Defining Chemical Modifications on Histones that Control Chromosome Integrity 

The student will join a multi-disciplinary team investigating epigenetic processes, chromatin structure and gene regulation. This project will involve learning and applying biochemical, genetic and molecular biology strategies to build and characterize customized budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) strains or mammalian cell lines for the investigation of evolutionarily conserved protein-protein interactions and post-translational modifications using state-of-the-art detection and quantification strategies. Biological targets may include histone modifying enzymes, histone modifications, histone variants and chromatin assembly and DNA replication factors.

More information: https://ag.purdue.edu/biochem/Pages/Profile.aspx?strAlias=akirchma&intDirDeptID=9

Engineering human stem cells for targeted cancer therapy  

Cancer is a major threat for humans worldwide, with over 18 million new cases and 9.6 million cancer-related deaths in 2019. Although most common cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, unsatisfactory cure rates require new therapeutic approaches. Recently, adoptive cellular immunotherapies with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) engineered T and natural killer (NK) cells have shown impressive clinical responses in patients with various blood and solid cancers. However, current clinical practices are limited by the need of large numbers of healthy immune cells, resistance to gene editing, lack of in vivo persistence, and a burdensome manufacturing strategy that requires donor cell extraction, modulation, expansion, and re-introduction per each patient. The ability to generate universally histocompatible and
genetically-enhanced immune cells from continuously renewable human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines offers the potential to develop a true off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapy. While functional CAR-T and NK cells have been successfully derived from hPSCs, a significant gap remains in the scalability, time-consuming (5 or more weeks), purity and robustness of the differentiation methods due to the cumbersome use of serum, and/or feeder cells, which will incur potential risk for contamination and may cause batch-dependency in the treatment. This project thus aims to develop a novel, chemically-defined platform for robust production of CAR-T and CAR-NK cells from hPSCs.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/people/ptProfile?resource_id=210038

Evaluation of early changes in a non-surgical post-traumatic osteoarthritis model 

Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Knee osteoarthritis is most common among these, and approximately 1 in 8 cases of osteoarthritis are considered post-traumatic, meaning that degeneration of the tissues in the joint is precipitated from an injury, such as tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Unfortunately, about half of people who tear their ACLs go on to develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis, whether or they had ACL repair surgery. An understanding of the early biological response of the joint after an injury could help identify targets for treatment and rehabilitation to be prescribed in conjunction with ACL repair and physical therapy. In order to learn more about the early inflammation in the joint after an injury, we need to develop a non-surgical ACL tear model for mice that replicates key conditions of the human injury. This project involves development and testing of a new system to perform the single tibial compression model of ACL rupture. This model will enable the examination of the early inflammatory response in the mouse knee.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

Image-based computational modeling of tissue interface mechanics 

Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Tissue trauma, such as focal cartilage defects, can lead to osteoarthritis if not properly treated. Although cartilage tissue engineering has potential to repair or regenerate tissues in the joint, long-term success of these strategies hinge on the ability of clinicians to monitor the repair process. Imaging techniques currently allow for assessment of structure and even some biochemical changes, but these measures poorly reflect the mechanical properties of the repair. The repair not only must match the depth-dependent mechanical behavior of the surrounding tissues but also needs to be securely integrated with the native tissue. Our lab has developed a magnetic resonance imaging-based method to measure tissue biomechanics. However, integration of these images into computational models is necessary to evaluate how forces are distributed to the repair tissue and how strong the interface between the repair and native tissues is. This project is an important step towards this goal and involves developing and imaging phantoms that mimic the repair interface. Then, the researcher will subsequently generate a computational biomechanics model based on the image data.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

Immunohistochemical characterization of mouse secondary visual areas 

Humans perceive motion and location in different areas of the visual cortex. This is called the “what” and “where” pathways in the human brain. The ‘ventral stream’ is used for object vision while the ‘dorsal stream’ is used for spatial vision. Mice, although having smaller brains, also have primary and secondary parts of their visual cortex, but the functional roles of their secondary visual cortices remain unclear. One of the overarching goals of our laboratory is to investigate the secondary visual cortical areas in mice to determine which areas are responsible for perceiving motion. To achieve this goal graduate students in the laboratory use in vivo 2-photon calcium imagine to simultaneously record the visual response from secondary visual cortices. We would like to teach undergraduate students to help with different parts of this process, including stereotaxic brain surgeries, behavioral habituation and training, immunohistochemical characterization of the changes in the mouse brains following visual experience, and fluorescent microscopy to visualize these changes. Developing these skills will be invaluable for students in their future development as life scientists and will open the new horizons in neuroscience research.

