FSML: Molecular Biology Core Facility for Grice Marine Laboratory

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A grant has been awarded to Drs. Craig Plante and Louis Burnett at the College of Charleston to establish a core facility for molecular/genomic research at the Grice Marine Laboratory. The Grice Marine Laboratory (GML) serves as the primary facility in support of the undergraduate and the graduate programs in marine biology of the College of Charleston and the University of Charleston, SC. As the College of Charleston student population has rapidly grown to over 9500, the size of the Biology Department has increased from 20 to 32 faculty since 1993. Reflecting the department's goal to offer more opportunities for research to its undergraduates, research success has been emphasized in these recent hirings to a greater extent than in the past. Consequently, the scope and scale of research has expanded over the past decade, requiring a higher level of methodological sophistication. These shifts have necessitated the use of more contemporary protocols, including modern molecular approaches. This modernization will allow the GML to better fulfill its mission to support undergraduate and graduate student education; acquire and disseminate knowledge about marine organisms, processes, and environmental issues; and encourage collaborative interdisciplinary marine research among academic and other marine research facilities. Acquisition of an automated DNA sequencer, image analysis system, thermal cyclers, PCR work station and additional versatile equipment will make available new and exciting capabilities for scientists and students at the College of Charleston and beyond. Projects of the nine resident GML faculty and their students include study of microbial diversity in marine sediments, molecular mechanisms of immune responses in fish and shrimp, patterns of paternity in sea turtles, antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria in aquaculture, and phylogenetic studies of marine invertebrates and fish.This shared-use facility will benefit faculty and student research, undergraduate and graduate students, and a broader group of visiting scientists and summer interns at the GML. Furthermore, these resources will be available to our partners in the larger community at the Fort Johnson research complex, which includes scientists at the laboratories of the South Carolina Marine Resources Research Institute, the Marine Biomedical and Environmental Studies Program of the Medical University of South Carolina, and the Charleston laboratories of the National Ocean Service and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.