Slits are large secreted proteins which mediate their functions by binding to single pass transmembrane receptors called Robo. This signalling axis was first identified as a pivotal guidance mechanism in the development of the nervous system. A repulsive activity of Slit protein…
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Amphidinolides T are challenging natural targets for the total synthesis community because of their unique structural architecture. This thesis describes the investigations of the establishment of a novel and convenient route to synthesise four members of the natural product fam…
Modern day medicine is on the brink of a new age of therapy, which aims to harness the natural power of molecular biology for disease treatment. This therapy could include replacement of dysfunctional genes that cause disorders such as cystic fibrosis (Lommatzsch and Aris, 2009)…
This thesis examined novel and previously utilised parameters of egg quality to determine and define reproductive success in farmed and wild salmonids. The effect of holding environment and inter-female variation on salmonid egg quality was also examined. Furthermore, two nutrit…
This thesis examines visual anti-predator strategies employed by the Lepidoptera. I examine key aspects of pattern and behaviour and how they relate to the reduction of an individual’s predation risk. Symmetrical patterns have been found to be easier to remember and pick out, su…
The healthy intestinal mucosa is home to the largest population of macrophages in body. Like all tissue macrophages, intestinal macrophages play vital roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis by removing apoptotic cells and any other cellular debris. In addition they maintain the…
Background: Myelination is an exquisite and dynamic example of heterologous cell-cell interaction, which consists of the concentric wrapping of multiple layers of oligodendrocyte membrane around neuronal axons. Understanding the mechanism by which oligodendrocytes ensheath axons…
Nociception involves detection of tissue damage by specialized receptors; nociceptors. These convey information to the first synaptic relays in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Within the dorsal horn itself are the dorsal horn neurons which can be divided into two broad class…
Cell migration and invasion is a central process in embryonic development, wound healing and immune responses. Errors during this process have serious consequences, including mental retardation, vascular disease, tumor formation and metastasis. An understanding of the mechanism …
More than a million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK. Despite improvements in the treatment of breast cancer, it remains the second most common cause of death from cancer in women after lun…
UV-B is an integral component of the daylight spectrum that regulates plant gene expression and development, but very little is known about how plants perceive UV-B. Although UV-B-induced damage and repair have been extensively investigated, the mechanisms by which UV-B is perce…
The global success of plants depends largely on their ability to perceive and respond to light, mainly in two regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Phytochromes are light sensors for the red and far-red wavelengths of light while cryptochromes, phototropins and members of the…
The results obtained from the experiments presented in this study aimed to further explore the role of cyclin dependent kinases and cyclins in the protozoan parasite Leishmania major. Cdks in kinetoplastids, CRKs, are the key regulators that allow cells to progress through diffe…
Transposable elements account for the almost half of the sequence encoded by mammalian genomes, which become silenced during early embryonic development. This thesis sought to explore the hypothesis of the involvement of the RNAi pathway in the silencing of transposable elements…
The extensive allelic variability observed in several genes related to the immune response and its significance in transplantation, disease association studies and diversity in human populations has led the scientific community to analyse these variants among individuals. This t…
Learning automata are a major branch of machine learning designed to find the optimal action to a learning task in a random environment. Interactions with environment and repetitive learning of a number of individual units, which are independent and structurally simple, enable t…
This work aims to address the need for more durable electrocatalysts with lower precious metal content for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), through the development of novel electrocatalyst materials and preparation routes. In this work, 'Nafion-Pt/C' electrocatalyst…
Direct Infusion (DI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry (MS) is becoming a popular measurement platform in metabolomics. This thesis aims to advance the data processing and analysis pipeline of the DI FT-ICR based metabolomics, and broaden its a…
Background: Exercise may acutely and chronically up-regulate appetite and energy intake in overweight and obese women preventing body mass reduction in the long term. Overweight and obese women may be most prone to compensatory responses to exercise but the possible mechanism fo…