Minority Experience in Biotechnology: A Core Research Facility

在过去的十年中，分子生物学的进步，特别是重组DNA和分子克隆技术，对生物学研究的许多领域产生了巨大而广泛的影响。CSULA的几位教职员工一直在使用这些强大的方法来获得对生物结构和生物过程调节的重要新见解。积极的研究项目探索神经活性肽的产生和释放的调节，发育过程中肌动蛋白基因的表达，枯草芽孢杆菌孢子周期中膜发育的调节，确定仙台病毒突变体中病毒蛋白基因的结构，以建立其生物学特性的分子基础；确定真核细胞中指导病毒出芽方向的分子信号；高等植物亚细胞组织的研究；衣藻线粒体和叶绿体DNA的单代遗传机制；以及对高等植物中磷酸盐饥饿诱导基因表达调控机制的研究在很大程度上依赖于CSULA设备齐全的重组DNA研究设施的基础设施的可用性。目前的设施主要由我们目前授予的RIMI拨款资助，位于这所拥有大量不同少数民族学生的城市大学，正在提供一个卓越的研究中心，促进对少数民族学生的培训，并将成为许多邻近州立大学校园相关工作的重点。本申请要求继续支持这个多用户研究设施，特别是扩大我们开展不同类型组织培养的能力，以及上述个人研究项目。

During the past decade advances in molecular biology, particularly recombinant DNA and molecular cloning technologies, have had dramatic and wide-reaching effects on many fields of biological research. Several members of the faculty at CSULA have been using these powerful methods to gain important new insights into biological structures and regulation of biological processes. Active research programs exploring the regulation of neuroactive peptide production and release, the expression of actin genes during development, the regulation of membrane development during the sporulation cycle of Bacillus subtilis, the structural definition of viral protein genes in mutant Sendai viruses in order to establish the molecular basis of their biological properties, defining the molecular signals for directing the orientation of viral budding in eukaryotic cells, studies of sub-cellular organization in higher plants, mechanisms of uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA in Chlamydomonas, and studies of mechanisms regulating the expression of phosphate starvation-induction of gene expression in higher plants all depend heavily on the availability of the fundamental infrastructure of a well- equipped recombinant DNA research facility at CSULA. The current facility, largely funded by our currently awarded RIMI grant, located at this urban university with its large and diverse minority enrollment, is providing a center of research excellence that promotes training for minority students and will be a focus for related work at the many neighboring State University Campuses. This application requests continued support for this multi-user research facility, particularly for expanding our capacity to carry out diverse types of tissue culture, and for the individual research programs described above.