program for each student in a safe
environment (that) is free of disruptions that interfere with the
educational process. In order to maintain a safe environment free
of disruptions, students are often assigned in-school suspension
(ISS), a punitive student disciplinary strategy that schools use as
an alternative to out-of-school suspension. Teachers will send a
referral to the administrator who then determines how many days
of ISS the student will receive. In many cases students sit in the
classroom without any work to complete as teachers cannot easily
step away from their class to prepare material. ISS fosters isolation and confinement by removing students from their learning
environment. This research takes a closer look at one HISD high
school through observations of the ISS classroom and interviews
and focus groups with teachers and administrators. With this data
and additional research, I aim to identify ways to better streamline ISS processes and provide a more engaging learning environment for students within the ISS classroom.

163: Retirement and subjective wellbeing: An investigation of

the moderating effect of personality

Meghan Davenport
In this study, I examine the relationship between retirement and
happiness (subjective wellbeing). I will use data from the Health
and Retirement Study (HRS), which is a longitudinal study using
a nationally representative sample of 38,000 adults over age
50. Happiness levels of working adults in 2008 will serve as the
baseline. Data from those same adults (some of whom will have
retired) in 2012 will be compared to 2008 happiness levels in a

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pre-test/post-test control group quasi-experimental design. I will

control for job type, to see if people who retired between 2008 and
2012 are happier than people who continue working. I will also
examine whether personality moderates the relationship between
retirement and subjective wellbeing. I will analyze the mean
differences in subjective wellbeing by retirement status between
time 1 and time 2. For the analysis, I will perform a mixed-model
ANOVA. The pre-test/post-test design also permits me to examine within-person change in subjective wellbeing from time 1 and
time 2. Because personality traits are continuous, I will examine
the interactions by running a regression at time 1 and time 2 with
subjective wellbeing as the dependent variable.

164: Like It or Not: Changing Realities of Social Media Security

in the United States and Russia

Victoria Wang
Given the current strained political climate between the United States and Russia, it is becoming increasingly crucial to find
areas in which these nations may cooperate. Fortunately, there is
potential for collaboration in the area of cybersecurity, specifically
social networking sites. Our research focuses on the ways that the
two countries can learn from one another and use cybersecurity
in social media as a platform for future cooperation. We analyzed
different aspects of social media security regarding the legislation,
vulnerability protection, and preventative measures available for
users in both countries by researching existing English and Russian literature on the topic and interviewing cybersecurity experts
in both countries. After analyzing various methods of cooperation, we concluded that the most effective method of increasing
cybersecurity would be to hold private companies responsible for
security and advocate cybersecurity laws that prioritize individual
user safety. Furthermore, we created a list of best practices taken
from United States and Russian models of cybersecurity to ensure
the highest level of overall security for users, by garnering trust
between social media corporations and users and promoting an
environment of an international cyber global civil society.

165: The Role of the Humanities

Nitin Agrawal, Andrew Ta, Giray Ozseker, Bridget Youngs, Elisabeth

Kalomeris
In todays age of technological innovation, universities have seen
an increased interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics fields. Stigma both within and directed towards the
Humanities disciplines have arisen as critics question the relevance of literature, history, philosophy, and the arts in a society
so focused on technological advance. This study aims to publicize our findings, specifically concerning internal and external
perceptions of the School of Humanities at Rice University. We
conducted in-depth interviews and surveyed faculty within
the Humanities departments. Coding and analysis shed light
on several prominent themes. The data revealed that research
within the Humanities department often most strongly impacts
students who study courses relating to the Humanities, who then
relay their knowledge to society. While critics of the Humanities
disciplines may balk at limited job opportunities or question its
relevance, much of the Humanities faculty will argue that the
study of such disciplines contextualizes understanding of ones
place in society while developing critical thinking skills applicable
in every field.

