Pregnancy and lactation induce drastic changes in skeletal physiology due to the increased calcium demand by fetal/infant growth. Although both clinical and animal studies have suggested that reproduction leads to long-lasting skeletal changes to exert protective effects on mech…
Synthetic biology is an emergent field incorporating aspects of computer science molecular biology-based methodologies in a systems biology context, taking naturally occurring cellular systems, pathways, and molecules, and selectively engineering them for the generation of novel…
This thesis examines how chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) regulates the interaction between the cell membrane and the actin cortex, thereby controlling cell biomechanics. The thesis also investigates the viscoelastic properties of primary arti…
MicroRNAs play an important role in biological regulation. Recently miR-34a has been reported to regulate tumour cell cycle progression and apoptosis. However, the functional role of miR-34a in smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation from stem cells is yet unclear. Main objecti…
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of unnatural death worldwide. Damage to the endothelial glycocalyx impairs endothelial functions and thereafter leads to the development of cardiovascular diseases. Despite this, many issues remain to be explored in our understanding o…
Polyelectrolyte microcapsules were first established in 1998 as a potential drug delivery vehicle. Despite being well-established, microcapsules have not yet been thoroughly considered as a viable means of targeted drug delivery. This is largely due to the fact that microcapsule…
A promising approach to overcome thrombus and neointima formation on vascular grafts is to create a functional, quiescent monolayer of endothelial cells on the surface of implants. Surface topography of these implants is proven to enhance cell attachment and to reduce the inflam…
There is a growing interest in micro sized vehicles with the function of storing, targeting and controlled releasing of substances during the past few decades. However, delivering the desired drugs inside micro containers to living cells is a particular challenging topic of mate…
There has been much work into getting clear and precise images of bone growing within different osteoconductive and osteoinductive scaffolds for the aim of investigating and quantifying the effect the different grafts have on the bone that forms within the graft. Before the bone…
Growth hormone deficiency has benefited immensely from the effective use of growth hormone replacement therapy. Recently the manufacture of recombinant human growth hormone (RHGH) has increased evaluation of the therapeutic value of growth hormone beyond the treatment of growth …
One of the major problems of urbanization is the production of a huge amount of Municipal Solid Waste. The cities and metropolitan areas are generating more and more solid waste and these wastes are filling up the landfill rapidly. Creating new landfills after a few years is not…
Transgene flows into wild/weedy relatives may cause ecological and economic problems. Seed dormancy is an adaptive trait that distributes germination over time and promotes the persistence of weeds in agroecosystems. Silencing natural genes controlling seed dormancy (SD) could p…
The current treatment methods in cancer are associated with toxicity in healthy tissues, partial therapeutic response, drug resistance and finally recurrence of the disease. The cancer drugs are challenged by non-specific binding, undesired toxicity in healthy cells, low therape…
Tissue biopsies, where a volume of tissue is removed from a patient, typically through needle extraction, provides critical information about the cellular and molecular aspects of an individual patient’s health and/or disease. However, current pathological assessments of tissue …
It has been shown that a peptide of the first 10-15 N-terminal amino acids of the lethal toxin neutralizing factor (LTNF) protein found in opossums (Didelphis spp.) holds promise as a low-cost therapy for snake envenomation. To date, the 11-mer has been expressed in E. coli and …
A comparative analysis of the antimicrobial activity and phytochemical properties of Allium sativum (garlic) and Zingiber officinale (ginger) extract was carried out on some clinical isolates. Garlic and ginger samples were extracted using ethyl acetate, acetone and methanol as …
Differential co-expression analysis, a new approach in systems biology, has emerged as a complementary method to traditional differential gene expression analysis. In order to understand the genetic background of diseases, it is important to reveal the interactions of genes in d…
Anammox has become an innovative bioprocess in wastewater treatment facilities due to its significant advantages over conventional nitrification/denitrification process. However, variable responses of anammox bacteria to external environment and slow growth rate of them cause li…
Herein we present a sensor that uses surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and plasmonic waveguide resonance (PWR) modes to probe the behavior of two layers of stimuli-responsive polymers, called microgels, deposited on a gold film. These microgels can be molecularly imprinted, result…
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a major public health concern and socioeconomic burden worldwide. In recent years, brain injuries in US service personnel have focused attention on TBI affecting the military population (Bass et al., 2012). Blast injuries have become the most …