Health Sciences – Page 21 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Health Sciences

Evaluating computational methods for predicting protein stability changes upon mutations

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are central in biological processes. Most proteins are marginally stable to perform their functions such as binding. Amino acid mutations taking place on proteins may change the protein stability and the affinity of a binding process, which further affects their biological functions. It is reported that amino acid mutations at protein-protein interfaces are frequently implicated in many diseases, including cancer. Therefore, it is of great significance to quantitatively predict the change of protein stability and binding affinity upon mutations, denoted as ddG_stability and ddG_binding. Many tools have been developed for ddG prediction, but there is lacking in a comprehensive comparison of their predictive powers. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive accuracy of a variety of widely used tools for ddG_stability and ddG_binding estimation on a large scale benchmark, placing a guidance on choosing the most accurate tool for ddG prediction.

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Active for Life: The effect of a low-intensity functional circuit training program on endurance among COPD patients

Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) often lead inactive lifestyles due to breathing difficulties, and sedentary behavior may worsen both symptoms and mortality. The moderate-to-vigorous-intensity exercises emphasized by most fitness programs are not feasible for patients with COPD, but increasing time of light-intensity exercise may be an effective alternative. In this study, a randomized-controlled trial is used to determine whether a light-intensity fitness program called Active for Life (designed by Principal Investigator [PI] Janet Larson) is effective in improving aerobic endurance among COPD patients in the long term (after 52 weeks). Qualified participants are randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: the Active for Life intervention and the control group. Both groups are guided through physical and behavioral activities with the goal of educating participants about health, but the Active for Life group is focused on functional circuit training (FCT), while the control group involves chair-based movement. All participants undergo ten weeks of lab-based activities according to treatment group, followed by one year of follow-up appointments and self-paced at-home videos. Aerobic endurance is measured by distance walked during the six-minute walk test at baseline, ten weeks, three months, six months, and one year into the program. We hypothesize that engaging participants in the Active for Life program will increase distance walked during the six-minute walk test.

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The Effects of Out-of-Pocket Payments on Emergency and Trauma Surgery Patients’ Livelihoods

Every year, 3 million US residents suffer from injuries leading to needing medical care. The trauma care system has greatly improved saving lives from the time of injury, but many patients are left with out-of-pocket (OOP) payments whether or not they had insurance coverage. We do not know what the burden of these OOP payments are, including the long term financial, mental, and physical impact. The specific aims of this study are to 1) measure the OOP payments for patients who had an emergency surgical procedure, 2) quantify whether these OOP payments change on average by the type of insurance a patient has (private, Medicaid, Medicare, uninsured), and 3) understand the hardship caused by OOP payments for these emergency surgical procedures on the patient and their family. This study reports the findings from in-depth qualitative interviews of 30 patients =18 years of age sustaining a traumatic injury requiring treatment at the University of Michigan Hospital trauma center. We expect our mixed-methods analysis to elucidate the downstream effects of large OOP payments not otherwise able to be captured in available databases. Our findings will be one of the first to describe the long-term burden of trauma care and estimate the out-of-pocket payments trauma patients face from patient-level data.

The Effects of Out-of-Pocket Payments on Emergency and Trauma Surgery Patients’ Livelihoods Read More »

The Effects of Out-of-Pocket Payments on Emergency and Trauma Surgery Patients’ Livelihoods

Every year, 3 million US residents suffer from injuries leading to needing medical care. The trauma care system has greatly improved saving lives from the time of injury, but many patients are left with out-of-pocket (OOP) payments whether or not they had insurance coverage. We do not know what the burden of these OOP payments are, including the long term financial, mental, and physical impact. The specific aims of this study are to 1) measure the OOP payments for patients who had an emergency surgical procedure, 2) quantify whether these OOP payments change on average by the type of insurance a patient has (private, Medicaid, Medicare, uninsured), and 3) understand the hardship caused by OOP payments for these emergency surgical procedures on the patient and their family. This study reports the findings from in-depth qualitative interviews of 30 patients =18 years of age sustaining a traumatic injury requiring treatment at the University of Michigan Hospital trauma center. We expect our mixed-methods analysis to elucidate the downstream effects of large OOP payments not otherwise able to be captured in available databases. Our findings will be one of the first to describe the long-term burden of trauma care and estimate the out-of-pocket payments trauma patients face from patient-level data.

