REU Site: Collaborative Research and Education in Agricultural Technology and Engineering (CREATE)

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EEC-0852090P.I. Jean VanderGheynstThe REU Site award, entitled "Collaborative Research and Education in Agricultural Technology and Engineering (CREATE)" will provide undergraduate students with integrated research and educational training in plant sciences, molecular biology and engineering. In this REU program the participants will be involved in cutting edge research areas that address the following major problems facing our nation and the world: 1) Lack of rapid production technologies for vaccine manufacturing; 2) Rising health care costs; 3) Dependence on fossil fuels for energy and chemical feedstocks; and 4) Contaminated soil and groundwater. In order to address these major societal problems, the CREATE program will focus on the development and use of transgenic plants and/or in vitro plant based systems for the production of industrial non-food products, biopharmaceuticals and for bioremediation. This REU program is well structured with a high level of interaction between peers and mentors. The undergraduate students will be part of highly diverse interdisciplinary research teams, made up of faculty and graduate student research mentors, from a variety of disciplines, including Biological Systems Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plant Biology, Plant Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Genetics. In addition to the research activities, REU students will be required take at least one short course offered in plant biotechnology or plant bioprocessing to learn critical experimental methods used in plant biotechnology and to strengthen their research skills. They will also participate in alternating weekly research seminars on the topical themes and on ethics, individual and team presentation challenges, speech and poster development training, seminars and practice modules in pre-graduate preparation and submitting graduate applications, and a faculty-protégé retreat. The program will culminate with a CREATE REU Research Symposium to enable participants to showcase their individual research findings and accomplishments and prepare them for scientific and professional society conference attendance and presentations.The Principal Investigator is committed to recruiting undergraduate participants from underrepresented groups. This REU program will prepare undergraduate students for graduate-level research related to agricultural biotechnology and prepare them to be the research and educational leaders of the future who will help solve society's most pressing problems related to affordable vaccines and therapeutics, energy sustainability and environmental stewardship.Co-funding for this project is provided by the NSF Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI).