Department of Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Research Option Theses
The Research Option offers students majoring in biomedical engineering the opportunity for a substantial, in-depth research experience. Students are strongly encouraged at the end of their experience to work with their faculty mentor to develop a journal publication or conference presentation on the research in addition to the actual thesis.
All materials in SMARTech are protected under U.S. Copyright Law and all rights are reserved. Such materials may be used, quoted or reproduced for educational purposes only with prior permission, provided proper attribution is given. Any redistribution, reproduction or use of the materials, in whole or in part, is prohibited without prior permission of the author.
Recent Submissions
-
An Evaluation of Polymeric Nanoparticles as an Alternative for Vaccinations
Although many studies have been done on antibodies and vaccines, little is known about the transfection methods of nanoparticles capable of carrying antigens into cells to create effective mRNA vaccines. Although mRNA ... -
Fracture Mechanics of Pelleted Feces Within Mammals
In this combined experimental and theoretical study, we test the hypothesis that feces length is set by the dynamics of drying within the intestine. With previous measurements of the water contents of both pelleted and ... -
Sleep Disruption in a Mouse Model of Medial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
While not typically a recognized comorbidity of epilepsy, sleep disorders are common in epilepsy, particularly medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). However, consistent and severe sleep disruptions have a potentially ... -
Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) Response in a Preclinical Rat Model of mTBI Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) Response in a Preclinical Rat Model of mTBI
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impairs populations both physically and financially, explaining about 75% of all head injuries and costing over $60 billion in the United States (Ahmed et.al, 2015 and Maas et. al, 2010). Through ... -
The Selective Benefits of Acute Dosing with Dopamine Receptor Agonists on the Visual Function, Cognitive Function, and Blood Glucose Levels in a Rat Model of Type I Diabetes
Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that dopamine D1 and D4 receptor (D1R, D4R) agonists selectively improve spatial frequency and contrast sensitivity thresholds, respectively, in healthy and diabetic mice (Jackson ... -
3D bioprinted cardiac patches for cardiovascular regenerative medicine
Myocardial infarction (MI) is the leading cause of death worldwide causing irreversible damage to the heart. Despite the incidence and prevalence of MI, current treatments delay the progression of the damage rather than ... -
A System to Measure Maximal Isometric Torque of the Mouse Quadriceps to Assess Functional Recovery of Skeletal Muscle in a Volumetric Muscle Loss Injury
Volumetric muscle loss (VML) is an injury characterized by the traumatic or surgical loss of skeletal muscle and a severe loss of function to the affected limb. Due to the injury’s size and complexity, the body is unable ... -
Improving Mitral Repair for Functional Mitral Regurgitation
Ischemic mitral regurgitation is affiliated with changes in annular dimensions as well as remodeling of the left ventricle. Undersized mitral annuloplasty (UMA), which involves implanting a titanium-based ring-like structure ... -
Characterizing Excitatory and Inhibitory Neuron Responses to Dark and Bright Stimuli in the Visual Cortex of Awake Mice
An increased understanding in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) will allow us to better characterize the internal electrical and neural circuit mechanisms of the visual process. So far, most studies directly recording single ... -
Characterizing the Dynamics of Macrophage Polarization and Signaling
Apart from their primary functions in innate immunity and phagocytosis, macrophages are critical regulators of inflammation through their ability to adopt polarization states, a spectrum of phenotypes in which macrophages ... -
Engineering genetic thermal switches for remote control of therapeutic T cells
Adoptive transfer of engineered T cells has shown striking clinical success in treating refractory liquid cancers, yet the inability to spatially regulate T cell activity within select anatomical sites limits efficacy ... -
Anti-CRISPRs Oligonucleotides Facilitate Cell Type-Specific Control of Nanoparticle Cas9 Gene Editing
While CRISPR-Cas systems represent a powerful research tool, in order to become clinically viable significant challenges woud have to be overcome. One of the largest issues facing the breadth of CRISPR technologies is the ... -
Effect of transcatheter aortic valve materials on thrombogenesis
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive technique introduced to treat patients with aortic stenosis who are at high surgical risk. Despite its advantages over the traditional open-heart surgery ... -
Hyaluronan Physically Mediates Cell Adhesion
Cell adhesion is the fundamental process underlying all basic life processes. While structures that enhance cell adhesion strength, such as focal adhesions, have been widely characterized, influences decreasing cell adhesion ... -
Modulation of DNA Methylation for Efficient Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells
Epigenetic mechanisms are pivotal for gene regulation and transcription, which are crucial to a proper functioning of the central nervous system (CNS). Numerous neurological and psychiatric diseases are caused by malfunctions ... -
Biofilm Matrix Properties in Pseudomonas aeruginosa under Bacteriophage Treatment
Biofilms are a specialized structural formation that some bacterial species form when growing in certain environments. One such environment is the human lung, where the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa forms biofilms that ... -
Dissociable Effect of Stimulus Fluency on Accuracy and Confidence in Perceptual Decision Making
Perceptual decision making relies on collecting evidence from stimuli to make an accurate judgement. The decision is accompanied by a sense of confidence based on the same evidence. Although the accuracy and confidence of ... -
An investigation of the mechanism behind Adjuplex and its effect in adjuvant combinations
This research thesis contributes to the field of biomedical engineering, specifically to the following topics: immunotherapy, drug delivery, and adjuvant-vaccine work. By utilizing RAW-Blue cells to observe IFN-β production, ... -
Ability of Janus Particle as Single Cell Sensor to Immobilize Plasma Cells and Collect Antibody
The method to identify and isolate the proteins is one of the keys to the immunoassay production. However, currently there is no effective way to isolate the protein not only because of limited number of technologies for ... -
Design and Validation of a Handheld Probe to Measure Knee Joint Sounds
The goal of this research is to design and validate a system used to record joint sounds measurements that can be collected at home by patients. Wearable and handheld technology allows patients to monitor conditions at ...
RSS 1.0