Undergraduate Research Program in Biochemistry

Craney提案#DBI-9988059这份来自西方生物化学项目的提案将在三年内每年为八名本科生提供暑期研究体验，其中一半将从社区大学招聘。许多将被联系的社区大学都有非常多的少数族裔学生，这项提议的一个特别重点是鼓励和使这些少数族裔学生参与该计划，从而增加他们攻读生物化学学位的机会。西方学院之前13年的社区大学生参加化学暑期研究项目的经验表明，这些学生通常很少或根本没有机会在当地机构体验科学研究的兴奋。西方学院长期以来一直在本科生研究方面处于领先地位。生物化学课程由生物系和化学系的教员共同管理。这些系在许多本科生研究类别中排名很高，这一优势将为拟议的项目做出贡献。在化学系社区大学生参与的前13年本科研究项目中获得的经验得到了十项全国性默克科学创新奖()之一的认可，这是美国国家科学基金会特别创造力奖(1994年)，为国家科学基金会-AIRE奖(1998年)和HHMI奖(1996年)做出了贡献。该项目在西方大学取得的成功有据可查，这有力地表明，这一提议将对学生参与者产生重大影响。此外，正如过去所证明的那样，来自REU计划的支持对于从私人来源获得更多的社区大学计划的支持是至关重要的。学生们将致力于以下正在进行的项目：(1)人红细胞葡萄糖-6-磷酸脱氢酶二聚体(G6PD)的动力学研究；(2)细菌捕食者--蜈蚣弧菌捕食的分子遗传学；(3)磷脂膜的生物物理研究；(4)小鼠/人类嵌合重链对免疫球蛋白VDJ重排的调节；(5)依赖PQQ的可溶性葡萄糖脱氢酶(SGDH)的研究；Ryanodine受体(RyR)钙通道的分子进化。

ABSTRACT Craney Proposal # DBI - 9988059This proposal from Occidental's Biochemistry Program will provide a summer research experience for eight undergraduates per year for three years, half of whom will be recruited from community colleges. Many of the community colleges that will be contacted have very large minority student populations, and a special thrust of this proposal is to encourage and enable these minority students to participate in the program and thus enhance their opportunity to pursue a degree in biochemistry. Occidental College's previous thirteen-year experience with community college students working in a summer research program in chemistry suggests these students generally have little or no opportunity to experience the excitement of scientific research at their local institution.Occidental College has long held a position of leadership in undergraduate research. The Biochemistry Program is jointly administered by faculty from both the Biology and Chemistry Departmepts. These departments are highly ranked in a number of undergraduate research categories and this strength will contribute to the proposed project. The experience gained in the previous thirteen-year undergraduate research program involving community college students in the Chemistry Department was recognized by one of the ten nationwide Merck Science Innovation Awards (1989), an NSF Special Creativity Award (1994), contributed to a NSF-AIRE award (1998) and a HHMI award (1996). The well-documented success of the program at Occidental strongly suggests this proposal will have a significant impact on the student participants. Furthermore, as demonstrated in the past, support from the REU program has been crucial in gaining additional support for the community college program from private sources.Students will work on the following on-going projects: (1) Kinetic Studies of Human Erythrocyte Glucose-6-phosphate Dehydrogenase Dimers (G6PD); (2) Molecular genetics of predation by the bacterial predator, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus; (3) Biophysical Studies on Phospholipid Membranes; (4) Regulation of Immunoglobulin VDJ Rearrangement by a Mouse/Human Chimeric Heavy Chain; (5) Study on PQQ-dependent soluble glucose dehydrogenase (sGDH); and (6) Molecular Evolution of Ryanodine Receptor (RyR) Calcium Channels.