Biological Sciences thesis and dissertation collection
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Recent Submissions
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Investigating the role of Raf2 in heterochromatin formation in fission yeast
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-22)In fission yeast, heterochromatin formation requires RNAi and the histone H3K9 methyltransferase complex CLRC which contains Raf2, a protein with unknown function. Raf2 has an RFTS domain which is also found in DNMT1 in ... -
Genetics of leaf shape variation in Begonia
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-19)With just over 2000 species, Begonia is one of the largest vascular plant genera. The vast morphological diversity, detailed phylogeny and extensive distribution data makes it an ideal model to study the evolution of ... -
Synthetic biology enabled wearable biosensors for non-invasive biomarker monitoring using sweat
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-18)Monitoring biomarkers is key to understanding human health and diagnosing disease. Frequently this requires blood samples to be taken for subsequent testing. It has disadvantages including pain and infection risk to the ... -
Understanding the relationship between immunity and ageing by leveraging natural variation in Drosophila melanogaster
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-18)The global demographic is shifting towards an aged population. As the eldest members of society are more vulnerable to both infectious and aged-related diseases, improving healthy ageing and limiting age-related pathologies ... -
Biochemical determinants of CDK1 phosphorylation of cell cycle substrates using mass spectrometry-based phospho-proteomics
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-16)The cell cycle is a complex series of events that results in one parental cell dividing into two daughter cells. Division only occurs when cells have successfully replicated their DNA, to create progeny each with a copy ... -
Using native nucleosome arrays to study OCT4 and SOX2 pioneer activity
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-15)Cell identity is the control of gene transcription by Transcription Factors (TF) and chromatin. The extent to which human cell identity can be recapitulated outside of the cell using TFs and nucleosomes in unknown. I ... -
Engineering of bacteriophages P1 and P2 for antimicrobial delivery
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-05-02)The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that 600 million foodborne cases of illness occurred annually, with 420,000 deaths. The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) foodborne pathogens is one of the world’s major ... -
Evolutionary ecology of ageing in a wild Soay sheep population
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-04-24)Senescence, declining physiological function resulting in reduced survival and fertility with increasing age is a widely observed natural phenomena. Many studies of senescence in natural populations have found actuarial ... -
Cytological and genetical studies on Puccinia striiformis westend
(The University of Edinburgh, 1978)Cytological and genetical studies were carried out on the possible mechanism(s) involved in the production of new physiologic races of the yellow rust pathogen, Puccinia striiformis. The size and structure of dividing ... -
Synthetic biology approach to monitoring transient interactions between cancer and immune cells
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-03-28)Immune cells play an important role in tumour growth and progression, as well as establishment at metastatic sites. Although inherently, immune system is designed to locate, target and eliminate malignant cells, ... -
Mechanical stress priming to enhance crop resilience
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-03-20)Exposure to mechanical stress alters the growth and development of plants, and can prime them to be resistant to subsequent environmental stress. The application of mechanical stress therefore has the potential to improve ... -
Buffering and trophic mismatch in spring-feeding forest caterpillars
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-03-17)Across temperate environments, climate warming is leading to a general advancement of spring phenology in a wide range of ecologically and taxonomically diverse species. For taxa that depend on interactions with other ... -
Cellulose as a component of plant cell walls and as a food additive in confectioner
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-15)A healthy diet is rich in dietary fibre (largely indigestible polysaccharides, most of which derive from plant cell walls). Cellulose is one of the main components of plant cell walls and a major contributor to human dietary ... -
Use of AI for the development of two new early drug discovery techniques: deep and transfer learning for LogP prediction and dimensionality reduction for sequence-based virtual screening
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-10)Prediction of small molecule physiochemical properties and their biological targets is extremely valuable in the effort to reduce costs and attrition rates within drug discovery. In-silico techniques are now routinely ... -
Developing novel optogenetic tools in Caenorhabditis elegans
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-14)Proteins are biopolymers constructed from 20 canonical amino acids which, while limited in number, work together to carry out an extensive variety of functions essential to life. Genetic code expansion allows for the ... -
Transcriptomic profiling of glia in Huntington's disease
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-10)Huntington’s disease (HD) is a severely debilitating, autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease with a fatal outcome. There is accumulating evidence of a prominent role of glia in the pathology of HD, and we investigated ... -
Evolutionary ecology of parasite strategies for within-host survival
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-08)Plasmodium parasites, the causal agents of malaria, engage in complex interactions with their hosts, however despite decades of research much of their life cycle remains unexplored. A deeper understanding of the strategies ... -
Computational comparative genomics in cyanobacteria
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-07)Cyanobacteria are an ancient clade of photosynthetic prokaryotes, varying in morphology, physiology, biochemistry and habitat. They evolve by typical prokaryotic mechanisms including horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Some ... -
Molecular dissection of the spindle assembly checkpoint signalling in Cryptococcus neoformans
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-02)Cryptococcosis is a severe fungal infection caused by an opportunistic fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans which has been medically significant for more than half of the last century. This yeast displays noticeable ... -
Chemical biotechnology strategies for adipic acid synthesis
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-25)Adipic acid is one of the most widely-used and valuable platform chemicals. However, industrial adipic acid synthesis is environmentally damaging, as it produces greenhouse gas and relies on non-renewable petrochemical ...
