Background: In Navajo (Diné) populations, the two main forms of medicine that people use include traditional Diné medicine and Western medicine. Traditional medicine can be understood primarily through the concept of maintaining Hózhó or “balance”, while Western medicine is defined through the use of scientific evidence-based techniques and research. The reasons and barriers to using each form of medicine respectively are varied depending on aspects such as accessibility, familiarity, trust, or cost. Overall, there is a current lack of community viewpoints in regards to past examples of the intersection between traditional and Western medicine. This thesis examines reasons behind why Diné individuals use traditional Diné medicine and Western medicine respectively, and their viewpoints on the potential intersection. Methods: An anonymous online survey was distributed via snowball sampling from November 2023 to February 2024 after obtaining ASU IRB approval. It consisted of questions focused on demographics, use of traditional medicine, use of Western medicine, and opinion on the intersection between traditional and Western medicine. Statistical analysis and emerging themes were then performed and noted respectively. Results: There were a total of 15 responses to the online survey. A majority of participants previously used traditional medicine (80%), while all had previously used Western medicine (100%). There was a similar level of satisfaction and perceived efficiency for each, averages ranging from 3.8 to 4.0 respectively on a scale of 1 to 5. Many respondents used traditional medicine for more cultural and spiritual/mental health reasons, while many used Western medicine for more physical health reasons. Cost was the main barrier for each. Participants showed overall positive receptibility to potential intersections, but there was some hesitance in regards to scenarios where Western providers recommended traditional medicine use. Conclusion: Many reasons and barriers behind participant use of traditional and Western medicine were reflective of what was found in the literature review. The overall frequency of use, satisfaction, and efficiency can be further understood by a majority of participants living outside the Navajo Nation for long periods of time. The use of traditional medicine also made participants feel more connected to their culture, which can also contribute to the high levels of satisfaction/efficiency for traditional medicine. Interestingly, cost was found to be the primary barrier of each, which indicates room for growth in both respective fields to increase patient use. There was overall positive receptiveness to a possible intersection for delivery methods of medicine which indicates an overall desire to maintain Hózhó and holistic health, however the type of questions and recommendations made by respective providers needs to be done with care. This type of intersection should continue to be explored through community driven discussion and creativity in future studies.

Background: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is an increasingly prevalent allergic disease characterized by eosinophilic inflammation and symptoms of esophageal dysfunction. Diagnosis and monitoring require repeated, invasive endoscopic esophageal biopsies to assess levels of eosinophilic inflammation. Recently, the minimally invasive esophageal string test (EST) has been used collect protein in mucosal secretions as a surrogate for tissue biopsies in monitoring disease activity. From the string, assessment of the eosinophil-associated proteins major basic protein-1 (MBP-1) and eotaxin-3 (Eot3) is used to assess disease activity; however, this requires measurement in a reference laboratory, for which the turnaround time for results exceeds the time required for histopathologic assessment of endoscopic biopsies. In addition, MBP-1 and Eot3 are not markers unique to eosinophils. These obstacles can be overcome by targeting eosinophil peroxidase (EPX), an eosinophil-specific protein, using a rapid point-of-care test. Currently, EPX is measured by a labor-intensive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), but we sought to optimize a rapid point-of-care test to measure EPX in EST segments. Methods: We extracted protein from residual EST segments and measured EPX levels by ELISA and a lateral flow assay (LFA). Results: EPX levels measured by LFA strongly correlated with those quantified by ELISA (rs = 0.90 {95% CI: 0.8283, 0.9466}). The EPX LFA is comparable to ELISA for measuring EPX levels in ESTs. Conclusions: The EPX LFA can provide a way to rapidly test EPX levels in ESTs in clinical settings and may serve as a valuable tool to facilitate diagnosis and monitoring of EoE.

This study aimed to investigate the association between active physical comforting strategies during bedtime and autonomy strategies with the relative abundances of Veillonella, Corynebacteria, Prevotella, and Faecalibacterium genera in the gut microbiota of three-month-old infants. We also assessed the impact of mode of delivery (vaginal delivery vs. cesarean section), feeding mode (breastfeeding vs. formula feeding), and sleep patterns on the relative abundances of prespecified bacterial genera. The study also aimed to explore how different nighttime parental interventions influenced gut microbiota composition and identify potential interventions to improve health outcomes in infant growth development and sleep.

