Category: Biology/Biomedical Engineering
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Alzheimer's Disease Research Shaohua Xu
Alzheimer's disease - The Problem: Alzheimer's Disease is an overwhelming problem for individual patients and their families. In Brevard County over 16,000 people are affected, and Florida spends almost $6 billion each year on long-term care. Throughout America, a thousand people are newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's and similar neurodegenerative diseases every day. Currently there is no cure.
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Analysis and Detection of Amazonian Terra Preta Sites Mark Bush
Analysis and Detection of Amazonian Terra Preta Sites
Dr. Mark Bush, Professor at Florida Tech, and colleagues at the University of New Hampshire are working on "Analysis and Detection of Amazonian Black Earth Sites using Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery." Bush's tasks are to 1) assist in initial location of Amazonian Black Earth sites (ABE) based on his current NSF research, 2) aid in the literature search for other ABE site data, and 3) aid in interpreting the implications for ecological research in Amazonia and archaeological interpretation from estimates of ABE sites using remote sensing data.
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Animal Studies to Investigate Stent Technology for Treating Retinal Detachment Kunal Mitra, Michael Grace
Animal Studies to Investigate Stent Technology for Treating Retinal Detachment
This project involves developing an ophthalmic stent-based technology for the minimally invasive treatment of retinal detachment. The technology comprises a device and a method of delivery that allows a retinal surgeon to deliver a specially designed stent into the eye cavity and place it directly onto the affected retinal tissue bed. Once in place, the stent is designed to provide the patient with some degree of normal sight during recovery. When healing is complete, the stent may be retrieved and removed. In some cases the stent may remain permanently.
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Aquaculture of Marine Ornamental Animals Junda Lin
Aquaculture of Marine Ornamental Animals
Our laboratory's focus has been to develop aquaculture technology for marine ornamental fish and invertebrates. Virtually all of the species marketed in the aquarium trade industry are collected from the wild, especially coral reef ecosystems. Extensive and destructive collection of these animals can directly deplete the target species and indirectly damage the delicate coral reef ecosystem. We have studied shellfish and fish species, evaluated their aquaculture potential and developed cultivation technology to reduce the need to collect in the wild.
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Are coral diseases contagious? Robert Woesik
Are coral diseases contagious?
Although diseases are one of the greatest threats to corals in the Caribbean, very little is known about marine diseases in general and coral diseases in particular. Presently, coral diseases are assumed to be both infectious and contagious, suggesting that infection is caused by pathogens being passed from colony to colony through a vector. However, few studies have tested this assumption. Van Woesik and team will test whether coral diseases follow a contagious-disease model in four locations in the Caribbean.
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Atomic Force Microscopy for Space Applications Shaohua Xu
Atomic Force Microscopy for Space Applications
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis of protein fibers and bone tissues will be the focus of this project. AFM will be used to analyze the behavior of protein colloids, their formation, behavior and aggregation. Graduate students and undergraduate students will work together with faculty members and scientists from NASA Kennedy Space Center. U.S. citizenship is required to participate in this project.
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Behavioral Neuroscience: Correlates of Extremely High-Sensitivity Thermal Imaging by Snakes Michael Grace, Mark Harvey
Behavioral Neuroscience: Correlates of Extremely High-Sensitivity Thermal Imaging by Snakes
The goal of this research is to determine the mechanisms underlying predatory and defensive behavior guided by an extraordinarily novel sensor in snakes. Pit vipers, pythons and boas possess special organs that form images in the brain of the thermal environment, much like vision occurs in the human brain.
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Benthic Monitoring in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Richard Aronson, Robert Woesik
Benthic Monitoring in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
Coral reefs are declining worldwide. A critical issue is whether local management actions, specifically the establishment of marine protected areas, will increase the resilience of coral populations, buying time while humanity confronts the impacts of global climate change. This long-term study tracks coral populations and the abundance of other, potentially competing coral-reef components such as sponges and seaweeds, to determine the efficacy of marine protected areas in enhancing corals and controlling seaweeds.
