Ceratitis capitata or the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) is a highly invasive and destructive pest due to its tolerance of various climatic and environmental conditions as well as broad host range, including hundreds of fruits and vegetables. Medfly has a great economic impact on fruit production, national market and world trade. The population in Lebanon has been on the rise since 2007 due to several factors including optimal climate and host conditions, insecticide resistance, and negligent regulatory and detection measures during fruit harvest and transportation. Medfly infestation in Lebanon ...

The HPG axis interacts with the Sertoli and Leydig cells to ensure the proper functioning of the male reproductive system. Environmental insults, which are becoming increasingly more common, affect the sensitive male reproductive system in harmful ways. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to, analyze a network of the paternally imprinted infertility genes shared between the HPG axis and the Sertoli and Leydig cells. With this network in place, we aimed to develop a cell culture system that would allow the evaluation of the effects of certain environmental contaminants such as mycotoxins on ...

In this work, Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized in water using either polymer assisted chemical reduction synthesis method or green synthesis. The obtained AgNPs were characterized by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), and further tested for antibacterial activity to evaluate their potential use in wound healing. At first polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP 10 KD) and Low-Molecular Weight Chitosan were used as coating agents during the reduction of silver nitrate with a strong reducing agent sodium borohydride (NaBH4). Our DLS results demonstrated that ...

Known as polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), neutrophils have been shown to play a regulatory role in healing injuries and resolving infections. Although the immune response (IR) of neutrophils in bacterial and fungal infections is well understood, their impact during sporozoite infection is much less studied. This project investigates the role of neutrophils in recognizing Plasmodium berghei sporozoites in an effort to understand the mechanism of sporozoites’ IR evasion and spread of malaria infection in the blood circulation. Plasmodium berghei GFP-expressing sporozoites were purified from ...

During recent years, the practice of administering antibiotics to animal feed at sub-therapeutic levels has raised concern with consumers because of the apparent increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the human food chain. Researchers have found that probiotics composed of naturally occurring beneficial live microbes such as bacteria (lactobacilli) could be the novel growth promoters. Supplementing poultry diet with probiotics has been found to improve growth performance, feed conversion efficiency, and immune responses, and help in combating enteric pathogens. The aim of this study is ...