Thoracic Aorta Displacement and Strain Analysis Using Spiral Cine DENSE MRI

Aneurysms are the 18th most common cause of death in the United States, and patients with connective tissue disorders are at particularly high risk of developing these lesions. Understanding more about the structural and biological properties that play a role in the formation of aneurysms could be vital to their early detection and prevention. In this study, we compare displacement and strain data from six patients who have connective tissue disorders (e.g., Marfan Syndrome, Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, or Ehlers-Danlos) and eight patients with healthy aortas using spiral cine DENSE MRI in order to differentiate the mechanical properties of healthy vs. diseased aortas and to understand the properties associated with different stages of aneurysm formation. We predict that patients with connective tissue disorders will demonstrate larger total displacement and strain along the aortic wall. These results will help differentiate the mechanical properties of healthy aortas and aortas associated with connective tissue disorders, as well as understand the properties associated with different stages of aneurysm formation.Undergraduat

The Use of Minimal RNA Toeholds to Trigger the Activation of Multiple Functionalities

Current work reports the use of single-stranded RNA toeholds of different lengths to promote the reassociation of various RNA–DNA hybrids, which results in activation of multiple split functionalities inside human cells. The process of reassociation is analyzed and followed with a novel computational multistrand secondary structure prediction algorithm and various experiments. All of our previously designed RNA/DNA nanoparticles employed single-stranded DNA toeholds to initiate reassociation. The use of RNA toeholds is advantageous because of the simpler design rules, the shorter toeholds, and the smaller size of the resulting nanoparticles (by up to 120 nucleotides per particle) compared to the same hybrid nanoparticles with single-stranded DNA toeholds. Moreover, the cotranscriptional assemblies result in higher yields for hybrid nanoparticles with ssRNA toeholds