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166: Analyzing Bicycle and Pedestrian Mobility in Southeast

Houston through Map-Based Surveys

Nicolas Thorpe, Kelsey Walker, Sea Hoon Kim

As part of a larger collaborative effort to enhance quality of life for
community residents, with the Southeast Houston Transformation Alliance (SEHTA), its Strollin and Rollin GO Team, and the
U.S. National Park Service, the SEHTA Houston Action Research
Team (HART) studied mobility in the Houston neighborhood of
OST-South Union. The team analyzed residents travel patterns
and provided recommendations for improved bicycle and pedestrian options in the neighborhood. We conducted 120 map-based
surveys in which residents were asked to identify their most
common destinations, routes, and modes of travel within the area.
Survey responses were analyzed using qualitative data coding and
GIS mapping. Results illustrated that residents travel most often
to destinations clustered along major thoroughfares, and that
younger residents are the most likely to use multi-modal forms
of transit to reach those destinations. Based on our findings, and
with the aim of making bicycle and pedestrian travel options
more accessible to OST-South Union residents of all ages, we
identified several area streets that would serve well as north-south
and east-west complete streets and made recommendations for
bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements.

167: Model Minority versus Perpetual Foreigner: Discrimination

toward Asian Job Applicants on the Basis of Their Accents

Linda Nguyen
Despite the fact that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
forbids exclusion on the basis of race or gender, employers may
still legally reject applicants on the basis of their accents if it can
be demonstrated that a speakers accent will impair job ability.
However, employers have used subjective measures instead of objective tests to prove comprehensibility, perpetuating the problem
of accent discrimination. While some studies have examined how
different foreign accents will manifest in different experiences of
accent discrimination, most of the existing research fails to take
into account the magnitude of a persons accent. The current research examines various strengths of a Mandarin Chinese accent
to examine the intersectionality of race and accent, and its impact
on perceived employability. Experts in language played the role of
an applicant and audiotaped portions of an ostensible interview
with three varying degrees of accents. Then, 360 participants rated
the applicant. I hypothesize that stronger accented applicants will
be rated as less employable than their non-accented counterparts.
The results of this study will not only shed light on the impact of
the magnitude of a persons accent, but also have important implications for reducing discriminatory hiring practices.

168: Border Lives

Rocio Rosa-Lebron
Historically, migration studies have focused on interaction
between the origin and the destination, and centered mostly
on rural communities. However, in recent years migration has
become increasingly complex, with large migrant cities emerging
in Mexico such as Tijuana. This study uses in-depth interviews to
examine migration in this urban border context. It explores the
livelihood strategies migrants employ to navigate life at the border, be they international migrants, stepwise migrants, or simply
border commuters.

169: The Influence of Racial Stereotypicality on Educational and

Career Choices

Julia George-Jones
Racial stereotypicality can affect a variety of outcomes in life,
including death sentences, diversity of friendship networks, and
perceptions of intelligence. Over the past two years, we have conducted various studies on the relationship between racial stereotypicality and career-related outcomes. Although all three studies
have produced interesting results, they each have various limitations. I am addressing these limitations in a fourth comprehensive
study where I will examine whether racial stereotypicality can
predict educational and career-related outcomes. First, pictures
of a sample of college students will be coded for stereotypicality
of their self-identified race. Using graduation and major records,
we will perform analyses to determine whether individuals who
are more versus less stereotypical of their race are more likely to
initially cite interest in certain fields over others and switch from
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
to non-STEM fields. For future projects, we plan to extend our
findings to examine the specific sources and processes from which
such differences in educational outcomes based on stereotypicality arise.