The Effects of Out-of-Pocket Payments on Emergency and Trauma Surgery Patients’ Livelihoods Read More »

Computational design of Raf-based protein binders to inhibit mutant Ras-Raf interactions

Designing proteins in an attempt to create treatments for illnesses is a cutting-edge area of research and has limitless possibilities in the field of medicine. One particular area of illness that could benefit from the protein design is cancer. Cancer occurs when there is a mutation in the genetic sequence that codes for a protein and, when produced by a cell, this mutated protein behaves abnormally in the form of loss of function, a gain of a new function, or hyperactivity. One of the leading ideas for treating cancer is the specific targeting of misbehaving proteins in an attempt to eliminate or correct their behavior. To accomplish this, new programs need to be developed to predict and design the structure of a folded protein and isolate protein-protein interactions that can be used to target the protein in question. This research project uses newly developed prediction programs, EvoDesign and EvoEF2, to design the novel structure of one of the proteins in a protein-protein interaction relevant to cancer and found in nature. The programs aim to accomplish this using energy functions and evolutionary patterns. For this study, an analysis was done on an oncogenic Ras mutant, and novel interacting partner protein sequences based on the native Raf scaffold were designed using EvoEF2. The designed protein partners were then compared to the native one. The analysis showed that the designed partners of this study had greater binding affinities for the mutant Ras sequence than the native partner did, and all protein-protein interactions with the designed partners were more energetically favorable than the native protein-protein interactions. Wet lab testing would be required to test the feasibility and binding of some of the best (most favorable) designs.

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Identification of Cell Types in scRNA-seq Data Using Machine Learning Algorithm

Adam Tisch Research Mentor(s): Fadhl Alakwaa, Research investigator Research Mentor School/College/Department: Neurology Department, Michigan Medicine Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021 Session: Session 2 (11am – 11:50am) Breakout Room: Room 17 Presenter: 4 Event Link Abstract For privacy concerns this abstract cannot be published at this time. Authors: Adam Tisch, Fadhl Alakwaa, Stephen Blough Research

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Identification of Cell Types in scRNA-seq Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Stephen Blough Research Mentor(s): Fadhl Alakwaa, Research investigator Research Mentor School/College/Department: Neurology Department, Michigan Medicine Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021 Session: Session 2 (11am – 11:50am) Breakout Room: Room 17 Presenter: 4 Event Link Abstract For privacy concerns this abstract cannot be published at this time. Authors: Fadhl Alakwaa, Adam Tisch, Stephen Blough Research

Identification of Cell Types in scRNA-seq Using Machine Learning Algorithms Read More »

Understanding the Social Determinants of Health in Medical and Surgical Care

Although the term social determinants of health (SDOH) has been in the social science literature for several years now, SDOH are a relatively new concept in the field of medicine, and more specifically, in surgery. Researchers are just beginning to develop an understanding on how SDOH applies to surgical patients. This literature review aggregates known research on what has already been published on SDOH in surgical care by way of a systematic literature review. Multiple peer-reviewed journal aggregation sites, including PubMed, were used to gather our results. We are currently solidifying our search terms and will be embarking on the systematic literature review process. Finalizing our search terms has provided our team valuable information on how to better narrow our research question, but also it has allowed us to be thoughtful in methods and structure. As a literature review of this type has not been published prior, it is critical that the finalized search terms capture the pertinent articles discussing SDOH within surgical care. By better understanding how SDOH impacts surgical patients, clinicians and policy makers will have more tools in their toolbox to improve patient outcomes to those most affected.

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The effects of Covid-19 on essential workers’ mental health

The topic of my research is to examine symptoms of anxiety and depression in participants from The Study of Adolescent to Adult Neural Development (SAND) during Covid-19. My research question is has mental health deteriorated among SAND participants since the start of Covid-19, and if so for what groups (ex. groups that have previously exhibited symptoms for depression)? For my UROP research project, I compared the mean depression scores from the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI) for young adults and primary caregivers (PCGs) during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UROP research project, I examined the depression scores of young adults and PCGs that are categorized as essential workers and comparing them to the depression scores of non-essential workers. In this context, an essential worker’s job is defined as first line work such as grocery store workers or nurses. The hypothesis I tested was whether among employed young adults and PCGs, young adults and PCGs who are essential workers will have worse symptoms for depression (which means a higher score on the BDI scale). This question aims to test whether this hypothesis is true in the context of the SAND study.

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MyVoice- Examining the Relationship between Youth Health and spending time in Nature

Purpose: Both physical and mental health issues among youth have been on the rise, yet there still is a challenge in how to combat this growing problem that is damaging the overall health of the younger generation. Methods: In order to get youth’s perspectives, the MyVoice team fielded a series of 4 open ended text message questions designed to gauge the opinions of the youth (ages 14-24) on the impact of nature on their health. Once the data was collected, it was coded and frequency of codes were summarized. Results: From this, it was found that 51.6% of youth stated that being in nature helped them feel at peace or more calm (“I always feel calm when I am in nature”) while 22.1% stated that it improved their mental state by calming their anxieties or stress (“It reduces my anxiety”); however, the data also showed that over 20% of youth claimed that they were unable to spend as much time in nature due to other engagements that limited their ability to go into nature as much as they would have liked (“My busy schedule doesn’t allow me.”) Overall, the youth polled agreed that being in nature improved both their physical and mental health. Conclusion: Using this information, policy makers can help youth spend more time in nature by promoting accessible and safe outside areas for recreation.

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