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Cell Cycle Assembly of Nucleoprotein Complexes (Yrs 12-15) Alan Leonard, Julia Grimwade
Cell Cycle Assembly of Nucleoprotein Complexes (Yrs 12-15)
This research project is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that control bacterial growth. Specifically, we are dissecting the regulatory DNA-protein complexes that precisely time new rounds of chromosome replication in the bacterium, E. coli, with the important goal of learning how these complexes correctly couple chromosome replication to bacterial growth rate.
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Central American Climates of the :ast Interglacial Mark Bush
Central American Climates of the :ast Interglacial
MIS5e was the last interglacial period and the most recent time when Earth was 2-3Co warmer than present. Understanding this warmer-than-modern period has relevance for predicting and testing models of anthropogenically warmed climates. This project provides centennial-scale multiproxy analyses for the last interglacial (135-106 ka) from three recently collected sediment cores from Mexico, Guatemala and Panama. These records form the first detailed terrestrial archive of climate and vegetation change for MIS 5e from the Neotropics.
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Climate Change and Predatory Invasion of the Antarctic Benthos Richard Aronson
Climate Change and Predatory Invasion of the Antarctic Benthos
Although climate change is a global phenomenon, polar marine ecosystems are feeling its impacts most acutely. Warming seas are drawing down the physiological barriers that have kept shell-crushing predators out of Antarctic waters. Predatory king crabs are on the verge of invading shallow-marine communities, threatening to reverse ecological patterns that have been in place for millions of years. The endemic bottom fauna and its unique food-web structure are at risk from rapid climate change in Antarctica.
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Colloidal Aggregation of Proteins Shaohua Xu
Colloidal Aggregation of Proteins
Molecules of the brain protein “tau” clump together to form spherical clusters. These spheres assemble spontaneously into linear chains, like beads on a string, which evolve into fibers identical to those seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Under this grant we will investigate the kinetics of the process and whether the colloidal spheres are toxic to cells.
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Effects of a Major Oil Spill on Nektonic Assemblages of Salt Marshes and Adjacent SAV Habitats in Florida and Alabama Richard Aronson
This study quantifies the impacts of the oiling of salt marsh ecosystems and adjacent ecosystems dominated by submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). We are determining the effects of the oil flow from the Deepwater Horizon spill on adult spawning stocks of species, including commercially important species, which rely on salt marsh ecosystems and SAV for nursery habitat, as well as the fish and mobile invertebrates that are permanent residents throughout their life cycles.
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Evolution of endemism in Commander and Aleutian Island Birds Christin Pruett
Evolution of endemism in Commander and Aleutian Island Birds
Our work in the Aleutian Islands has shown that several species of birds have isolated populations that are genetically and morphologically unique. We will travel to the Commander Islands and Kamchatka, in the Russian Far East, to extend our research on isolated bird populations in this region to include important taxa from this even more remote sector of the Aleutian-Commander axis.We will test several hypotheses by collecting specimens and conducting genetic analyses based on NextGen sequencing.
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Florida Reef Resilience Program Data Synthesis and Spatial Analysis Training Robert Woesik
Florida Reef Resilience Program Data Synthesis and Spatial Analysis Training
Given that thermal-stress events and disease outbreaks have caused extensive changes to the coral reefs of Florida, it is imperative that we understand spatial patterns of bleaching and coral disease, and examine their inter-relationship. The main objectives of this study are to examine the spatial patterns of coral bleaching and coral diseases in the Florida Keys.
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Frog Call Identification App for Smartphone and Tablet Eraldo Ribeiro, Mark Bush, Ronaldo Menezes
Frog Call Identification App for Smartphone and Tablet
Whatfrog is an app being developed for smartphones and tablets that will identify a calling frog or toad. This tool will help citizen scientists and professionals to provide consistent identifications of calling frogs. A web interface will be developed that will allow users to map their records and see the records of other Whatfrog users. The app will make use of a large library of recorded frog calls and compare the voieprint of the unknown caller to the database, providing the user with a best-fit identification. Initially the app will provide identifications for the eastern United States.
