College of Arts and Sciences Poster Presentations

The Role of OSM in Breast Cancer Cell-Promoted Steoclastogenesis

Farhad Mangal — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Oncostatin M (OSM) is a pleiotropic cytokine in the interleukin (IL)-6 superfamily that functions in the immune system cascade, inflammation, cell proliferation, and cell mobility. OSM has been shown to inhibit the proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro and was previously evaluated as a potential cancer therapy. Evidence from the literature and our preliminary data; however, suggest that OSM may promote metastasis of breast cancer cells and stimulate the formation of bone metastases. We have shown that OSM induces expression of several proteins known to participate in bone metastasis including proteinases, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in human breast cancer cell lines. OSM has been shown to be a signaling molecule for osteoblast-mediated osteoclast differentiation, or osteoclastogenesis. To test whether OSM is also important in breast tumor cell-mediated osteoclastogenesis, we will utilize 66c14 and 4T1.2 mouse mammary tumor cells in a coculture system. The tumor cells will be cocultured with mouse bone marrow cells containing osteoclast progenitor cells for 9 days. The cocultures will be stained for osteoclasts with tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), and TRAP+ cells will be counted. We predict that OSM will stimulate the formation of osteoclasts and that inhibiting OSM may have a positive effect on osteolytic breast cancer metastases. To date there have been no therapies developed that inhibit OSM to reduce osteolytic burden.

Going Green at Boise State University

Aubrey Johnston — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

The Idaho State Board of Education has sponsored Boise State University in their attempt to establish a “Green Team” with the mission of promoting sustainability on campus and throughout the greater community through stewardship, teaching, and outreach. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry implemented an organic laboratory curriculum, with financial support provided by the Technology Incentive Grant program, that minimizes exposure to and generation of chemical hazards, while at the same time, maximizing the use of stateof- the-art instrumentation. Four new laboratory experiments have been introduced into the organic curriculum that emphasize a “green theme” with several others incorporating state-of-the-art instrumentation including a chemical microwave, IR with ATR device, GC, GC-MS, and ¹H/¹³C NMR. The curriculum evolution to date includes the greening of traditional experiments to address the fundamental topics of chromatography, computational chemistry, distillation, and microscale setup.

Affordable Alternative Energy at the Community Level

Mark Swartz — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Biomass fuel briquettes offer an affordable, efficient, and renewable source of energy for home use. Shredded waste paper and biomaterials, which do not require the destruction of natural resources, serve as an excellent fuel source due to their availability, low cost, and favorable combustion properties. Chemical testing of briquettes for carcinogenic and hazardous emissions involves gaseous entrapment followed by soxlet extraction, gas chromatography separation, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) qualitative and quantitative analysis by mass spectrometry. Current studies are focused on optimizing the shape of the fuel briquettes to maximize heat output during combustion. The heat output of the briquettes is being compared to conventional fuel sources of fire wood, wood pellets, and charcoal. Initial findings suggest that the biobriquettes have a comparable energy output versus conventional fuel sources and they have the potential to be molded in such a way that they produce safe levels of gaseous emissions.

Resistance is Not Futile: Computational Directed Design of Combatant Pentapeptides

Reed Jacob et al. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

The objective is to design novel antibiotics effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using computer modeling and computational algorithms. Pentapeptide 128 when administered with oxacillin showed increase inhibition of penicillin binding protein 2a (PBP2a). Computer modeling was incited to explore the mechanism of action of the peptide. Autodock 4, a computer program that uses a Lamarckian Genetic Algorithm (LGA), was employed to predict free energy of binding between viable pentapeptides and PBP2a of MRSA. Pymol, a protein database (PDB) viewer, was used to visually record the results. Oxacillin, an antibiotic with a known binding affinity for MRSA, was used as a control for computational studies. Experimental evidence generated in the Cornell lab identified several pentapeptides that inhibited MRSA with efficacies ranges from 64.2 to 95.7%. Docking analysis of pentapeptide 128 (amino acid sequence: WCWKW) to PBP2a gave similar binding as oxacillin. An alternate binding site was discovered for oxacillin upon computer simulation of oxacillin and pentapeptide 128 concurrent binding. Pentapeptide 128 by itself is an inhibitor of MRSA to the same level of efficacy as oxacillin. Combined, oxacillin and peptide 128 seem to exhibit a synergistic mode of inhibition based on our in silico studies that can now be explored experimentally. The mechanism and a proposed role of pentapeptide 128 will be presented.