170: Aragonite Bead Production at Songo Mnara

Aryn Neurock
Archaeological excavations at Songo Mnara, a 15th- to 16th-century AD Swahili town and UNESCO World Heritage site in
Tanzania, unearthed aragonite beads and large amounts of debris
associated with their production. The debris marks the first indication of aragonite bead production at any Swahili site. By focusing on the debris and bead assemblages, this paper reconstructs
the ancient aragonite bead production process at Songo Mnara.
This operational sequence begins with the giant clams that Swahili
craftsmen used to create these beads, and follows the methods of
percussive shaping, drilling, and smoothing that led to the final
product. Because there is no existing literature on aragonite bead
production, this paper considers shell bead production methods
employed by groups outside of East Africa with various types of
shell. Additionally, quantitative analyses of the debris, in conjunction with statistical analyses of beads, are used to reconstruct the
production process. This work contributes to an understanding of
local forms of production in the ancient Swahili world, and how
those are part of the larger economic and political organization of
towns.

171: Audio-Tactile Integration in the Time Domain

Lucy Lai
Our sensory experience is complex and involves the integration of
multisensory information over time and space. Humans receive
signals in each modality through specialized receptor systems,
yet the information conveyed by our senses is often redundant.
Thus the brain has developed common mechanisms for representing information across senses. It has been shown that touch and
audition interact in the frequency domain. Here we characterize
auditory and tactile interactions in the time domain. To investigate this relationship, we implement a series of psychophysical
tests to quantify perceptual sensitivity of participants performing
duration judgments of unimodal and bimodal auditory and tactile
stimulation. We hypothesize that audio-tactile integration occurs

in a statistically optimal fashion in the time domain. Performance

can be estimated using a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE)
model, which predicts that the unimodal signals combine to
produce a multimodal stimulus estimate with the lowest possible variance (that is, with the greatest reliability). According to
this hypothesis, we predict that the bimodal variance should be
lower than those of either audition or touch alone. Furthermore,
on bimodal trials we predict that participants weigh the auditory
and tactile information accordingly to their relative reliabilities in
order achieve the most precise, single duration estimate possible.

172: Exploring the Preventive Health Behaviors of Rice University Students

Ashley Phillips, Disha Kumar, Sajani Patel

College is often a time when students first become independently
responsible for their health. However, the degree to which college
students participate in preventive health behavior varies by
individual and can be influenced by many internal and external factors. These include personal perceptions, available health
resources, and campus awareness. We surveyed Rice University
undergraduate students about their knowledge, attitudes, and
behaviors towards vaccination and STD testing. We also collected
data on student preferences for campaign sources and mediums.
Data collection is ongoing. The results of this research could support increased promotion of preventive health services on college
campuses.

173: Visualizing Politics in the Chinese Capital

Yun Zhu Deng

Chinas urban landscape has transformed so drastically over
recent decades that cities, such as Beijing, are rendered almost
unfamiliar. Urbanization, globalization and the increasing size of
the middle class are manifesting itself physically in the capital city.
As China transitions from a command to market economy, the
regulation of public spaces, land distribution and real estate development have changed the way of life in the city. A cartographic
and demographic study of Beijing will be conducted to unveil the
relationship between politics - both domestic and international and the physical city. The study will focus on the characteristics of
public spaces, connectivity in street planning and stark differences in phases of development throughout the city. Public spaces,
created directly as a response to policies of the central governing
body, define the rapid cycles of destruction and construction that
shape Beijings downtown. Urban planning and architecture can
thus be interpreted as a visualization and spatialization of politics,
as well as an extension of political propaganda.

174: Ambiguous Loss in MV Sewol Tragedy: Meaning of Body

Retrieval to Korean Families

Justin Park
Man-made disasters are not rare occurrences in modern Korea,
largely as a result of rapid industrialization. The latest tragedy to
strike the nation is the sinking of MV Sewol ferry on April 16,
2014. The vesselcarrying 476 passengers, most of whom were
high-school studentscapsized on its route from Incheon to Jeju
and lost a total of 304 passengers. Of the 304, nine still remain
missing. The families of the missing victims continue to aggressively demand for safe retrieval of the bodies and voice opposition
against any mechanical operations on the sunken ship that may

39

potentially bring physical damage to the bodies inside. This research aims to elucidate both the cultural and psychological basis
of the heavy emphasis these families place on the safe retrieval of
the missing victims bodies. Similar cases in the past as reported
in the media and existing literature were reviewed and analyzed.
It is hypothesized that Koreas strong Confucian foundations influence the perceived importance of proper treatment of bodies in
the process of finalizing death. This is in addition to the suffering
of the missing victims families from ambiguous loss, an immensely debilitating form of grief due to the absence of a corpse.

