NSF Award
1625841
An award is made to Pace University to acquire a quantitative real-time gene expression monitoring system for use in undergraduate research and teaching. This equipment will support the participation of undergraduate students, with a focus on women and underrepresented minorities, in biological research. Research training utilizing this equipment will allow students to design, execute, and analyze research projects at the cutting edge of biological research in areas that have not yet been fully explored. Additionally, this equipment will allow for the development and testing of a flexible genetics and molecular biology curriculum that is proven to enhance student learning and can be implemented by any institution to facilitate student engagement in discovery-driven research projects.<br/><br/>The students and faculty using this equipment will be answering research questions in a broad range of areas, including how cells divide, how fish and bacteria responds to stress, how viruses survive in the host, and how an organism responds to changes in diet. The answers to these questions will increase students' understanding of basic aspects of ecology, evolution, cancer biology, cell biology, developmental biology, immunology, and microbiology. Moreover, this equipment will support original research to further the understanding of how genes are regulated, thereby providing insight into a variety of biological systems.
