csi undergraduate conference on research, scholarship ... - CSI Today

Research Poster PresentationsP O S T E R 3 9Curcumin and CurcuminDerivatives Affect on AmyloidBeta PlaqueRobert TruzzolinoFaculty Mentor: Dr. Alejandra AlonsoDepartment of BiologyIn Alzheimer disease brain the two most prominentpathological lesions are the plaques outside theneurons and the tangles inside the neurons. Plaquesare mainly composed of amyloid beta peptide,derived from the amyloid precursor proteins, as a40 and/or 42 amino acid peptide. A great amount ofeffort has been devoted to dissolve the amyloidplaques from Alzheimers disease brains. Moreover,vascular amyloidoses is also a very serious problemfrom the vascular deposits of the amyloid-betapeptide. In this project, we are studying the effectsof curcumin and the glycosilated derivatives indissolving those plaques. The data we obtained isqualitative in the form of pictures obtained using avery powerful microscope known as a transmissionelectron microscope and quantitative using aspecific antibody that will detect the differentamounts of the amyloid beta peptide. The resultsobtained remain skeptical with the notion that theglycosilated derivatives of curumin were effectivein dissolving the amyloid-beta plaques. There is agreat potential of this study to be able to generatedrugs applicable to these diseases.P O S T E R 4 0Mercury Assessment in SeafoodPawel PieluszynskiFaculty Mentor: Dr. William WallaceDepartment of BiologyThe main aspect of this research is mercurydetection in aquatic organisms. Mercury is a metalthat was, and still is, widely used in many industrialapplications, especially in urban areas such as theNew York Metropolitan area. Fish and shellfishfound in such areas will often concentrate thismetal in their tissues, as mercury is fat soluble.Mercury concentration is higher in larger fish andpredators, because as these carnivores eat smallerorganisms contaminated with mercury, the metalconcentration accumulates in the bodies of theselarger fish, in a process known as biomagnification.This can be seen as a major concern for humanpopulations, as the consumption of suchcontaminated fish will increase mercuryconcentration in human tissues, which can cause aplethora of health problems. Therefore, it isextremely important to monitor mercuryconcentrations in aquatic life, especially the speciesthat are most harvested and consumed by humans.In this project, the tissues of various aquatic speciesthat are of culinary value will be tested for theirconcentration of mercury using a FIMSspectrometer. Some of these aquatic animals will belocal species, while others will be non-local, whichcan be bought in a supermarket. This will be doneto determine whether local seafood contains lessmercury and is safer to eat than imported seafood,or if the opposite is true.45