Poster 81 – Undergraduate Research Symposium Abstracts

Obstacle Crossing Toe Clearance Following Concussion in Adolescents

Presenter: Maisie Rapp

Faculty Mentor: Quinn Peterson, Li-Shan Chou

Presentation Type: Poster 81

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Human Physiology

Sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) can lead to physical and cognitive deficits; however, it has not been determined how long these deficits last. Previous research concluded that after a month post-concussion young adults still have deficiencies with toe-clearance during split attention obstacle crossing. Another study found that adolescents have greater gait balance control deficits two months post-injury compared to young adults. To determine how these deficiencies affect obstacle crossing during gait after two month, obstacle toe clearance was measured in adolescents following concussion and healthy matched controls. Data was collected using a 10-camera motion capture system which recorded the positions of twenty-nine retroflective markers that were placed on bony landmarks of the each subject. Concussion subjects came to the lab 72 hours, one week, two weeks, one month, and two months after the date of their injury. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of navigating obstacles during gait in adolescents following concussion.

Utilizing a Fusion Protein for Sequence Specific Nucleosome Shifting in Chromatin

Presenter(s): William Reed-dustin − Biology, Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Jeffrey McKnight

Poster 81

Research Area: Natural/Physical Science (Molecular Biology)

Chromatin refers to the organization of DNA in eukaryotic organisms. Chromatin is organized such that DNA wraps around protein groups called histones. The units of histones wrapped in DNA are called nucleosomes, nucleosomes are connected by short stretches of linker DNA. DNA in nucleosomes is relatively inaccessible to RNA polymerase and transcription factors and thus, is effectively turned off. The goal of this research was to move nucleosomes onto specific DNA sequences by producing a fusion protein that would combine the binding domain from a specific transcription factor, XBP1, and the active domain from a known chromatin remodeler protein, CHD1. A procedure originally developed by Dr. Jeffrey McKnight was used to produce a plasmid that coded for a protein with the binding domain of XBP1 and the active domain of CHD1. This plasmid was then transformed into yeast. The cells’ DNA was then digested into mono-nucleosomes which were sequenced and compared to yeast without the plasmid inserted. This was done to see if the fusion protein had altered the nucleosomes’ locations.
The goal of this research is to show that the strategy for fusion protein production can be applied to diverse transcription factors across the yeast genome. Ultimately, this strategy could be useful in cancer treatment, silencing oncogenes by moving nucleosomes onto their binding sites.

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