There is a need for alternative biomanufacturing solutions to produce novel medicines and help solve long-standing issues regarding difficult-to-treat diseases. Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) provides scientists with a new paradigm for producing proteins with an unprecedented freedom and control over the biomolecular machinery involved. In this document, I describe my...
The Escherichia coli ribosome is a 2.4 MDa molecular machine that consists of a large subunit and a small subunit, and is the key catalyst in gene expression, responsible for synthesizing proteins from amino acids in a sequence-defined fashion with impressive speed and accuracy. Expanding the repertoire of ribosome substrates...
Granular solids consisting of various particle sizes exhibit the tendency to de-mix, or segregate, when caused to shear by external forces such as gravity. This well-known phenomenon is of special practical interest to many industries involved in the handling and transportation of bulk solids, where segregation can lead to adverse...
Growing concerns associated with global warming and the depletion of oil reserves have motivated significant research in support of sustainable polymers systems. In this thesis, biobased and biodegradable polymer blends and nanocomposites were created using a novel processing method, solid-state shear pulverization (SSSP). This process utilizes a modified twin-screw extruder...
The adoption of surfactant replacement therapy (SRT) for the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (nRDS) is one of the main contributors to the dramatic decline in infant mortality rates observed in the 1980s. Despite the significant efficacy of animal-derived surfactant preparations, there are still some concerns associated with their...
To increase the butanol titers and selectivity in <em>Clostridium acetobutylicum</em> we replaced the promoter of the alcohol/aldehyde dehydrogenase (<em>aad</em>) gene with the phosphotranbutyrylase (<em>ptb</em>) promoter and combined this with CoAT downregulation to minimize acetone production. This led to early production of high alcohol (butanol plus ethanol) titers and overall solvent...
Granular materials exhibit a wide variety of fascinating physical properties that can be observed both in nature and industry. The goal of this work is to better understand the flow, mixing, and segregation of granular materials in a prototypical system, the rotating tumbler, using numerical modeling, specifically, the Discrete Element...
Nature has been evolving innovative solutions to complex design challenges for billions of years, the success of which is evidenced by the myriad of life-sustaining systems that operate with unparalleled simplicity, efficiency, and durability. Biomimetic researchers derive inspiration from principles underlying natural phenomena to solve design challenges. This work is...
T-cell activation is an essential step of the immune response, yet the cellular and molecular events underlying this complex process are not fully understood. Significantly, a comparative genome-scale transcriptional analysis of two T-cell subsets and the natural-mixed CD3+ population remains unexplored. Using microarrays, we investigated the temporal global transcriptional profile...
Improving cancer treatments are saving the lives of many young women, however these treatments often lead to premature infertility. The in vitro development of ovarian follicles would provide reproductive options to these women by supporting immature follicle growth following ovarian tissue cryobanking. In addition, the system provides a platform to...