Recent Honors Thesis Titles

2005

Elysia Alvarez   Honors advisor: D. Nelson
Computational Analysis of the Interaction of the Anthrax Lethal Factor Exotoxin with Peptide Substrate Analogs and with the anthrax Protective Antigen "Pre-Pore"

Mary Badon   Honors advisors: D. Larochelle (Clark), C. Field and T. Mitchison (Harvard Medical School)
Analysis of Centrosome Function in Cell Division and Characterization of Small Molecule Inhibitors

Kim Leblanc   Honors advisor: UMass
Attachment of the Lyme Disease Spirochete to Mammalian Host Cells as Mediated by BBK032

Adam McPherson   Honors advisor: UMass
Analysis of factors associated with Pbp1p in the post-transcriptional control of gene expression

Nicole Mills   Honors advisor: J. Thackeray
Knocking out a Potential Tyrosine Phosphorylation Site in Drosophila PLC-gamma

James Vecchione   Honors advisor: D. Larochelle
Understanding the Pats1 Gene and its Involvement in the Molecular Regulation of Cytokinesis

Boyan Yordanov   Honors advisor: S. Huo
Initial conformational changes of transthyretin triggering amyloid formation: Molecular dynamics simulation under low pH conditions

2004

Juliana DeMelfi   Honors advisor: UMass
An Analysis of EBV-Specific CD8+ T Cell Receptor Repertoire Interactions with an HLA-A*0201 / BMLF-1 Epitope

Kriti Gaur   Honors advisor: D. Robertson
Characterization of enzyme Glutamine Synthetase in the dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamerense

Stephanie Roy   Honors advisor: D. Nelson
Docking of 3Õ-deoxy-ATP into the Adenylyl Cyclase Active Site of Wild-Type and Mutant Anthrax Edema Factor Variants: An Analysis Utilizing GRID-21, Simple Molecular Mechanics with InsightII and GRASP Surface Electrochemical Potential.

Zu Shen   Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
Kinetic Studies of ATP/CTP tRNA Nucleotidyltransferase from M. jannaschi

Miguel Stein   Honors advisor: D. Robertson
Effects of Extracellular Nitrate on the Regulation of Glutamine Synthatase II2 in Skeletonema Costatum

2003

Sarah Deroko   Honors advisor: D. Larochelle
Characterization of Pats1, a novel gene required for cytokinesis in Dictyostelium

Matthew Evans   Honors advisor: UMass
Identification of Point Mutants in Pab1p that Specifically Eliminate Interaction with the Positive Activator of Poly(A) Nuclease, Pan3p

Jinal Patel    Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
A kinetic study of the Drosophila melanogaster whole and truncated CCA-adding enzymes

Branka Stancevic   Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
Site-directed mutagenesis of M. janaschii ATP/CTP tRNA nucleotidyltransferase

Bradford Stanley   Honors advisor: Stryker Biotech
Uncovering the Origins of Heterogeneity in a Recombinant Protein Product: Analysis of recombinant human Osteogenic Protein-1 by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis

2002

Nate Agrin   Honors advisor: UMass
Mapping Protein Interactions in the Regulatory Network Controlling Pab1p-Dependant Poly(A) Nuclease

Megan Albert   Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
Mutants and models of nucleotidyltransferase

Lored Asllani   Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
Purification of tRNA nucleotidyltransferase for structural studies

Frances Austin    Honors advisor: J. Thackeray
Screening for Genes on the X-Chromosome Affecting Geotaxis in Drosophila melanogaster

Nathan Berkowitz    Honors advisor: D. Hibbett
RT-PCR Amplification of Fungal Mn Peroxidase mRNAs for Phylogenetic Studies

Jennifer Pacheco   Honors advisor: UMass
RNA Recognition Motifs in Overexpression of Yeast Poly (A)-Binding protein

Erika Person   Honors advisor: D. Nelson
Molecular dynamics of single-site variants of Human superoxide dismutase linked to Lou GehrigÕs Disease

Craig Stone   Honors advisor: UMass
Mechanism of Early Endosome Tethering by Rab 5, EEA1, and PtdIns(3)P

Joshua Suhl   Honors advisor: J. Thackeray
Mutating the PLC-gamma SH2 domains in Drosophila melanogaster

2001

Kamau Fahie   Honors advisor: D. Nelson
Molecular dynamics simulation analysis of the metal binding properties of a non-conservative mutational variant of the Silver Hake parvalbumin (Isoform B) whole protein and functional fragments

Nyawira Gikunju   Honors advisor: D. Thurlow
Site-directed mutagenesis of the ATP/CTP:tRNA nucleotidyltransferase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Christine Whittish   Honors advisor: UMass
Does Bloom Syndrome Helicase Affect Class Switch Recombination?