Date of Graduation
5-2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Computer Science and Computer Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Thompson, Craig W.
Committee Member/Reader
Li, Wing
Committee Member/Second Reader
Kumar, Thallapuranam K.
Abstract
Heparin is a biological molecule that plays a vital role in anticoagulation. As such, it is used for the prevention of blood clotting in a variety of medical disorders. However, it is easily contaminated with foreign substances, and this can prove fatal for a person receiving heparin. In order to prevent this, proteins that easily bind to heparin need to be added to the solution. Then, the unwanted substances can easily be filtered out. Certain sequences or patterns of amino acids are known to have a high probability of binding to heparin. Thus, proteins that contain large numbers of these sequences of amino acids are more likely to bind to heparin. This research is focused on programmatically identifying these proteins so that they may be tested in the lab. The resulting software program was run on a number of different sets of proteins and various results were gathered. If the chemical phase of this research proves successful, many new proteins could be identified and used in practice to save lives from harmful heparin solution contaminants.
Citation
Dempewolf, C. (2013). Algorithms and a Software Application for the Discovery of Heparin-Binding Proteins for Chemical Analysis. Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/csceuht/2
