Category: Engineering Medicine

What’s “Bugging” You? – Investigating the Potential Role of the GI Microbiome in the Association between Appendectomy and Glucose Intolerance

July 25, 2023 Maya Pimentel
Maya Pimentel Background: Approximately 462 million people live with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) worldwide.1 Although, once diagnosed, T2D is a lifelong, often progressive illness that requires regular medical evaluation, it is often a preventable condition. Therefore, attention has switched from a prophylactic response to a preventive approach in T2D…
Engineering Medicine Featured Abstracts Gastroenterology Microbiology

Multiple Sclerosis and the Epstein Barr Virus – Autoimmunity Through Molecular Mimicry of EBNA1 with GlialCAM

July 24, 2023 Duncan Salmon
Duncan Salmon Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease characterized by demyelination and oligodendrocyte damage within the Central Nervous System (CNS)1. Patients typically present with unilateral optic neuritis, internal ophthalmoplegia, ataxia, and the production of intrathecal IgG known as oligoclonal bands2. These symptoms manifest as T2-FLAIR white matter hyperintensities…
Engineering Medicine Immunology Microbiology Neuroscience

Targeting Mechanisms Implicated in Irregular Calcium Handling as a Root-Cause Intervention for Ventricular Arrhythmias

July 24, 2023 Deeksha Sarda
Deeksha Sarda Background: Ventricular arrhythmias include ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) and cause up to 80% of all cases of sudden cardiac death in the United States. VT describes a two-year mortality reported to be as high as 30%[3]. In studying molecular mechanisms for arrhythmogenic phenotypes, there is…
Cardiology Engineering Medicine

Medium Wavelength Cone Opsin (MW-opsin) Modification of Light-Sensitive G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) Increases Sensitivity by Signal Amplification of Photoreceptors

July 24, 2023 Ashutosh Tripathy
Ashutosh Tripathy Background: Retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disease, causes deterioration of light-sensing cells in the retina, which leads to night vision loss, peripheral vision, and visual sharpness. The cure for this disease poses challenges in developing gene therapies. Optogenetics offers a solution by replacing faulty rhodopsin molecules and introducing…
Engineering Medicine Ophthalmology

Brain Cancer Risk after CT Radiation Exposure in the Pediatric Population

July 24, 2023 Amulya Srivatsa
Amulya Srivatsa Background: Computed tomography is an imaging modality that can provide valuable diagnostic information that is not easily obtained using other imaging techniques. Critically, children experience higher risks of developing radiation-induced cancers compared to adults due to faster cell division, a longer post-irradiation lifespan, and greater local radiation dose…
Engineering Medicine Neuroscience Pediatrics

The Role of Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Miscarriage

July 24, 2023 Varshni Nandakumar
Varshni Nandakumar Background: Miscarriages are defined as the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks of gestation and affect around 10% of all clinically-recognized pregnancies in the USA1. Moreover, there is a clear link between autoimmune conditions and higher incidences of miscarriage. Patients with autoimmune conditions can develop antiphospholipid…
Engineering Medicine Featured Abstracts Gynecology Reproduction