The kinetochore is a protein complex found at the centromere of chromosomes. It plays an essential role in mitosis, but our lab is investigating the role of the kinetochore in a surprising post-mitotic setting. Specifically, we are focusing on the presence of kinetochores in the synapses and axons of mammalian nerve cells, implying that kinetochores play a key role in neural development.
\r\n\r\nHere we have engineered strains of mouse embryonic hippocampal nerve cells with certain kinetochore-encoding genes knocked out, and then fluorescently imaged their axonal growth cones. To quantify the change in dynamicity of the growth cones after gene knockout, we used image classification and machine learning techniques and found statistically significant results between the knockout and wildtype strains of nerve cells, indicating that kinetochores are essential to functional axon growth.
" }, { "name": "Liu, Grace", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2023", "title": "\u201cIt\u2019s Our War Too\u201d: Barriers to Authorship by Women Writing Vietnam War Poetry", "advisor": "Jurca, Catherine", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:04262023-070455932", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Liu", "given": "Grace" }, "id": "Liu-Grace", "display_name": "Liu, Grace" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Jurca", "given": "Catherine" }, "id": "Jurca-C", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Jurca, Catherine" } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "biology", "english" ], "doi": "10.7907/r3ec-ev97", "abstract": "Even though American women had higher rates of involvement in the Vietnam War than any previous war, poems about their experiences were extremely scarce until over a decade after American troops withdrew. A major contributor to the lack of literary representation is the critical dismissal of women\u2019s war poetry as being unable to teach readers meaningful \u201ctruths\u201d about war. This thesis examines two collections of female-authored poems, Visions of War, Dreams of Peace and Shallow Graves, which were published in 1991 and 1986 respectively. The former contains poems from 40 women, most of whom served as army nurses; the latter combines the experiences of Wendy Wilder Larsen, an American woman who lived in Vietnam for two years, and Tran Thi Nga, a Vietnamese woman who immigrated to America. The collections reveal that most American women responded to critical expectations either through self-erasure or active rebellion. In contrast to the American women, Nga is granted authority by critics because her Vietnamese perspective is unique in English literature, but her authorship is instead challenged during the process of adapting her story for an American audience." }, { "name": "Zhang, Hanwen", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2020", "title": "Role of the Ventral CA1 to Primary Auditory Cortex Projection in Associative Learning", "advisor": "Siapas, Athanassios G.; Cassenaer, Stijn", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:06112020-153709447", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Zhang", "given": "Hanwen" }, "id": "Zhang-Hanwen", "orcid": "0000-0001-7609-2122", "display_name": "Zhang, Hanwen" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Siapas", "given": "Athanassios G." }, "id": "Siapas-A-G", "orcid": "0000-0001-8837-678X", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Siapas, Athanassios G." }, { "name": { "family": "Cassenaer", "given": "Stijn" }, "id": "Cassenaer-S", "role": "co-advisor", "display_name": "Cassenaer, Stijn" } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "cns" ], "abstract": "As we understand more about individual brain regions, more studies begin to focus on how different regions communicate with each other. Having long been established as the center for learning and memory, the hippocampus has connections to most of neocortex as well as many subcortical regions. Some recent findings revealed that the hippocampus not only receive input from primary sensory cortices but also provide feedback projections to these areas. Do these projections play a role in sensory associative learning? Our project focused on the role of hippocampus to primary auditory cortex (A1) projections in auditory associative learning. Optogenetics was used to study the function of a direct projection from the ventral CA1 region of the hippocampus to primary auditory cortex (A1) in an auditory go/no-go task using head-fixed mice. Preliminary results show that activation of this projection does not affect task acquisition or generalization. Our next step is to investigate the effect of inhibiting the CA1 to A1 projections on auditory associative learning." }, { "name": "Schmidt, William Charles", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2018", "title": "What Makes a Narrative? Understanding the Portrayals of Hermenegild's Rebellion", "advisor": "Brown, Warren C.", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:09252018-124342094", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Schmidt", "given": "William Charles" }, "id": "Schmidt-William-Charles", "orcid": "0000-0001-9780-9495", "display_name": "Schmidt, William Charles" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Brown", "given": "Warren C." }, "id": "Brown-Warren-C", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Brown, Warren C." } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "bioeng", "history" ], "doi": "10.7907/R6G8-3B60", "abstract": "When