Numerical Methods for Thermal Convection with Applications to the Earth’s Mantle

Gregory Barnett — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Thermal convection is a universal phenomenon in nature and has many geophysical applications such as cloud formation in the atmosphere, solar convection, and motion in the Earth’s mantle. In its simplest form, thermal convection consists of heating a layer of fluid from below, which makes the fluid “top heavy”. If the buoyancy force induced by this heating overcomes the viscous force of the fluid then instability occurs and convective motion of the fluid begins. This type of instability often produces interesting patterns as anyone who has seen a Lava Lamp^TM knows. In this poster, we restrict our attention to a thermal convection model for the Earth’s mantle, which is commonly called mantle convection. We discuss two numerical methods that can be used for simulating mantle convection in a 2D rectangular box. The first is a finite-difference method based on classical secondorder finite differences. The second can also be classified as a finite difference method, but is based on radial basis function approximations and is the first known application of this technique to simulating mantle convection. We also compare and contrast the stability, accuracy, and efficiency of the two techniques.

Dendrochronology and Climate Response in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Christiane Campbell — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Because they record a tree’s response to climate variables, tree rings are useful in establishing and determining climate patterns beyond what is noted in historic records. Stands of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) are present in and around the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah. Cores were collected from five trees on the cliffs overlooking the dunes, and the tree-rings were counted and visually cross-dated. Patterns visible in these cores are compared to the master tree-ring chronology from nearby Jacob Lake, Arizona and the reconstructed Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) from the same region to determine if the dune field trees could be dated using the master chronology, or if a new chronology must be created. Most of the narrow rings on the cores correspond to narrow rings on the master chronology, within one or two years, suggesting a moderate regional correlation. Periods of drought (indicated by low PDSI values) in the mid- 1500s, late-1660s, and 1880s are visible as segments of decreased ring width in the dune field cores. Measurements of the cores quantify the climate response correlation between trees in the Coral Pink and the Jacob Lake areas.

Soil Water Repellency and Ground Cover Effects on Runoff and Erosion in Response to Prescribed Burning of a Steeply Sloped Sagebrush Hill Slope

Andrew Weigel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Rangeland managers and scientists are in need of predictive tools to accurately simulate postfire hydrologic responses and provide hydrologic risk assessment. Rangeland hydrologic modeling has advanced in recent years; however, model advancements have largely been associated with data from gently-sloping sites and have not included the effects of soil water repellency on runoff generation. This study seeks to enhance current understanding of post-fire hydrologic responses on steeply-sloped sagebrush rangelands, specifically addressing the influences of soil water repellency and ground cover. The Northwest Watershed Research Center conducted small plot rainfall simulations on a sagebrush-dominated mountainous site in the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in Southwest Idaho. Experiments were conducted immediately prior to and one year following prescribed burning of the site (2007 and 2008 respectively). Results indicate that soil water repellency was unaffected by burning. Burning resulted in increased runoff from shrub coppice microsites and decreased runoff from interspace microsites. Erosion increased dramatically on both microsites after burning.

Investigation of Lead Isotope Ratio in Minerals form the Lemhi Pass District , Idaho

