Dye Modified Virus-Based Nanoplatforms for Cancer Imaging and Advanced Therapeutics — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Dye Modified Virus-Based Nanoplatforms for Cancer Imaging and Advanced Therapeutics

Name: Maxwell Machurick
Major: Biology
Hometown: Milwaukee, WI
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: SURE
Funding: SURE

Name: Maxwell Machurick
Major: Biology
Hometown: Kaukauna, WI
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: SURE
Funding: SURE

Abstract

Cancer is a lethal disease characterized by uncontrolled, abnormal cell growth and proliferation. Current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, are non-specific and destroy healthy cells along with the cancerous cells. Chemically modified viral nanoparticles (VNPs) have the potential to be used as improved cancer therapeutics. VNPs can be chemically modified to specifically target cancer cells and deliver pharmaceutics to kill tumor cells with limited access to healthy tissue. VNPs can also be used as diagnostic tools in identifying the presence of cancer earlier though internalization studies identifying the uptake of VNPs into cancer specific cells. The goal of this project was to covalently attach fluorescein succinimidyl ester dyes (FITC) to cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), confirm bioconjugation, and determine the amount of attached dyes per virus capsid. Unattached dyes were cleansed from solution through dialysis, and intact capsids were isolated using size exclusion chromatography. Bioconjugation was confirmed through spectrophotometry, fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC), and SDS-PAGE. Using absorbance spectra, the amount of dyes per virus was calculated to be 175 FITC dyes per CPMV capsid. These modified VNPs have the potential to be used as a cancer diagnostic tool through fluorescent imaging of internalized VNPs within cancer cells. Further attachment studies will bioconjugate transferrin molecules to the terminal end of PEG linkers. Since cancerous cells express more transferrin receptors than normal cells, VNPs modified with transferrin can be more readily internalized by cancer cells. Internalization studies with HeLa cells, an aggressive cervical cancer cell line, will be used for fluorescent cancer cell imaging and possible testing of therapeutic delivery.

Poster file