Phd Degree / Doktora

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COAR Access Rights: search.filters.coarAccessRights.open accessDepartment: search.filters.department.Thesis (Doctoral)--İzmir Institute of Technology, Bioengineering

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 23
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Utilization of Endophytic Fungi and Their Enzymes for Transformation To Obtain Bioactive Compounds
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Küçüksolak, Melis; Bedir, Erdal; Sağ, Duygu
    Biotransformation is a chemical reaction performed by biological systems or their components to modify molecules and has many applications in the pharmaceutical industry. In our previous project, biotransformation studies were carried out on Astragalus cycloartanes using endophytic fungi isolated from the tissues of Astragalus species, and the effects of the metabolites on telomerase activation were investigated. Among the isolated endophytic fungi, Alternaria eureka and Camarosporium laburnicola were identified as potent biocatalysts in developing molecule libraries and producing potent telomerase activators. This thesis aims to demonstrate the potential use of endophytic fungi in the production of bioactive metabolites. In the first part, biotransformation studies were performed on cyclocephagenol, a novel cycloartane-type sapogenin with tetrahydropyran unit, using Alternaria eureka and Camarosporium laburnicola, and twenty-eight new metabolites were obtained. According to the results of bioactivity studies, Alternaria eureka and Camarosporium laburnicola were found to be responsible for producing potent neuroprotective agents and potent telomerase activators, respectively. In parallel, biotransformation conditions were statistically optimized to afford potential telomerase activators, discovered in our previous studies (E-CG-01, E-AG-01 and E-AG-02). For this, nine parameters were screened by Plackett-Burman Design, and three significant parameters were optimized using Central Composite Design. As a result, production yields were increased by 1.95-fold for E-CG-01, 70-fold for E-AG-01, and 19-fold for E-AG-02. In the last part, the partial purification and characterization of alcohol dehydrogenase, Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase, and lactone hydrolase enzymes, which were catalyzing the modifications in the production of telomerase activators, from Camarosporium laburnicola were performed.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Development of Conducting Polymer-Based Fluorescence On/Off Biosensor for Biomolecule Analysis
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Arslantaş, Duygu; Arslan Yıldız, Ahu
    Sensitive and selective detection of biomolecules and cells is essential for early diagnosis of diseases, prognosis monitoring, and effective therapy. This thesis aimed to develop a novel fluorescence ‘‘turn-on/off’’ biosensor for biomolecules and cells detection. In this study, cationic polythiophene derivative poly(1,4-dimethyl-1-(3-((4- methylthiophen-3-yl)oxy)propyl)piperazin-1-ium bromide) (PT–Pip) was used as an efficient fluorescence transduction element to discriminate proteins, mammalian cells, and amino acids for the first time. Initially, pH–dependent spectroscopic characterization of the PT–Pip was performed to monitor the conformational and optical changes. The pH sensitivity of the PT–Pip was demonstrated for the first time. Afterwards, the fluorescence ‘‘turn–off’’ phenomena were investigated in detail using citrate–capped gold nanoparticles as an efficient fluorescence quencher. Further, the interaction of target analytes such as proteins, mammalian cells, and amino acids with pre–quenched non–covalent PT–Pip–AuNP complexes was examined. Disruption of the binding equilibrium between PT–Pip and AuNP by analytes resulted in the selective displacement of PT–Pip, which generated signal output as a fluorescence ‘‘turn–on’’ mode. Consequently, for the sensitive detection of biomolecules and cells, chemical tongue sensor arrays were developed utilizing differential sensing approaches. PCA was used for the statistical evaluation of the multi–dimentional fluorescence response patterns. As a result, unique fingerprints were rapidly obtained by the direct sensing of proteins, ratiometric sensing of mammalian cells, and indirect sensing of amino acids. The combination of a differential sensing strategy with an appropriate multivariate statistical technique enabled the selective and sensitive detection and identification of proteins, mammalian cells, and amino acids.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Development and Use of Contactless Magnetic Manipulation Methodologies for the Formation of 3d Cardiac Models
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Önbaş, Rabia; Arslan Yıldız, Ahu
