Dendritic cell maturation and activation via RNA/DNA danger signals : co-delivery of protein antigen with siRNA or CpG DNA

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Biological Engineering Division, 2005."June 2005."Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-43).Traditional vaccines consisting of live attenuated pathogens or inactivated toxins cannot be readily applied to the more challenging diseases of the present e.g. hepatitis C and the human immunodeficiency virus. As such, there is a need to develop new methods of priming the immune system against such foreign invaders. Recombinant protein subunits and peptides are relatively safe alternatives to live attenuated pathogens. However, these antigens are poorly immunogenic when administered alone in solution form and thus require the use of an adjuvant. To this end, we have developed a hydrogel-based nanoparticulate system to encapsulate protein antigen and to co-deliver it with DNA/RNA-based adjuvants to dendritic cells, the key antigen presenting cells in primary immune responses. Using CpG oligonucleotides or siRNA as adjuvants, we observed via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for interleukin 12 and interferon-[alpha], respectively, that DCs were activated by CpG oligonucleotide- and siRNA-functionalized nanoparticles [approx.]10-fold more potently than by soluble CpG or siRNA ligands.by Jonathan Woon Teck Yap.M.Eng

Election aversion means that leveling the electoral playing field may not be enough to convince women to run for office

Of the 535 seats in the 114th U.S. Congress, women hold 104, or just over 19 percent. While this is the greatest number of women to hold office in Congressional history, there is clearly a great deal of work to be done before equality is achieved. In new research, Kristin Kanthak and Jonathan Woon look at the reasons behind the continuing lack of representation of women in politics, even after efforts to level the electoral playing field. They find that women are much less willing to compete in elections than men, even if they are equally qualified and confident in their own abilities

Framework for designing image sonification methods

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)Time is not just a parameter of auditory disply, but is rather the principle dimension within which all other auditory parameters are placed. While this is a feature of time ordered information, it poses a particular challenge to effective sonification of time-independent data, such as images. In this paper we present two concepts of time mapping, scanning and probing to provide a framework for con- ceptualizing mappings of static data to the time domain. We then consider the geometric characteristics of images to define mean- ingful references in time. Finally, we proceed to suggest a new approach of modeling human image perception for image sonifi- cation, which can be designed upon our framework