Date of Graduation

5-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Hestekin, Christa N.

Committee Member/Reader

Kim, Jin-Woo

Committee Member/Second Reader

Zaharoff, David A.

Committee Member/Third Reader

Wolchok, Jeffrey C.

Abstract

In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared tuberculosis (TB) a global emergency. Since then, more than 30 million lives have been claimed by that world-wide epidemic. In 2011, 8.7 million people “felt ill” because of TB and not all TB cases were reported to clinicians. Therefore, it is important to accurately identify TB patients by developing a diagnostic method that is sensitive, fast, and cost-effective. However, conventional methods have not met those criteria because they either require lengthy procedures or may misdiagnose TB cases. Hence, the automated Xpert MTB/RIF, endorsed by WHO in 2010, was developed and so far has been capable of quickly detecting TB and rifampicin resistant TB strains and producing test results in less than 100 minute. However, the Xpert MTB/RIF may leave out other drug-resistant TB strains which are equally important and in need of diagnoses. Therefore, we would like to utilize single-based extension and capillary electrophoresis (SBE-CE), a method that promises to identify all strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and possibly any mycobacterium. The main purpose of this study is to generate a calibration curve of the electrophoretic peak areas produced by CE versus the corresponding sample concentrations of DNA solutions. For initial proof of concept, algal DNA’s were also used to produce the calibration curves. The curves established a linear trend but with distinct slopes, possibly due to different fluorescent dyes used in SBE reactions.

Comments

Zaharoff, David A.

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