    In this thesis, two contactless magnetic manipulation methodologies were introduced, which are magnetic levitation (MagLev) and biopatterning techniques. The optimization steps of both techniques were completed with NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblast cells. Later, 3D cardiac models were developed using H9c2 rat cardiomyocytes. For the MagLev technique, tunable 3D spheroids were obtained with changing initial cell seeding number, gadobutrol concentrations, and culturing time. For the biopatterning approach, a new bio-ink formulation, which comprises alginate, magnetic nanoparticles, and cells, was developed. Further, biopatterned cellular structures were fabricated in different shapes such as discs, rings, and rectangles under an external magnetic field. Later, characterization was done successfully via immunostaining of collagen I, F-actin, and DAPI. Moreover, cardiac-specific markers; cardiac troponin T and MYH6 were analyzed for both 3D cardiac spheroids and patterned 3D cardiac structures. Finally, doxorubicin was applied to evaluate the drug responses. IC50 values were calculated as 14.7 μM and 8.1 μM for 3D cardiac spheroids and 3D cellular structures respectively, while standard 2D cell culture was 3.5 μM which indicated 3D cardiac models were more resistant to drug exposure. In the last part of thesis, patterned 3D cardiac structures were fabricated using co-cultured hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblast cells via biopatterning methodology. Characterization was carried out successfully by immunostaining of α-actinin, collagen I, Cx-43, Troponin T, and DAPI. Taken together, to fabricate 3D cell culture models, MagLev and biopatterning-based contactless manipulation methodologies may be good alternatives to conventional 2D cell culture methods for tissue engineering applications, especially for drug screening.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Characterization of Conjugated Polyelectrolytes for Nucleic Acid Sensing, Gene Delivery and Imaging
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Yücel, Müge; Yıldız, Ümit Hakan; Yıldız, Ümit Hakan
    In this thesis, cationic derivatives of poly(3-alkylmethoxythiophene) (PT) which are a class of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPE), have been synthesized. PT has been polymerized via FeCl3 oxidative polymerization, were treated in a set of solvents to elaborate coil conformation of polymer chain in different physicochemical environment. Spectroscopic and scattering techniques have ascertained that ethylene glycol is a good solvent for PT regarding Flory-Huggins theory. The smaller interaction parameter of PT with respect to ethylene glycol than water drives a thermodynamically driven ultra-small particle (Pdot) formation in aqueous phase by a rapid nanophase separation between PTrich ethylene glycol and PT-poor water phase. All CPEs have been then employed to prepare single polymer chain polymer dots (Pdot) by “nanophase separation” method. As a next step, Pdots have been characterized in terms of optical and colloidal properties that they possess in the backbone conformations altered by solvation effect. Regarding their colloidal characteristic, translocation of Pdot into cancerous cells was analyzed compared to healthy cells by 2D cell culture and co-culture studies. It has reported that Pdots have ability to penetrate through nuclear envelope in hepatocellular carcinoma whereas accumulate around nucleus of healthy liver cells in cytoplasm. Additionally, Pdots were studied in breast cancer cell lines to understand the behavior of Pdot staining in 2D cell culture of invasive and non-invasive breast cancer types. The findings suggest that Pdots are prone to penetrate into the invasive cancerous cells attributed to the greater deformations on nucleus membrane of triple negative breast cancer cells. In a next application, the enhanced photophysical property of PT exhibited in ethylene glycol media allows PT to be utilized as a fluorescent probe for determination of single nucleotide polymorphism by a non-amplification-based protocol. Fluorescence emission at specific wavelengths resulted from very distinct conformations of PT chain is the key elements for the SNP detection assay. The evaluation of optical data obtained from the probe with principal component analysis proves the separation of healthy individuals from patients with an overall 96% accuracy.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Multi-organ-on-a-chip for cancer drug testing
    (Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Mohammed, Abdurehman Eshete; Pesen Okvur, Devrim; Erdal Bağrıyanık, Şerife Esra
    Cancer is one of the devastating and fatal severe diseases worldwide that kills millions of people every year. Globally cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease and was responsible for 10 million deaths in 2020. Breast cancer is one of the predominant cancers in females and is the cause of more than half a million females death each year. The primary cause of cancer patients' death is cancer metastasis. Triple-negative BREAST cancer (TNBC) is mainly treated by chemotherapy. In the current drug discovery and development processes, the efficacy and toxicity of chemotherapies identify using 2D and animal testing but not simulating the in vivo microenvironment. This research designed multiorgan-on-a-chip with liver and breast cell line compartments, and drug PKPD modeling was done by Monolix software. In this research, a unique multiorgan-on-a-chip (MOC) was designed and fabricated, generated experimental PK and PD data using the new MOC device, and modeled and simulated PK and PD using the experimental data. To conclude, we developed a new multiorgan-on-a-chip (MOC) platform used for PKPD modeling and PKPD simulations that would be helpful in the preclinical research to evaluate the effectiveness and toxicity of drugs. In the future, using calceinAM, a fluorescent cell viability dye, generating PD data for each cell type and determining side effects of doxorubicin in each cell line is essential. Adding more organs to the MOC, such as heart tissue, to study the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin in different organs gives more efficient data for PKPD modeling.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Xylan Based Composite Nanoparticles and Biofoams for Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022) Zeybek, Nüket; Büyükkileci, Ali Oğuz