175: Houston and Istanbul: Is Fuel Taxation effectively used on

the expansion of roads or public transportation

Hee Zhi Poh

Istanbul and Houston are two unique but similar cities that work
within a fuel tax system implemented by the central authority
(federal government for Houston and central government of Turkey for Istanbul). However, Istanbul places its focus on growing
public transportation capacity to address the citys evolving complexity and decentralization. The metro system is vastly developed
and extensive as compared to Houston, where the latter works on
the idea of a walkable community model in the face of mounting
road usage, building new roads and highways for private cars due
to its history as a car city. Both measures are primarily supported by fuel tax revenues acquired from private road users. However
for Houston, state-collected fuel tax revenue is not entirely allocated to road projects for the city, leading to insufficient funding
for the high maintenance costs of existing roads or expansion
costs of new ones. On the other hand, Istanbul has a high fuel tax
and will soon divert half the revenue from a special consumption tax on fuel to local administrations for urban development.
The taxation decisions of both cities present key differences that
include but not limited to: political motivations, societal needs
and household economic situations. Thus, I would like to investigate the fuel tax system in both Houston and Istanbul, and to
determine how future urban development can move beyond the
two systems.

176: The Effects of Gender on Smoking Status Among Persons

Living with HIV/AIDS

Erin Rieger
Smoking cessation treatment is a particularly relevant cancer
prevention measure for smokers with HIV. Improvements in
HIV/AIDS treatments have extended the life expectancy for
People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). In turn, there has been
an increase in the incidence of cancer within this population. The
high rates of smoking and cancer in this population, along with
the possible connection between perception of HIV disease state
and smoking attitudes and behaviors, indicate that there is a need
for smoking interventions designed specifically for PLWHA. To
explore this topic, I will work with previously collected data from
the Project STATE study (Study of Tobacco Attitudes and Teachable Events). Based on literature addressing possible gender differences in smoking cessation and HIV/AIDS coping, I predict that
there will be observable gender differences in smoking outcomes
among the HIV-positive participants enrolled in Project STATE.
I hypothesize that there will be a significant interaction between
gender and HIV coping. Possible gender differences will inform
the development of gender-specific smoking cessation interven-

40

tions within the teachable moment framework of Project STATE.

177: Development of a Patient Knowledge Scale for Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Placement

Mackenzie Nettlow
While LVAD treatment can be a promising option for improving
longevity and quality of life, no standardized tools yet exist for ensuring informed consent among candidates for LVAD treatment.
The aim of this research was to construct and validate a scale to
assess knowledge needs based on common value criteria used by
patients in decisions surrounding LVAD treatment, combined
with provider-recommended criteria for providing informed
consent. To inform the creation of an LVAD Knowledge Scale,
qualitative interviews (N=60) were completed with LVAD candidates, patients, decliners, and caregivers to elucidate the knowledge needed for the LVAD informed consent process. We also
interviewed clinicians (n=10) to discern the needs from a clinical
viewpoint. Based on the frequency and overlap of these viewpoints, a 20-question scale was devised and underwent cognitive
testing with LVAD candidates, patients, and clinicians to ensure
the comprehensibility of the scale. The scale was subsequently revised and is now undergoing alpha testing with LVAD candidates
before education, LVAD candidates post-education, and current
LVAD patients. Our current thesis is that Knowledge Scale results
will be lowest with candidates pre-education and highest with
LVAD patients. Preliminary data support our claim, and further
testing will end in the validation of the scale.