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How to Create a Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Minor Program James Brenner, Joel Olson, Kurt Winkelmann
How to Create a Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Minor Program
Florida Tech's nanotechnology minor program is the only one worldwide to have more than 6 credits of lab course experience and will soon be summarized in nanotechnology's first ever lab manual. The Journal of Nano Education is based at Florida Tech.
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Karyotyping and Population Genetic Analysis of Lupinus aridorum using Microsatellites Christin Pruett
Karyotyping and Population Genetic Analysis of Lupinus aridorum using Microsatellites
This project proposes to use state of the art molecular technology to characterize ploidy levels between and among populations of Scrub Lupine, and to analyze the genetic structure of the populations using microsatellites. Because of continued threats to the remaining populations, annual monitoring, including plant counts and GPS mapping, of all extant sites provides important information to track species stability or decline. Therefore, this project also includes annual population monitoring.
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Last Ice Age Large Mammal Extinction Mark Bush
Last Ice Age Large Mammal Extinction
Mark Bush and biological sciences graduate students will conduct field and laboratory research in Brazil, Peru and Panama over the next three years. They will investigate the cause of the largest recent mass extinction of megafauna (mammals that weighed > 200lbs) that took place between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago. Understanding the vulnerability of large mammal populations to new hunting pressures (Humans arrived in So. America about 14,000 years ago) and sudden warming has relevance to conserving modern mammal-rich areas such as the American West, Alaska and the Serengeti.
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Microcapsules for Core Content Delivery Nasri Nesnas
Microcapsules for Core Content Delivery
The design of microcapsules that contain one or two components that can be delivered for various space and biomedical applications.
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Pre-Columbian Human Impacts on Amazonian Rainforest Ecosystems Mark Bush
Pre-Columbian Human Impacts on Amazonian Rainforest Ecosystems
How natural are the forests of Amazonia? A growing case is being made among anthropologists and archaeologists that prior to European contact in 1492, native people manipulated much, perhaps most, of Amazonia. If fire was used across the Amazon basin to clear land for agriculture then forest ecosystems that ecologists have assumed were mature may in fact be only one-to-several generations removed from intensive management. Understanding the extent to which wildlife and people have interacted in the past is vital for effective planning and management.
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Retinal Synthesis Nasri Nesnas
Retinal Synthesis using deuterium in various sites to study the visual process by photophysical nuclear magnetic techniques. The deuterium will take the place of hydrogen atoms in the five different CH3 groups on the 11-cis-retinal. Irradiation with light will result in the conformational change of the deuterated molecule leading to a change in the NMR signal. The NMR data can be extrapolated for informational detail on conformational change.
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Shifted Baselines: Quantifying Past Human Influences on Andean Landscapes Mark Bush
Shifted Baselines: Quantifying Past Human Influences on Andean Landscapes
This research project will investigate an area of very high biodiversity in the Peruvian Andes, where efforts to conserve Andean habitats to promote both biodiversity and carbon sequestration are being undertaken in a landscape that has been manipulated for millennia by humans. Have "natural" areas been transformed by long-term human activity even when that activity is not apparent, i.e. representing a shifted baseline of what is natural? Paleoecological investigations of Andean lake sediments provide a tool to detect and quantify such shifting of a perceived baseline.
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Southeastern Beach Mouse Genetics Study Christin Pruett
Southeastern Beach Mouse Genetics Study
We are studying the conservation genetics of the southeastern beach mouse, a federally-listed threatened species. We are using microsatellite loci to examine the genetic diversity, connectivity among populations, and effective population size of beach mice on Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. We hope to understand the movement patterns and extinction risk of this population of beach mice.
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Understanding Bone Loss in microgravity through Nanoscale Finite Element analysis of Load bearing structures in Bone Kunal Mitra
Bone loss during prolonged exposure to microgravity remains an area of major concern to NASA. A theory of the response of bone to applied loads is needed for the development of optimal countermeasures, because a wide range of missions is contemplated with different gravitational loading profiles (moon, Mars, etc). A predictive theory of the load-bearing behavior of bone will benefit health and medicine by making it possible to predict how bone will respond to time-varying loads in ambulation, exercise, injury, and disuse.