one studies an event through the perspectives of multiple accounts, one\u2019s first instinct might be to reconcile the sources into a single cohesive narrative. One can try to assign a likelihood that various portions of each story are factually correct, and then reconstruct what happened based upon which parts seem the most trustworthy.However, in doing so, one cannot be certain of the results. Each of us has our own subjectivity and biases, as our experiences can implicitly shape the decisions we make about what is reliable or plausible and what is not. Moreover, when one tries to compile the \u201ctruth\u201d of an event from multiple sources, such \"truth\" comes at the cost of understanding what made the sources different in the first place. An account is not written in a vacuum, and the way that an author chooses to portray an event is determined by their own personal background, circumstances, and purposes for crafting their narratives. In condensing a host of different accounts into a single internally consistent version, one loses sight of how the authors themselves viewed the events. Keeping different accounts of the same event separate, and investigating each individually in its own context, may not provide a simple solution to the question of \u201cwhat happened?\u201d, but it will teach us more about the authors\u2019 motivations and what they understood to be important about an event. Such an understanding provides more substantial and reliable information than trying to reconcile the accounts would be able to provide." }, { "name": "Buhler, Vivian Huang", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2015", "title": "Mary and Magdalene Reintegrated Through Sisterhood in a Male-Dominated Goblin Market", "advisor": "Gilmartin, Kevin M.", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:04182018-090000178", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Buhler", "given": "Vivian Huang" }, "id": "Buhler-Vivian-Huang", "display_name": "Buhler, Vivian Huang" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Gilmartin", "given": "Kevin M." }, "id": "Gilmartin-K-M", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Gilmartin, Kevin M." } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "bioeng", "english" ], "doi": "10.7907/Z9959FST", "abstract": "In her most celebrated and controversial poem, Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti presents an allegory of her own spiritual journey toward redemption as a woman, a sinner, and a reform worker. Through the stories of three young maidens\u2019 misadventures among the goblin men\u2019s \u201chaunted glen,\u201d Rossetti reveals the unjust Victorian binaries of male versus female, as well as virgin versus prostitute, and proposes an alternative definition of virtue attained through redemption that is accessible to all regardless of gender or social background. Using Jeanie, Lizzie, and Laura as figures for fallen woman, penitent, and sister, Rossetti further recasts the parallel feminine archetypes Eve, Mary, and Mary Magdalene as biblical paradigms of humanity united against the evils of the age, all equally destined for eternal salvation even if patriarchal standards should bar any such woman from an earthly life of honor." }, { "name": "Jiang, Siduo (Stone)", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2014", "title": "Structure-Guided Design and Biophysical Characterization of Novel Anti-HIV Reagents", "advisor": "Bjorkman, Pamela J.; Galimidi, Rachel P.; West, Anthony P.; Sievers, Stuart A.", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:06172014-114402762", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Jiang", "given": "Siduo (Stone)" }, "id": "Jiang-Siduo-Stone", "orcid": "0000-0002-2143-4030", "display_name": "Jiang, Siduo (Stone)" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Bjorkman", "given": "Pamela J." }, "id": "Bjorkman-P-J", "orcid": "0000-0002-2277-3990", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Bjorkman, Pamela J." }, { "name": { "family": "Galimidi", "given": "Rachel P." }, "id": "Galimidi-R-P", "role": "co-advisor", "display_name": "Galimidi, Rachel P." }, { "name": { "family": "West", "given": "Anthony P." }, "id": "West-A-P", "role": "co-advisor", "display_name": "West, Anthony P." }, { "name": { "family": "Sievers", "given": "Stuart A." }, "id": "Sievers-S-A", "role": "co-advisor", "display_name": "Sievers, Stuart A." } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "biology", "chemistry" ], "doi": "10.7907/SP19-9R34", "abstract": "Despite over 30 years of effort, an HIV-1 vaccine that elicits protective antibodies still does not exist. Recent clinical studies have identified that during natural infection about 20% of the population is capable of mounting a potent and protective antibody response. Closer inspection of these individuals reveal that a subset of these antibodies, recently termed potent VRC01-like (PVL), derive exclusively from a single human germline heavy chain gene. Induced clonal expansion of the B cell encoding this gene is the first step through which PVL antibodies may be elicited. Unfortunately, naturally occurring HIV gp120s fail to bind to this germline, and as a result cannot be used as the initial prime for a vaccine regimen. We have determined the crystal structure of an important germline antibody that is a promising target for vaccine design efforts, and have set out to engineer a more likely candidate using computationally-guided rational design.
