School of Science Division of Life Science 28 Application of Chinese Medicine in Cosmetics Supervisor: TSIM, Karl Wah Keung / LIFS Student: ZHOU, Ruiting / BISC Course: UROP1000, Summer During this one-and-a-half-month program, cosmetic applications surrounding edible bird nests and Tremella fuciformis were tested. A number of experiments are performed, including cell culturing, RNA extraction, and protein assays. For an experiment to proceed, cell lines must always be cultured first. Following that, RNA is extracted from cells to determine the changes in DNA expression. In addition, protein assays are used to determine how the medicine affects the expression of a target gene in cells. The purpose of these experiments was to test edible bird nests for their whitening properties and the antioxidant properties of the Tremella fuciformis in cosmetics. Furthermore, verify whether Tremella drugs affect enzyme expression or only enzyme activity in cells. Mechanistic Investigation of Mitochondrial Quality Control Supervisor: WANG, Lan / LIFS Student: CHIU, Chung Wah / BIOT Course: UROP1000, Summer Mitochondria are essential organelles universal to all eukaryotes. They possess their own genome distinct from the nucleus. Some proteins in mitochondria are encoded by the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) while others are localized to the mitochondria from other cellular compartments. The balancing of protein homeostasis in mitochondria is indispensable for the normal functioning of various biological processes, such as the generation of energy and the maintenance of proper localization of membrane proteins. To investigate the mechanism of quality control of mitochondria at a molecular level, the first and foremost step is to isolate mitochondria from cells. Here we report the results of mitochondria purification under different conditions. Mechanistic Investigation of Mitochondrial Quality Control Supervisor: WANG, Lan / LIFS Student: KIM, Jimin / BIOT Course: UROP1100, Fall Protein ATAD1 in humans recognizes mislocalized proteins in the mitochondrial outer membrane and extracts them. The removed proteins are then targeted to the original destination or get degraded, maintaining mitochondrial proteostasis. EGFP-Gos28 and EGFP-Pex26 sequence mutants were designed by adding short positive sequences to the C terminal of the protein mimicking the mitochondrial proteins with the aim of mislocalization to the mitochondria. Confocal microscopy was used to visualize the mislocalization of these mutants and whether the proteins were removed after the introduction of ATAD1, identifying possible substrates of ATAD1.
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