School of Science Division of Life Science 21 DNA Replication-initiation Proteins in Budding Yeast Supervisor: LIANG, Chun / LIFS Student: ZHANG, Cancan / BCB Course: UROP1100, Fall UROP2100, Spring The Nucleolar Complex Associated Protein 3 (Noc3p) has been proven to serve various functions in eukaryotic cells. One of the significant pathways is its involvement in the formation of the pre-replicative complex(pre-RC). In this study, sucrose gradient sedimentation analysis was applied to investigate the role of Noc3p in pre-RC formation. Two temperature-sensitive strain of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, or budding yeast, noc3-1-ribo and noc3-3-rep, was grown at 25℃ and 37℃, respectively, and synchronized in the G1 phase before analysis. The results indicate that under the restrictive temperature, ORC dimerization, MCM loading, MCM dimerization and pre-RC formation did not occur in the noc3-3-rep strain, while it did in the noc3-1-ribo strain. This suggests that different mutants of Noc3p, have varying degrees of proficiency in cellular processes such as DNA replication, and that Noc3p plays a critical role in DNA replication by participating in pre-RC assembly. Chinese Herbal Medicine for General Health Supervisor: LIANG, Chun / LIFS Student: LAU, Yuen Ying / CHEM Course: UROP1100, Spring Hesperidin, a chemical composition of a Chinese herbal medicine, Chenpi, is under the spotlight owing to the recent report on its ability to inhibit obesity diseases. Research shows that it could prevent obesity by improving the metabolism in our bodies, implying its potential on maintaining health. In this project, Human hepatoma HepG2 cells were selected to study the effect of hesperidin. The WST-1 assay is used to determine the cell viability with varying concentrations of hesperidin added to the HepG2 cells. The final result suggested that hesperidin could inhibit the growth of hepatoma cells, the effect increases with higher concentration of hesperidin. Further investigation into the inhibitory mechanism and the optimal concentration is needed. Chinese Herbal Medicine for General Health Supervisor: LIANG, Chun / LIFS Student: MOK, Ngai Tang / BIBU Course: UROP1100, Fall To investigate a potential alternative to the popular Metformin for treating insulin resistance in diabetes, two Chinese herbal medicine Anemarrhena asphodeloides and Ganoderma lucidum compared with Metformin on their effects on cell viability (safety) and glucose (effectiveness) uptake through WST-1 assay, protein assay and glucose uptake assay. HepG2 cells were used as a model for treating insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes patients. It was found out that both A. asphodeloides and G. lucidum at concentration between 10-300μg/mL is safe to use as treatment. In the glucose uptake assay, it is learned that A. asphodeloides at 300μg/mL resulted in the highest glucose uptake, while that drug and G. lucidum in other concentrations demonstrates less significant results. A. asphodeloides at 300μg/mL resulted in the highest glucose, indicating that A. asphodeloides at 300μg/mL has the potential to be used in treating type 2 diabetics, given further research.
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