Michelle Gordon — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Lead (Pb) isotopic analysis was used to investigate the relationship between Early Paleozoic intrusive rocks and mineralized veins at the Lemhi Pass District, Idaho. The Lemhi Pass mineral district of the central Beaverhead Mountains (Idaho) comprises both early quartz-copper-gold vein mineralization and later thorium-rare earth element (REE) mineralization in the form of quartz-thorite-hematite veins, monazitethorite- apatite-bearing shears and replacements with specularite, biotite and alkali feldspar. Little is known about the timing or provenance of ore mineralization, and thus there remain many untested hypotheses regarding the relationships between mineralization and regional deformation, magmatism and metamorphism. My objective was to test whether Early Paleozoic magmatic intrusives provided the source of mineralizing fluids, using the Pb isotopic ratios of the magmatic intrusive, mineralized veins, and associated wall-rock alteration minerals. Genetic associations between the intrusive and mineralized samples within certain suites are supported by some of the overlapping Pb signatures. Early Paleozoic magmatic intrusives show a linear trend of in ²⁰⁶Pb/ ²⁰⁴Pb versus ²⁰⁷Pb/ ²⁰⁴Pb isotope space, with a primary magma range of 17.6 to 19.6 ²⁰⁶Pb/ ²⁰⁴Pb and 15.6 to 15.9 ²⁰⁷Pb/ ²⁰⁴Pb. Pristine magmatic compositions fall at the low end of this range, while syenites and granites with hematite vein and disseminated alteration fall at the high end. The sulfides follow a similar range of chemical compositions and tend to concentrate at the lower end near the primary magma range; however some sulfides extend to more radiogenic compositions. The lead isotope compositions of minerals associated with Th-REE-hematite veins extended to more radiogenic compositions ranging from 19.9 to 22.5 ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb and 15.6 to 15.8 ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb. These observations are consistent with a model whereby Cu-Au sulfide mineralization is genetically associated with Early Paleozoic magmatism. Subsequent Th- REE mineralizing fluids with a radiogenic crustal Pb isotopic composition were responsible for alteration of hosting granitoids and remobilization of earlier Cu-Au sulfide mineralization.

Scanning Probe Microscopy of Interfacial Water Confined Between Silica Surfaces

Edward Kim et al. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Scanning probe microscope (SPM) techniques are employed to study the structure and mechanical properties of water confined between two silica surfaces. Water molecules adjacent to other materials, such as in the vicinity of biological cell membranes, rearrange to form “interfacial water.” The interfacial water behaves differently from bulk water to a substatial degree in its structure and mechanical properties. Probing the structure of interfacial water and its mechanical properties is crucial from understanding of the biomolecular functions to the micro-machine development. Even with such importance, however, the interfacial water is difficult to observe with ordinary analytic techniques because of its delicate nature near the surface. The SPM’s excellent distance and force control capability allows for investigating the interfacial water near the sample surface. A cantilever based optical interfacial force microscope (COIFM), a newly developed SPM technique at Boise State University, was used to probe the ordered structure of the interfacial water in the direction perpendicular to the surface. A Non-Contact (NC) AFM was used to image the arrangement of the interfacial water in the direction parallel to the surface. The COIFM and NC-AFM measurements were performed on silica surfaces, the most abundant substance on the earth’s crust, for various relative humidity. The COIFM data show periodic features as the tip approaches the surface, showing single water-layer ordering effect of the interfacial water. In each layered region, the force decreases nonlinearly as the gap decreases. The NC-AFM images show that some water bundles lay down and some stand up, supporting the COIFM data. The humidity dependent data shows how the structure of water evolves as the thickness of the water film changes from droplets to monolayers to multilayers on the silica surface. The origin of the observed structure of the interfacial water is discussed with a simple two-dimensional self-assembly theory.

Intercalation Process of Acidic Ions into Graphite Atomic Steps Studied by Electrochemical-Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Joey Hanson et al. — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) and perchloric acid (HClO4) were adopted as a model host and a model guest, respectively, in graphite intercalation compounds. In this type of compound, the graphite layers of HOPG remain largely intact and the guest molecules of perchloric acid are located in between. We investigate the electrochemical anion intercalation process in the graphite layer by using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM) to understand the interaction between the host and the guest. The cyclic voltammetry data shows four peaks at the potentials of working electrode between 0V and 1.0 V with respect to the silver quasi reference electrode (Ag-Qref) in a 2M solution. The data suggests that the intercalation process has four different stages in which each stage compound has different ratio between the host layer and the guest ions. Every host layer is not necessarily occupied by guest ions between two graphite layers in the graphite intercalation compound. EC-STM was performed subsequently in the same electrochemical cell to obtain topographic information for each stage. The change of step height between two terraces of the HOPG surface supports this intercalation process. Further cyclic voltammetry measurements were performed over several potential scan cycles on the graphite surface as a function of the acid concentration from 0.1 M to 6 M with varying scan rates from 10 mV/s to 1000 mV/s to see the concentration dependence and the response time for the intercalation reaction. The cyclo-voltammetry and EC-STM data of gold (Au) sample in 0.05 M solution of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) will be discussed as a comparison system.