Sophia's Project Page

Who:  My name is Sophia Blankevoort and I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. In my free time, I enjoy playing classic rock on the piano, jamming out on my ukulele, and finding new music genres and records to fulfill my vinyl addiction. I’m a fan of exploring local cafes and bakeries with my roommate and love to learn new languages.

My engineering interests:  My first experience learning about the specific aspects of engineering was when I attended the summer engineering camps at the University of Utah. One camp that was particularly impactful was “HI-Gear”, which encourages women to pursue a career in a STEM related field and exposes them to the many opportunities that are available to women in engineering. Learning about the role of diversity in STEM fields and the inspiring work of engineers, sparked my interest in engineering. My dad, who worked as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, encouraged my enthusiasm and introduced me to the wonders of robotic space exploration, systems engineering, and the mechanics of spacecraft.

Academic goals:  I am currently pursuing a dual honors degree in engineering and business administration. I came to the U with the intention of majoring in mechanical engineering, but through my experience in Dr. Kramer’s lab and working with Casia Wardzala and the other lab members, I realized my interests align more with a biomedical engineering or materials science major. After graduation, I intend to pursue a graduate degree in business and/or engineering.

Career goals:  I hope to apply both my business and engineering degrees and have experience working in an international institution, where I can apply my love for languages and cultures. In addition, if I attend medical school, I hope to help those with immunocompromised conditions and conduct research on less common conditions.

Mucus is a hydrogel primarily composed of mucin glycoproteins and has important bodily functions such as regulating microbial interactions and acting as a biological lubricant. Mucins are also components of the glycocalyx, a network of complex carbohydrates surrounding the outer covering of cells, and are important in shielding epithelial cells against microbial and viral infection through regulating pathogen binding sites. Part of what gives mucins these functions are bioactive sugars, known as sialic acids, which are important in viral binding and implicated in cancer. Sialic acids are found on the end of glycan chains, sugar chain structures on the ends of glycolipids, glycoproteins, and mucins, and have functions in cell communication and recognition. However, our ability to study these specific sugars in the context of mucins is limited due to the inherent heterogeneity of mucin structures. Our solution to this problem is to use synthetic mucin mimics, where we can emulate native mucins in the body in order to study the direct importance of different sugar groups in a structure-mimicking way.

To synthesize mucin mimics, N-Carboxyanhydride (NCA) Polymerization is used, a process which involves cyclizing an amino acid into an NCA which is then polymerized into a polypeptide. These synthetic mucins can then be modified through two methods of enzymatic glycosylation to attach bioactive sialic acids. These methods are: 1) a single enzyme synthesis with a cytidine 5’-monophosphate (CMP)-sialic acid donor and 2) a one pot, three enzyme synthesis that makes the CMP-Sia in situ. In the single enzyme synthesis, a sialyltransferase catalyzes a reaction with the glycopolypeptides and CMP-Neu5Ac, yielding synthetic mucins with sialic acids in varying positions (α2,3 or α2,6) depending on the sialyltransferase used. Through the one pot, three enzyme synthesis method, three enzymes are involved: sialic acid aldolase, CMP-Sia synthetase, and a sialyltransferase. This method yields 3-4X increase of sialic acid added compared to the single enzyme synthesis method because of reduced CMP-sialic acid hydrolysis.

Sophia Blankevoort Research Poster.pdf Download Sophia Blankevoort Research Poster.pdf