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Fall 2022

Halpin, Anne M

Background: Although pediatric heart transplantation is a life-saving and effective therapy for children with cardiac disease, barriers remain due to a lack of available organs as well as transplant failure due to rejection. This dissertation aimed to increase knowledge related to immune risk...

Fall 2018

Bhavanam,Sudha

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Mtb spreads by aerosol and infects through the airways. Mtb is phagocytosed by macrophages in the lung, and is able to replicate inside these cells. The initial infection of Mtb with macrophage results in...

Fall 2023

Engelking, Lauren E.

The calving transition is a challenging period for dairy cows characterized by negative energy balance, metabolic dysfunction, and inflammation, each of which may compromise milk production. Despite extensive research in this area, much is still unknown on how to best manage this period. The...

Fall 2024

Shouib, Rowayna

Epithelial cells line the lung airways providing a protective physical and immunological barrier against inhaled particles and pathogens. Hence, airway epithelial cells express a variety of surface receptors that confer recognition of inhaled toxins, allergens and various pathogens. Receptor...

Fall 2021

Mitran, Catherine J

Worldwide, an estimated 30 million pregnancies are at risk of malaria infection each year. In pregnancy, Plasmodium falciparum parasites express a protein called VAR2CSA that mediates adherence of infected red blood cells (iRBCs) to chondroitin sulfate A (CSA) in the placenta. VAR2CSA antibodies...

Fall 2010

Lim, Aaron Guanliang

Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a persistent human retrovirus characterized by life-long infection and risk of developing HAM/TSP, a progressive neurological and inflammatory disease. Despite extensive studies of HTLV-I, a complete understanding of the viral dynamics has been...

Fall 2009

Mok, Dereck

Islet transplantation has the potential to be an effective treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes. However, a shortage of human donor islets and the need for continuous immunosuppressive therapy currently limit this therapy to patients with brittle type 1 diabetes. Neonatal pigs may...

Fall 2017

Akinwumi, Segun M

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a “kissing disease virus” that has infected more than 95% of the adult human population. It has been associated with diseases such as Acute Infectious Mononucleosis (AIM) and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD). The kinetics of primary EBV infection has...

Fall 2013

Samrat, Subodh Kr

The hepatitis C virus leads to chronic infection in the majority of infected individuals; however, in a minority of patients, acute infection is followed by viral clearance. The immune correlates of viral clearance are not yet clear, but have been extensively investigated, suggesting the role of...

Fall 2017

Wong, Michael E.

Since antiquity, fever has been documented as a physiological response to infection characterized by an increase in body temperature. Though fever is commonly regarded as a deleterious symptom of inflammation and is often suppressed using NSAID drugs, little is known about the effects that fever...