178: A Comparison of Satisfaction and Interest Ratings of

Season Ticket Holders, Casual Fans, and Students for Rice Mens
Basketball

D.J. Green, Zack Wright, Denzel Davis, Peter Godber, Luke Turner
A survey will be created and distributed to the following groups to
determine their satisfaction and interest in the Rice Mens Basketball Team for the 2014-2015 season: season ticket holders, casual
fans, and Rice students. Various areas such as ticketing, parking,
in game experience, etc., will be included in the survey. Comparisons will be made descriptively across groups. A few specific
questions will be added for each of the sub groups. Focus groups
will be formed from each of the groups to enhance and expand on
the information contained in the survey. The results will be used
to help improve the atmosphere at Mens games for the 2015-2016
season.

179: Perceptual Organization in Schizophrenia: Impact of Emergent Features and the Configural Superiority Effect
Emily Mitaro
Emergent features (EFs) are salient features observed in whole
systems, but not in individual parts or individual groups of parts
within that system. When the addition of context to a visual
stimulus results in a whole that is more discriminable than its
individual parts, it is called a configural superiority effect (CSE).
While EFs and CSEs have been well documented in normal
populations, these phenomena have not been tested in patients
with schizophrenia, who regularly show perceptual organization
abnormalities. In the following experiment, I plan to test whether
the addition of contextual stimuli affects reaction time in detecting a unique stimulus among patients with schizophrenia. I will

also determine whether the effects of EFs and CSEs in schizophrenia significantly differ from these effects in healthy controls.

Results will provide insight to the specific perceptual deficits and/

or abilities associated with schizophrenia.

Humanities
181: Kingship in the Age of Extraction: How British Deconstruction and Isolation of African Kingship Reshaped Identity and
Spurred a North/South Divide in Nigeria, 1885-1937

Hurst Williamson
The colonial era in Nigeria can be seen as a clash of two cultures
between competitively proselytizing and exclusivist ideologies:
Islam and Modern Nationalism. Between the organized deconstruction of kingship in the south and the isolation of kingship in
the north, the economic growth of the Nigerian colony cemented
a dichotomous, geographic means of Nigerian self-identification.
Northerners continued, and arguably increased, their homogenous and increasingly geographic identification as Muslims;
southerners, through a forced adaptation of a new identification
within colonial institutions, began to think of themselves for the
first time as homogenously Nigerian. As northerners of different
ethnicities were coalesced into Northern Nigeria, Islam became
the uniting identity factor that grew in importance as the effects of
colonial neglect grew more pronounced. On balance, the institutionalization of hundreds of groups of southerners as a result
of a loss of traditional kingship placed southerners in colonial
positions and institutions that would eventually lead to pan-Nigerianism. This political/identity division along a line of colonial
investment created both political and personal boundaries, which
still dominate Nigerian politics today.

182: True or False: Understanding the Metaphysics of Fiction

Isabelle Lelogeais
This paper critically examines Nelson Goodmans Ways of Worldmaking to seek a greater and more complete understanding of the
metaphysical status of fictional characters and elements. While
Goodman holds two key beliefsthe fabricated theory of fact
and the importance of fiction in realitywhich might seem to
give fictional elements more metaphysical ground, he is reluctant
to ask the question of whether or not they are real. This paper
examines this problem in the context of the standard assumption
that fiction is the opposite of fact, and ultimately proposes a new
definition of fiction that lends greater clarity to its relationship to
reality.

