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Welcome to my site! This past year, I was inspired by the advent and promise of islet cell translation. Islet cell transplantation is a possible cure for Type 1 Diabetes but remains highly inefficient. Needless to say, diabetes affects many people globally (385 million) but for me, it's a very personal issue as my family has a history of this disease and many of my close relatives have been diagnosed.
As a result, I worked on designing and testing a system for islet cell transplantation that can be used as a passageway to increase the overall viability of cells and effectiveness of the procedure. In the end, I discovered that a tea waste product (derived from the popular, probiotic kombucha drink) could be used as a cost effective and environmentally friendly scaffold alternative. The oxygen generating construct which I designed in the first phase of investigation can be coupled with this scaffold to deliver oxygen to cells locally.
- Angelin Mathew :)
Hypothesis:
Phase 1- If calcium peroxide is integrated within RTV615, oxygen will be produced through the decomposition reaction which occurs when the disk is in contact with water. Oxygen release can be monitored by measuring oxygen concentrations of the incubated medium.
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Phase 2- If agarose is integrated within bacterial cellulose, porosity can be manipulated. The highest agarose quantity will correspond to the greatest pore size.
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Phase 3- If INS-1 cells are seeded onto kombucha and pristine bacterial cellulose based scaffolds, morphological changes will be noted.
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