Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1909. / MIT copy bound with: The equilibrium of silver nitrite with silver nitrate, metallic silver and nitric oxide and the free energy of some nitrogen compounds / Elliot Quincy Adams. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Harold William Paine. / B.S.

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1964. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-147). / by Robert P. Merrill. / Sc.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2004. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 345-369). / Diseases such as diabetes, some forms of cancer, hyper-tension, auto-immune diseases, and some viral diseases are characterized by complex interactions within the human body. Efforts to understand and treat these diseases have only been partially successful. There is currently a huge commercial and academic effort devoted to computational biology to address the shortfalls of qualitative biology. This research has become relevant due to the vast amounts of data now available from high-throughput techniques such as gene-chips, combinatorial chemistry, and fast gene sequencing. The goal of computational biology is to use quantitative models to test complex scientific hypotheses or predict desirable interventions. Consequently, it is important that the model is built to the minimum fidelity required to meet a specific goal, otherwise valuable effort is wasted. Unlike traditional chemical engineering, computational biology does not solely depend on deterministic models of chemical behavior. There is also widespread use of many types of statistical models, stochastic models, electro-static models, and mechanical models. All of these models are inferred from noisy data. It is therefore important to develop techniques to aide the model builder in their task of verifying and using these models to make quantitative predictions. The goal of this thesis is to develop tools for analysing the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of cell-signaling models. The qualitative behavior of deterministic models is studied in the first part of this thesis and the quantitative behavior of stochastic models is studied in the second part. A kinetic model of cell signaling is a common example of a deterministic model used in computational biology. / (cont.) Usually such a model is derived from first-principles. The differential equations represent species conservation and the algebraic equations represent rate equations and equations to estimate rate constants. The researcher faces two key challenges once the model has been formulated: it is desirable to summarize a complex model by the phenomena it exhibits, and it is necessary to check whether the qualitative behavior of the model is verified by experimental observation. The key result of this research is a method to rearrange an implicit index one DAE into state-space form efficiently, amenable to standard control engineering analysis. Control engineering techniques can then be used to determine the time constants, poles, and zeros of the system, thus summarizing all the qualitative behavior of the system. The second part of the thesis focuses on the quantitative analysis of cell migration. It is hypothesized that mammalian cell migration is driven by responses to external chemical, electrical and mechanical stimulus. It is desirable to be able to quantify cell migration (speed, frequency of turning) to correlate output to experimental conditions (ligand concentration, cell type, cell medium, etc). However, the local concentration of signaling molecules and receptors is sufficiently low that a continuum model of cell migration is inadequate, i.e., it is only possible to describe cell motion in a probabilistic fashion ... / by David Michael Collins. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Sc.D.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1946. / Bibliography: leaves 163-166. / by Te-Hsi Wang. / Sc.D.

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1938. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-147). / by John Moore Andreas. / Sc.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-154). / by Jennifer Lisa Smith. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-195). / by Ramachandran Lakshmanan. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, 2014. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Some pages printed in landscape orientation. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-145). / D-glucaric acid is a naturally occurring compound which has been explored for a plethora of potential uses, including biopolymer production, cancer and diabetes treatment, cholesterol reduction, and as a replacement for polyphosphates in detergents. This molecule was identified in 2004 as a "Top Value-Added Chemical from Biomass" by the U.S. Department of Energy (Werpy and Petersen, 2004), implying that production of D-glucaric acid could be economically feasible if biomass were used as a feedstock. A biosynthetic route to D-glucaric acid from D-glucose has been constructed in E. coli by our group (Moon et al., 2009b), and the goal of this thesis has been to improve the economic viability of this biological production route through improvements to pathway productivity and yield. One part of this thesis involved the application of metabolic engineering strategies towards improving D-glucaric acid productivity. These strategies targeted MIOX, which had been identified previously as the least active pathway enzyme. Directed evolution of MIOX led to the isolation of a 941 bp DNA fragment which increased D-glucaric acid production 65% from a myo-inositol feed. Fusion of MIOX to SUMO, a eukaryotic post-translational protein tag, significantly increased soluble expression and stability, resulting in a 75% increase in D-glucaric acid production from a myo-inositol feed. A second part of this thesis attempted to apply synthetic biology strategies towards improving pathway productivity. Manual, delayed expression of MIOX via time-resolved addition of chemical inducers was shown to improve productivity approximately five-fold. However, inducers are generally too costly for use in industrial production processes, so we attempted to develop genetic circuits which could delay MIOX expression autonomously, eliminating the need for costly chemical inducers. Although the attempts to create robust, controllable genetic timers in this thesis were unsuccessful, these attempts provided significant insight into limitations currently preventing widespread application of synthetic biology devices to metabolic engineering problems. A third part of this thesis explored strain engineering as a strategy for improving the yield of D-glucaric acid on D-glucose. Deletion of pgi and zwf was demonstrated to prevent E. coli from consuming D-glucose as well as eliminate catabolite repression effects in the presence of D-glucose. Finally, both D-glucaric acid productivity and yield were shown to be increased significantly in this [Delta]pgi [Delta]zwf strain. Overall, this thesis reports significant strides towards commercially viable titers of D-glucaric acid as well as interesting avenues of research for further pathway improvements. / by Eric Chun-Jen Shiue. / Ph. D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) is a versatile, one-step process for synthesizing conformal and functional polymer thin films on a variety of substrates. This thesis emphasizes the development of tools to further enable the use of iCVD for industrial applications. The ability to pattern polymer thin films is a prerequisite for device fabrication. Two methods were developed for patterning iCVD polymers. The first technique facilitated patterning of nano- and microscale features of any iCVD thin film on planar surfaces. Retention of polymer functionality was demonstrated by incorporating the features into high-resolution resistive sensors. The second method adapted photolithographic techniques to achieve patterning on highly curved surfaces. Non-planar substrates were coated with a uniform layer of a functionalized, photoreactive iCVD polymer and exposed to ultraviolet light through a flexible mask. Exposed regions became insoluble in a developing solvent. The resolution and sensitivity of this iCVD-based negative photoresist were comparable to those of commercial products. Additionally, the patterned polymer was used as a mask for patterning metal on planar and curved surfaces. iCVD is typically a semi-continuous process. A batch process was investigated in order to minimize the use of expensive and corrosive reactants. The chemical functionality and conformality of the films were unaffected by the change in processing mode. Reaction yield was improved by one to two orders of magnitude for several film chemistries. iCVD is also unique in that it enables the deposition of cross-linked polymer films, which are difficult to create using conventional, solution-based methods. To potentially enhance durability, cross-linked poly(divinylbenzene) and poly(4-vinylpyridine-co-divinylbenzene) films were synthesized via iCVD. This is the first vapor-phase synthesis of the copolymer, which is a major component of many commercial ion exchange membranes. The degree of cross-linking was quantified using spectroscopic methods and was tightly controlled by adjusting the flow rate of divinylbenzene. Corresponding changes in the elastic moduli of the films were confirmed using nanoindentation. The first vapor-phase synthesis of poly(vinyl cinnamate) was also demonstrated. The cross-linking density of this polymer increases upon exposure to ultraviolet light and is readily quantifiable. Vinyl cinnamate was incorporated into a copolymer with N-isopropylacrylamide, yielding a temperature and light-responsive thin film. / by Christy D. Petruczok. / Ph. D.

Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 1935. / MIT copy bound with: The hydroxylation of chlorinated rubber / Faustino Andreoli and Alfred McDonald. / Appendix contains numerous pamphlets. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Michael G. Kelakos & Arthur H. Crowley. / B.S.