Cell immunotherapies have revolutionized clinical oncology. While CAR T cell therapy has been very effective in clinical studies, off-target immune toxicity limits eligible patients. Thus, NK cells have been approached with the same therapy design since NK cells have a more favorable safety profile. Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to explore DNA nanotech-based NK cell engagers (NKCEs) that force an immunological synapse between the NK cell and the cancer cell, leading to cancer death. DNA tetrabody (TB) and DNA tetrahedron (TDN) are fabricated and armed with HER2 affibody for tight adhesion to HER2+ cancer cell lines like SKBR3. Overall, relationship between TB-NK treatment and cancer cell apoptosis is still unclear. TB-NK treatment induces an apoptotic profile similar to PMA/IO stimulation. Pilot cell assay needs to be replicated with additional controls and a shortened treatment window. For DNA TDN fabrication, HER2 affibody polishing with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography achieves high purity with 20% to 100% high-imidazole elution gradient. ssDNA-HER2 affibody conjugation is optimal when ssDNA is treated with 40-fold excess sulfo-SMCC for 4 hours. In conclusion, the manufacturing of DNA-based NKCEs is rapid and streamlined, which gives these NKCEs the potential to become a ready to use immunotherapy.

By 2050, feeding the world will require a 70% increase in food production with fewer water resources due to climate change. New strategies are needed to replace current approaches. C3 photosynthesis is inefficient due to photorespiration, but synthetic biology offers a way to increase photosynthetic efficiency and crop yields, such as the tartronyl-CoA (TaCo) pathway. This project assesses the TaCo pathway in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and represents a pivotal step toward its practical application in higher plants for use in agriculture and biotechnology.

Heterotrophs such as E. coli contain metabolic pathways with enzymes called carboxylases that are capable of fixing CO2 gas to form metabolites, which has implications for aiding with CO2’s role in climate change. The reductive branch of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle serves as an important pathway for NAD+ regeneration in enteric bacteria in anaerobic conditions and leads to the production of succinate, a useful industrial product. The enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase is responsible for fixing CO2 in the conversion of PEP to OAA within this pathway and has potential to be a significant carbon fixation module in heterotrophic organisms. This project explored pck genes from select organisms by transforming plasmids to test if these variants have improved kinetics compared to the native E. coli Pck and to investigate their ability to improve succinate bioproduction.

Insulin resistance is a hallmark of diabetes, a disease that costs healthcare systems hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and although the exact mechanism behind insulin resistance has not been identified, the reduced tyrosine activity of the integral membrane protein insulin receptor (IR) and its decreased cell surface presentation have been linked to insulin resistance. Moreover, IR shedding, the proteolytic cleavage of extracellular domains of IR releasing soluble fragments into blood, has been correlated with diabetes outcomes. We hypothesized that MMP1 may bind the IR and fragment it, thus inducing insulin resistance and contributing to comorbidities. After introducing MMP1 to the IR and using LC-MS, 21 fragments of the IR were identified. MMP1 and the IR, both active and inactive, were submitted to ClusPro and every ClusPro model was siphoned through to find the closest distance that the MMP1 catalytic site is to the cleavage sites of each fragment. The catalytic site distance varied from under 5 angstroms to more than 30 angstroms. The B-Factor across the IR was also calculated to determine the ability for each fragment to flex in a way that the catalytic site could reach it, but the B-Factors were unexpectedly low. A sequence logo was made for the cleavage sites of each fragment and compared to the MEROPS MMP1 cleavage site sequence logo with little overlap. Results such as distances from catalytic site to cleavage site being under 10 angstroms are suggestive of interaction between MMP1 and the IR, although other results such as there being little similarity between the sequence logos dispute that. This may be due to trace amounts of trypsin found within the LC-MS samples and future works would require validation through inhibiting trypsin within the samples.