More information: https://chubykinlab.wixsite.com/chubykinlab

In vitro tissue engineering scaffold maturation and integration for longitudinal MRI 

Osteoarthritis affects over 32.5 million American adults, impacting mobility and quality of life, and costs over $16.5 billion in direct medical costs in hospitals within the United States. Tissue trauma, such as focal cartilage defects, can lead to osteoarthritis if not properly treated. Although cartilage tissue engineering has potential to repair or regenerate tissues in the joint, long-term success of these strategies hinge on the ability of clinicians to monitor the repair process. Imaging techniques currently allow for assessment of structure and even some biochemical changes, but these measures poorly reflect the mechanical properties of the repair. The repair not only must match the depth-dependent mechanical behavior of the surrounding tissues but also needs to be securely integrated with the native tissue. Our lab has developed a magnetic resonance imaging-based method to measure tissue biomechanics, a technique that has potential for monitoring the longitudinal processes of tissue maturation and integration. In order to evaluate the ability of our imaging technique to measure these two factors, an in vitro model of cartilage tissue repair is needed. This project includes the development of a mechanobioreactor, in which a cartilage tissue repair model can be housed under standard culture conditions, as well as preliminary studies to image the maturing and integrating scaffolds.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChanLab

Mass spectrometry of biomolecules and nanoclusters 

We are using mass spectrometry to study the localization of lipids, drugs, and proteins in biological tissues and to prepare novel functional interfaces using well-defined polyatomic ions. The student will work with a graduate student mentor to either perform nanocluster synthesis and characterization using mass spectrometry and electrochemical measurements or to develop new analytical approaches for quantitative analysis of biomolecules in biological samples. In both projects, the student will be trained to operate state-of-the-art mass spectrometers and perform independent data acquisition and analysis. The student will also work with the scientific literature to obtain a broader understanding of the field.

More information: https://www.chem.purdue.edu/jlaskin/

Measuring glutamate release in real time following traumatic brain injury with flexible printed biosensors 

Following traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, damaged cells release toxic levels of excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, which further damages cells through a secondary injury mechanism. This pathology is called glutamate excitotoxicity. The mechanism for sustained high levels of extracellular glutamate remains unclear, and a better understanding of glutamate excitotoxicity may lead to novel therapeutic interventions to minimize secondary injury following traumatic brain injury. Our lab has developed printed glutamate biosensors that we have used to measure glutamate release following simulated traumatic spinal cord injury with explanted rat spinal cord segments.

The student will work on integrating glutamate biosensors with anti-biofouling coating and wireless electronics, so the biosensors can be implanted in the brain and measure glutamate release following traumatic brain injury in anesthetized rats. Specific research tasks include printing biosensor devices by direct ink writing, electrochemical characterization, applying anti-biofouling coatings, and operating implanted biosensors. The student will collect, analyze, and interpret data, and write the results for a journal publication.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/LIMR/research/

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/LIMR/research/

Microbiological Dynamics of Drinking Water during Stagnation 

The pipes that deliver drinking water to individual taps develop into complex ecosystems. Most of the bacteria that live on these pipes and in the water are harmless, but several are capable of causing disease. For example, Legionella pneumophila is a bacterium that causes a potentially fatal pneumonia in immunocompromised individuals. It is thus critical to understand and ultimately control the ecosystem within these pipes. This work will contribute to policies (e.g., the minimum required temperature in a water heater) and technologies (e.g., auto-flushing sinks) that will limit needless disease.

In this project, the student will utilize bench scale experiments, a pilot-scale piping rig, and full-scale plumbing systems to test hypotheses regarding establishment of biofilm and relationships between biofilm and water over time. The student will collect and analyze water samples, using a variety of tools to fully characterize the physiochemical and biological dynamics within the system. They will also learn how to write a scientific report and will present it at the SURF symposium.

Neural recording and stimulation using a wireless single-chip system 

In this project, we aim to implement an implant that can record and stimulate neural activities of a live mouse brain. We will take advantage of wireless powering and wireless data transfer to miniaturize the neural implant, such that it does not require battery or wires. Students will help develop the Reader for testing and collecting data from in-vitro and in-vivo experiments.

Real time analysis of viral particles for continuous processing approach 

The increasing worldwide demand for vaccines along with the intensifying economic pressure on health care systems underlines the need for further improvement of vaccine manufacturing. In addition, regulatory authorities are encouraging investment in the continuous manufacturing processes to ensure robust production, avoid shortages, and ultimately lower the cost of medications for patients. The limitations of in-line process analytical tools are a serious drawback of the efforts taken in place. In line analysis of viral particles are very limited, due to the large time required for the current techniques for detection, qualitative and quantitative analysis. Therefore, there is a need for new alternatives for viral detection.

More information: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ComplexFlowLab/

Synthetic neuron 

Neurons convert biochemical information (through binding of a neurotransmitter) to electrical signal (via action potential) and back to biochemical signal (through the release of neurotransmitters). These distinct and separable processes can be reconstituted in a synthetic neuron by using natural and engineered proteins, and a synthetic neuron platform can be used to understand the rules governing the emergence of the present morphology of a neuron and the architecture of the neuronal system. This project thus aims to construct a synthetic neuron with a modular design and a programmable synthetic neuronal network capable of recapitulating basic functions of a natural neuronal system (e.g., action potential, synaptic communication, and basic computation) and with a long-term vision of incorporating more advanced computation and potentiation.