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dc.contributor.advisorGreen, Kayla
dc.contributor.authorRodich, Sean
dc.date2015-05-01
dc.date.accessioned2016-02-19T15:38:38Z
dc.date.available2016-02-19T15:38:38Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.tcu.edu/handle/116099117/10425
dc.description.abstractIn an age of technology and precision, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to not just diagnose patients with certain diseases but to quantify their level of illness to allow for an appropriate yet calculated response. One such method of quantifying a person's health is to measure the concentration of a given compound of interest- foreign or not- in the blood or other bodily fluid and use that information to gain insight into the disease/condition's progress at that time. Biosensors are compounds whose high levels of specificity and detectability can allow one to measure the concentration of a given analyte under the proper conditions. As a result, well-designed biosensors have the potential to play a key role in the medical diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases. As a means to developing ferrocene based biosensors, Hunter Scarborough and coworkers in the Green Research Group synthesized and electrochemically evaluated a library of avidin-sensitive ferrocene-biotin bioconjugates. In an effort to continue these studies, we have reproduced some of the electrochemical studies performed on one such bioconjugate, compound 5, in a more biologically-relevant environment. Our studies have shown that 5 remains sensitive to the target of interest (avidin) when avidin concentrations are brought as low as 1.875 micro-M and reactive impurities such as albumin are added to the solution. In addition, separate experiments were performed on the A-beta-derived peptide KLVFF in an effort to validate the affinity of this peptide for A-beta plaques. While multiple tissue stains were performed to achieve this goal, inconclusive results were insufficient to verify any specificity of KLVFF for A-beta. The next phase of this project is to continue exploring the relationship between peptide moieties such as KLVFF and A-beta plaques through the use of different antibodies and/or stain techniques. If a relationship between KLVFF and A-beta can be established through these methods, it can be applied to the electrochemical methods utilized with 5 and avidin by attaching the electrochemical moiety of 5 to KLVFF and performing similar electrochemical experiments as done previously in the avidin studies on solutions containing this new bioconjugate and A-beta.
dc.subjectBiochemistry
dc.subjectBiosensors
dc.subjectElectrochemistry
dc.titleApplications of Bioconjugates and Peptides for the Development of Biosensors
etd.degree.departmentBiochemistry
local.collegeCollege of Science and Engineering
local.collegeJohn V. Roach Honors College
local.departmentChemistry and Biochemistry


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