    Xylan is a hemicellulosic polysaccharide, which can be obtained from forest and agricultural wastes. Similar to some other polysaccharides, xylan can find application in drug delivery and tissue engineering due to its availability, structural diversity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low cost. In the first part of the study, xylan-based nanoparticles were developed for colontargeted oral drug delivery. Xylan is resistant to digestion and absorption in the upper GIT and is degraded by hydrolysis of glycosidic bonds by the colon microbiota; this makes it prominent in targeted drug delivery to the colon. The drug carrier was combined with a polymeric micelles system to increase the bioavailability of hydrophobic bioactive molecules in the colon targeting. The model hydrophobic molecule, curcumin, was loaded in the core of the triblock copolymer P-123 micelles by the thin-film hydration method. Curcumin-loaded micelles were coated with xylan supported by chitosan and tripolyphosphate using the ionic gelation method. In another approach, xylan was also used to coat curcumin-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles to prevent premature drug release in the upper GIT in colon-targeted delivery. In both approaches, the drugcontaining structures were maintained up to the colon and the drug was released upon bacterial hydrolysis of xylan. In the second part, xylan-based biofoams were synthesized by the oil in water emulsion templated method. Several physicochemical and mechanical tests have shown that at the optimal conditions foams with promising properties could be synthesized. Besides, to develop a more effective tissue therapy by utilizing the synergistic effect of the drug delivery and scaffold system, a model drug was successfully loaded into biofoams. This study showed that xylan is a promising feedstock for the synthesis of stable and biocompatible materials in biomedical applications, which reveals its potential capability in drug carriers and scaffolds.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Magnetic Levitation of Cells From Bone Marrow Origin
    (Izmir Institute of Technology, 2021) Anıl İnevi, Müge; Özçivici, Engin; Güven, Sinan
    Magnetic levitation via negative magnetophoresis is a new label-free technology that is important in cell- and tissue-level bioengineering applications. Biofabrication applications of the technology is an area that still needs to be developed. In this doctoral thesis, 3D cellular structures with contrable size and cellular arrangement were formed and cultured with magnetic levitation using bone marrow-derived stem cells in both a miniature system that provides levitation between two magnets and a ring magnet-based large-scale system. First, a miniaturized magnetic levitation system that allows real-time imaging was produced and comprehensive protocols were described for its use for both single-cell level analysis and cell culture. With this setup, complex in situ 3D cellular aggregates were formed and their culture was maintained by levitation. Then, a new system that provides levitation on a single ring magnet was produced and used for biofabrication for the first time to overcome the reservoir volume constraint in the existing system and thus to create larger and symmetrical 3D cellular clusters. With the elimination of the upper limit in the system, the volume of the chamber was increased and the medium and biological structure transfer became easily applicable. It has been shown that this ring magnet-based magnetic levitation setup is suitable for cell culture, formation of millimeter-sized cellular structures with various cell types, and that pre- formed cellular structures can be combined by levitation. The low-cost and easy-to-use systems presented in this thesis have the potential to be applied in many areas such as tissue engineering and drug testing.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Development of Novel Polymeric Carriers for Gene Therapy
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2021) Zelçak, Aykut; Bulmuş Zareie, Esma Volga