183: Virginity, Motherhood, and Conceptions of Mary in Ante-Nicene Christian Texts

Emily Higgs
The Virgin Mary, the central female figure of the Christian tradition, is crucial for those who seek to understand feminine ideals
in the Church. Although it may appear that Marys key characteristics her virginity, for example have always been agreed upon,
this was not the case. This project seeks to trace conceptions of
Mary throughout the first to fourth centuries CE, specifically before Christian doctrine was codified in the First Council of Nicaea

(325). What were the competing conceptions of Mary? Using Ante-Nicene writings and taking note of the networks through which
these men communicated their ideas, I hope to find patterns that
elucidate the arguments of the time and what implications these
arguments held for the Christian community. My research will
contribute to the ongoing conversation in the field on theological
arguments among the earliest Christian communities, as well as
memory of Mary in a time period that predates the scope of most
scholarship on the subject. Also, in the broader public context, I
hope to shed light on how Mary over time has come to signify an
unreachable ideal of both Mother and Virgin.

184: The Gush of Progress - The Impact of Texass Oil Industry on

American Culture during the 20th Century
Kaylee Yocum
This project examines the representation of the Texas oil industry
in the 20th century through media and historical record to understand how the values of the industry have both influenced and
been influenced by American culture. The Texas oil industry is
represented as a rag-to-riches story echoing prominent American
values such as freedom, democracy, optimism, and progress. The
industry became synonymous with all that was both good and
bad with big business in America, and created mythical figures
out of ordinary men. The project utilizes popular films, historical
record, anecdotes, and popular historical narratives to demonstrate how the Texas oil industry has been viewed both internally
and externally. Popular media will serves as the departure point
for the project, since it latched on to figures like the independent
oil man during the 20th century as a way to describe the broader
Texas culture. Written records, both past and present, overlay
their narratives with the values of the time in which they were
written, allowing the reader to analyze how the oil industry has
been viewed over time. The Texas oil industry embodies certain
values, which are present not only in the larger Texas narrative,
but in Americas as well.

185: The Bay Psalm Book (9th ed. 1698) in Practice: An Analysis
and Contextualization of Didactic Musical Features

Alexandra Krawetz
From the Massachusetts Bay Colonys inception (circa 1630)
sacred singing preserved religiosity. Colonists sang both publicly,
in congregations, and privately, at home. The first book printed
in America was the colonists own psalter The Bay Psalm Book
(1st edition 1640). Despite this close connection to and dedicated
practice of religious music, by the 1690s the colonists struggled
singing complicated psalm tunes. My new approach to The Bay
Psalm Book (9th edition 1698) frames this book in the context of
colonial music education. I propose that The Bay Psalm Book (9th
edition 1698), the first known edition of The Bay Psalm Book to

41

include musical notation, was an attempt to rectify the deteriorated singing quality. Through its emphasis on musical uniformity
and textual clarity The Bay Psalm Book (9th edition 1698) simplified traditional English psalmody to increase performance unity.
I present, to my knowledge, the first in-depth musical analysis of
this psalters music and a comparison to the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter (1631) and Thomas Ravenscrofts The Whole Booke
of Psalmes (1621). Through this analysis I elucidate the musical
features that would have aided the congregation in learning and
remembering the psalm tunes.

186: Block Heroes: Participatory Placemaking in the 5th Ward

Grant Patterson
Placemaking efforts bring people together so that their lives
overlap in positive ways. As Houstons neighborhoods undergo
continued, rapid growth and development, residents can apply
placemaking as a tool to further define neighborhood identity and
bolster civic life so that they can more dynamically assert themselves in the face of drastic changes. However, fostering engagement poses a major challenge to organizations; most efforts fail to
truly establish trust and bring residents in as creative equals. After
the selection of the block, a strategy is created for reaching out to
residents and setting up planning meetings. A vision for the block
is formed at the meetings and a date is set for implementation.
Rather than predetermining scope, residents decide what actions
to pursue. Block Heroes occurs on a single residential block at
first and sustains itself through continued utilization of local
assets and community partnerships. This project shows that with
intentional networking, modest resources, and a participatory
framework, resident-driven placemaking excels. With repeated
success, the Fifth Ward will set an example for the rest of the City
of Houston. Placemaking does not stop development, but allows
residents to more effectively engage with forces that will bring big
changes.

