NSF Award
1531639
An award is made to Fordham University to acquire a liquid-handling robotic platform. This technology automates many tasks that involve precise movement of liquids, and has a modular design for highly flexible incorporation of temperature control, plate readers, and other technologies into standardized multi-step protocols. This liquid-handling robot will mitigate bottlenecks and error rates in data generation for multiple research labs. Faculty based at the Louis Calder Center, Fordham's biological field station, study urban ecology and evolution, human-environment interactions, conservation genomics, and disease ecology in suburban habitats. These studies span many taxonomic groups and habitats, with a special focus on the New York City metropolitan area. The Calder Center is one of only a few field stations located in proximity to a major urban center, and since its founding has supported research in urban and suburban ecology. Acquisition of the liquid-handling robot will support the research mission of the Louis Calder Center and attract additional external users to the station. Calder has an active summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program that will benefit from the ability to quickly generate large datasets. This included nearly 100 participants to date, more than half of whom were underrepresented minorities. Given the 10-week timeframe of these projects, streamlining data collection will facilitate student success. Biology is also now the most popular undergraduate major at Fordham, and the liquid-handling robot will support research by the dozens of undergraduates already working with Calder faculty.<br/><br/>Calder Center faculty investigating the evolutionary consequences of urbanization and global climate change will be core users of the robotic platform. Their research has recently made use of new advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing, bioinformatics, and analytical advances to address questions in their respective fields with datasets of unprecedented size and power (particularly for non-model organisms). Sample / library preparation for population genomic studies is labor intensive. Calder faculty will use population genomic approaches for multiple studies and thousands of samples in the next few years, and will automate several steps using the liquid handling robot. Nearly all procedures require precise quantification of DNA concentration and cleaning with magnetic beads. Automating these steps alone will improve repeatability and shorten time to library completion. A liquid handling robot will mitigate bottlenecks in data generation, as well as unavoidable errors that are inherent to humans doing a repetitive task over a long time period. Acquisition of this device will immediately support the research of a diverse number of PIs, postdocs, graduate students, undergrads, and high school students at the Calder Center.
