Csi undergraduate conference on research, scholarship...

P O S T E R 3 5
Engineering Printed Polymeric
Superhydrophobic Surfaces
Mark Barahman
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alan Lyons
Department of Chemistry
Super-repellent surfaces pose an extraordinary
opportunity for researchers. These surfaces display
very high contact angles and low slip-angles with
liquids. Research groups around the world have
been motivated by the beauty of this phenomenon
and the potential real-world applications of such
coatings. These efforts have concentrated on
creating coatings that exhibit very high roughness
and low surface energy. Such coatings can be
applied to devices for self-cleaning, non-wetting
and anti-icing purposes, and in many fields related
to microfluidics, and fluid transport.
We have been able to fabricate robust, low-cost, and
highly applicable superhydrophobic surfaces and
demonstrate the ability to tune the slip-angle of our
coatings according to need. To achieve very low
slip-angles (easy rolling), we have investigated
introducing a secondary layer of roughness to
printed silicone features.
This surface design is seen in what is perhaps the
most referenced natural superhydrophobic surface,
the lotus leaf (Nelumbo Nucifera), which gives the
plant self-cleaning and water collecting abilities.
A discussion of the cause of this effect based on
contact-angle and slip-angle data, and several
methods of microscopy will be included.
P O S T E R 3 6
Research Poster Presentations
Analysis of Tau Over-Expression in
Breast Cancer Cell Lines
Kristina Toropova, Peter Hannon
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jimmie E. Fata
Department of Biology
The Tau protein is a microtubule-associated protein
that is abundant in neurons of the central nervous
system. It is known to stabilize microtubules by
binding to both their inner and outer surface and is
a critical regulator of chromosomal alignment and
separation during mitosis. Although Tau is
predominantly found expressed in neurons, it is
also ectopically and abnormally expressed in breast
cancer cell lines and tumors. In an effort to better
understand the function of Tau in breast tumors, we
have begun to examine the outcomes of overexpressing
Tau in breast cancer cell lines. Here we
report our findings, which indicate that over
expression of Tau in two breast cancer cell lines
suppresses Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα)induced
cell signaling. Our data has indicated that
Tau can affect both pro-survival and pro-death
outcomes in breast cancer cell lines. These findings
have begun to provide insight into the functional
significance of Tau in breast cancer cell lines may in
turn influence therapeutic modalities.
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