187: The Market and Distributive Injustice

Allyson Arias
How do market economies as we know them affect our achievement of justice? In many philosophical theories of justice, a vague
conception of the market is left to run the distributive system
amuck. I look at three distinct theories of distributive justice and
demonstrate how the market ultimately undermines each of their
fundamental principles: freedom, equality, and human dignity.
Robert Nozick upholds the principle of freedom, yet I argue that
the markets centrality in the minimal state restricts real freedom,
substituting it with a narrow range of rights dictating that individuals ought not be imposed upon. Similarly, Ronald Dworkins
concern for treating individuals equally backfires through the
markets role as a distributive mechanism, which creates objectionable inequalities due to luck. Finally, Martha Nussbaum seeks
to uphold the principle of human dignity through nationally-set
minimal thresholds of justice. I argue that to attain justice in a
globalized market, we need a global threshold to stipulate respect
for human dignity regardless of economic situations. In short, my
aim is to show how the markets role in distributive justice must
be taken into careful consideration. We must critically scrutinize
the impact of the market on our ideals of justice and their attainment.

42

188: From Mango Street to Rio Estates: Negotiating the Domestic in Post-Movement Chicana Literature

Lexi Perez
As the Chicano/a population have begun to cross new barriers
in the 20th and 21st centuries, they have created new sites of
conversation to pursue. In this project, I am focused on the new
challenges that arise among Chicana women when they enter new
spaces of class, education, and career. As Chicanas cross these new
borders and enter university and the middle and upper class, how
does their relationship with the home change, and what tools are
they using to express their agency and combat the arising struggles found in these traditionally unexplored spaces? By placing
lesser-known, post-movement novels by authors such as Michele
Serros and Mara Escandon in conversation with canonical
movement works such as House on Mango Street, we can begin
to negotiate how the relationship with the domestic space changes
for Chicanas under 21st century conditions, specifically Neoliberalist policies.

189: Understanding the Gap: Autism and public education in China

Karen Resnick
The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in China is a recent phenomenon. While China has passed two key legislations
regarding disability and education, there continues to be a lack of
public resources for the education of children with autism. This
project proposes exploring what the lack of resources for children
with autism in China reflects about Chinese societal values and
ideas of education. Through interviews with Chinese teachers,
and parents of children both with autism and without, the study
aims to better understand societal expectations placed on the children with autism, their families, and public education system. It
is expected that education for children with autism is considered
a private familial burden due to Chinese culture, which places a
high value on education and Confucian filial piety. It is hypothesized that Chinas current public education reflects the traditional
idea of education as a means to success, which clashes with the
ideologies of parents who desire public education as a means of
conformity and normalcy. This project helps us better understand underlying reasons for the gap in educational resources for
children with autism and has implications for future studies on
children with autism in East Asian social contexts.

190: Ethnic Identity of the Hoa Vietnamese American

Judy Liu
This proposed study aims to examine the self-perceived identities
of the Hoa Vietnamese American. Studies on ethnic identity state
that one tends to name oneself in relation to other social categories. With the Hoa minority groups history of Chinese descent,
yet residing in Vietnam, a line is drawn between identifying
oneself as Chinese and Vietnamese. By using the sample in the
United States rather than in Vietnam, the proposed study enables
exploring their ethnic identity in depth; being in an American
context may serve as a neutral ground versus the possibly
polarized social treatment in the Vietnamese society, labeling
these Hoa families before the Hoa families can make an identity
of their own. This study hypothesizes that the Hoa Vietnamese
American self-identity is closely tied to how others around them
identify themselves and closely tied to what types of communities
are exposed to them. Investigating Hoa Vietnamese Americans
contributes to a better understanding of ethnic identity. Data will

be collected in the forms of interviews, surveys, and case studies

on the Hoa Vietnamese American community.

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SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
WIESS SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES