The action of the automorphisms of a formal group on its deformation space is crucial to understanding periodic families in the homotopy groups of spheres and the unsolved Hecke orbit conjecture for unitary Shimura varieties. This action is called the Lubin-Tate action. We first show sufficient conditions for geometrically modelling...
Despite the increasing interest in biogenic secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), their role in the climate system remains the greatest source of uncertainty in global models. Cloud formation, critical for the net cooling effect provided by cloud cover, is dependent on the abundance of SOA particles and their ability to activate...
Although elevated stress and dietary change have each been associated with metabolic health decline for resettled populations in the Global North, considerably less attention is paid to the links between these two biosocial pathways. Addressing these linkages can elucidate interrelated diet and stress mechanisms that affect population health disparities over...
Submodularity is a well-known concept in integer programming and combinatorial optimization. Submodular set functions capture the diminishing returns phenomenon, which has wide-ranging applications in various domains. Typically, a submodular set function models the utility of homogenous items selected from a single ground set. Selecting an item or not is naturally...
Controlled delivery of foreign cargo into cells is a critical step in many biological studies and in cell engineering and analysis workflows. Recent advances in micro and nanotechnology, specifically in microfluidics and microfabrication have added significantly to the precision, accuracy, resolution and throughput of cell manipulation and analysis pipelines. These...
Metalloenzymes catalyze remarkable reactions in Nature using transition metal ions. Common earth-abundant metals like copper, iron, zinc, and magnesium catalyze reactions that are the basis of life. These metal sites lend their chemistries to facilitate these reactions, making studying the structure and properties important in understanding the enzymes' abilities and...
For many years silicon tethers have been used to increase yields and control the stereochemical and regiochemical outcomes of coupling reactions. Silicon tethers may be incorporated into a wide range of reaction types including alkene metathesis, cycloadditions, and glycosylations. This thesis focuses on the development of the use of silicon...
Drying oils have been used as a binding medium for oil paints since the 15th century. These oil paints transition from a liquid-like paste to a solid-like film as a result of crosslinks forming between the oil molecules. These reactions have been extensively studied chemically, but other material properties are...
Pollution-intensive industrial manufacturing processes threaten the health of ecosystems and societies through toxic waste streams and energy intensive processes that lead to greenhouse gas emissions. Biological systems present more sustainable routes to many useful industrial chemicals by using enzymes at low temperatures, but the time and effort required to optimized...
This dissertation focuses on quantifying protein folding stability determinants and presenting initial experiments that can guide the development of a novel assay that identifies cell-penetrating miniproteins. First, despite over a century of scholarship on protein folding stability, applying this knowledge to design proteins computationally remains limited. Usually, protein designers generate...