    The development of effective delivery systems is a limiting step in gene therapy. In this work, new linear block copolymers and star polymers were synthesized, and their siRNA delivery abilities were investigated. For this aim, diblock copolymers consisting of alternative "stealth" polymer blocks (PEG, P(OEGMA) (Poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate)) or P(OEtOxMA) (Poly(oligo(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) methacrylate))); and same cationic polymer block (P(AEAEMA) (Poly(2-((2-aminoethyl)amino)ethyl methacrylate))), have been prepared via RAFT polymerization or combination of CROP and RAFT polymerizations. Additionally, to demonstrate the effect of polymeric architecture, P(OEGMA)/P(AEAEMA) miktoarm star polymers have also been synthesized via RAFT polymerization. Polymers were characterized by SEC, NMR and DLS. siRNA complexation was investigated by gel electrophoresis, DLS, SEM and TEM. Compared to star polymers, linear block copolymers could bind the siRNA molecules easier and tighter due to their more flexible natures and sterically accessible amine groups. The diameter of star polymer-siRNA complexes at N/P of 50 was found to be approximately 20 nm. Compared to this, linear block copolymers formed smaller particles (≈ 10 nm) at the same N/P ratio. The viability of linear block copolymer-treated cells was found to be 50% or better at the polymer concentration of 5 µM. In contrast, star polymers showed more detrimental effects at the same polymer concentrations. P(OEGMA)43-b-P(AEAEMA)45-siRNA complexes at N/P of 50 were taken up by 63.5% and 74.1% of H460 and Mda-mb-231 cells, respectively. In contrast, P(AEAEMA)40-b-P(OEtOxMA)38 complexes showed much lower uptake profile at the same conditions. Remarkably, P(OEGMA)43-b-P(AEAEMA)45-siRNA complexes showed potent gene silencing effect on Mda-mb-231 cells as shown by luciferase and RT-qPCR assays. Overall, it has been found that "stealth" polymers and polymeric architecture have a very significant effect on siRNA delivery.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Engineering Target Tissue in Lab-On Devices for Predicting Homing Choices of Metastatic Cancer
    (Izmir Institute of Technology, 2020) Batı Ayaz, Gizem; Pesen Okvur, Devrim; Yavuz, Oktay
    The metastatic cascade of cancer results in the extravasation of the tumor to other parts of the body. Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer related deaths. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and lung is one of the organs with the most metastasis. For this reason, it is critical to engineer a tissue microenvironment that includes complex cell-cell interactions with co-culture of endothelial, epithelial and stromal cells, and the invasion and extravasation steps of metastasis can be observed for early diagnosis of metastasis. Vascularization is the critical step for engineering the tissues. The in vitro models used today are insufficient to create the tissue environment closest to in vivo conditions. Recently developed lab-on-a-chip platforms provide suitable environments for mimicking the in vivo structure in tissue engineering studies. In this research: -Different lab-on-a-chip devices fabricated to engineer breast and lung target tissues. -For the first time, epithelial, fibroblast and endothelial cells were tri-cultured and breast and lung tissue environments were engineering with microvasculature. -Different gel, media and cell numbers have been optimized for engineering of breast and lung tissue environments with microvascularization. -Different matrix environments have been optimized to observe invasion and/or extravasation steps separately or together.
  • Doctoral Thesis
    Development of Magnetic Levitation-Based Sensitive Assays
    (01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2020) Yaman, Sena; Tekin, Hüseyin Cumhur; Ergon, Mahmut Cem
    Magnetic levitation (MagLev), in which an object is levitated with no support other than magnetic force and buoyancy force, is a powerful tool employed in many applications regarding the characterization of materials, biosensing of macromolecules, separating of cells, and monitoring of cellular events. Levitation of an object in MagLev depends on magnetic susceptibility and density of that object relative to its surrounding medium. In this thesis, MagLev-based miniaturized and affordable assay formats for biomolecule detection and cell separation were investigated. In this regard, a novel biomarker method detection in MagLev was developed using polymer microspheres as three-dimensional (3D) assay surfaces to capture target proteins and magnetic nanoparticles to label the captured target on the microspheres. Levitation heights of the microspheres conjugated to the protein were distinctly different than those of without protein. Thus, the magnetic susceptibility change of microspheres was precisely measured to convert the levitation height of microspheres into protein concentration. The principle developed for a biotinylated target protein was then investigated by designing sandwich immunoassays using model protein biomarkers: mouse immunoglobulin G and human cardiac troponin I. The developed assays enabled a protein detection range of femtogram-microgram per milliliter. In addition to biomolecule detection, using a lensless holographic microscopy-integrated MagLev platform, three different cell lines, bone marrow stem cells (D1 ORL UVA), breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), and human monocyte cells (U-937), were distinguished based on their density. The results revealed that the methods developed here could contribute to the magnetic MagLev-based sensitive and inexpensive bioanalytical applications.