\r\n\r\nIn addition to prevention efforts on the side of vaccine design, recently characterized broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies have excellent potential for use in gene therapy and passive immunotherapy. The separation distance between functional Fabs on an antibody is important due to the sparse distribution of envelop spikes on HIV compared to other viruses. We set out to build and characterize novel antibody architectures by incorporating structured linkers into the hinge region of an anti-HIV antibody b12. The goal was to observe whether these linkers increased the arm-span of the IgG dimer. When incorporated, flexible Gly4Ser repeats did not result in detectable extensions of the IgG antigen binding domains, by contrast to linkers including more rigid domains such as \u03b22-microglobulin, Zn-\u03b12-glycoprotein, and tetratricopeptide repeats (TPRs). This study adds an additional set of linkers with varying lengths and rigidities to the available linker repertoire, which may be useful for the modification and construction of antibodies and other fusion proteins.
\r\n" }, { "name": "Shocklee, Miceala Marie", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2014", "title": "The Art of Madness", "advisor": "Weinstein, Cindy A.", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05222014-111111602", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Shocklee", "given": "Miceala Marie" }, "id": "Shocklee-Miceala-Marie", "display_name": "Shocklee, Miceala Marie" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Weinstein", "given": "Cindy A." }, "id": "Weinstein-C", "orcid": "0009-0006-0352-2981", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Weinstein, Cindy A." } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "biology" ], "doi": "10.7907/043M-TF33", "abstract": "The nineteenth century was not an entirely kind time for the female artist. Coming of age as the 1800\u2019s bridged into its latter half, literary artists Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin were all well aware of their uncharitable culture. Equipped with firm feminist bents and creative visions, each of three women produced a seminal work \u2013 The Story of Avis, \u201cThe Yellow Wallpaper,\u201d and The Awakening, respectively \u2013 taking that atmosphere to task. In these stories, each of the three women produces a female protagonist who struggles for having been born simultaneously an artist and a woman. The writers pit their women\u2019s desires against the restrictive latitude of their time and show how such conditions drive women to madness, as a result of which they are forced to either escape into the blind mind of insanity or deal daily with their pain and inescapable societal condemnation. In an age where \u201chysteria\u201d was a frequent hit in the vernacular, Phelps, Gilman and Chopin use art and literature as mediums to show that, indeed, there is a method behind the madness." }, { "name": "Tan, Alison", "degree": "Senior Thesis", "year": "2014", "title": "Eavan Boland and Paula Meehan : Irish Voices of the Past", "advisor": "Gilmartin, Kevin M.", "url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05232014-004544454", "creators": [ { "name": { "family": "Tan", "given": "Alison" }, "id": "Tan-Alison", "display_name": "Tan, Alison" } ], "advisors": [ { "name": { "family": "Gilmartin", "given": "Kevin M." }, "id": "Gilmartin-K-M", "role": "advisor", "display_name": "Gilmartin, Kevin M." } ], "committee": [ { "name": { "family": "None", "given": "None" }, "display_name": "None, None" } ], "option_major": [ "bioeng" ], "doi": "10.7907/7928-NF27", "abstract": "History, myth, exile, identity\u2014for generations those have been the themes of Irish poetry, an Irish poetry written almost exclusively by male poets. As women moved in to claim a voice the themes were often the same, though reworked in essential ways. The key to that reworking, the pivot for an Irish women\u2019s poetry, was the development of a female poetic identity. Eavan Boland led the way. In particular, Boland\u2019s struggles as the first prominent female poet of modern Irish Literature emphasize a search for self-identity. At the forefront of this movement and a precedent for those around her, she establishes themes that pave the way for Irish women writers. With Boland, comes a hopeful recovery of the contemporary female literary experience, with the perspective and approach towards self-identity endlessly evolving over time with each new poet. Inspired by Boland, but a generation younger, Paula Meehan explores similar themes of female constraint, yet raises her own distinctive concerns, in particular the division of male and female roles and generational conflict, exploring what is real and ordinary." } ]