MRI-R2: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Novel Microbe Characterization by Undergraduate Researchers

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。 NSF MRI-R2 项目的支持使莱康明学院获得了用于识别细菌种类的微生物 ID 系统、高性能液相色谱仪以及自动酶标仪和培养箱的组合。这些系统能够表征和描述本科研究人员发现的新微生物物种，使这些生物体能够添加到国际微生物培养物保藏中心，作为全世界科学家使用的生物资源。由此产生的数据将改善淡水生态系统等环境中微生物生物多样性的记录，包括原始溪流、已受损的溪流以及处于不同恢复阶段的溪流。研究经验将激励和激励许多来自宾夕法尼亚州中部农村地区在该学院学习的第一代大学生。教学方法将在本科教育工作者会议和每年在莱康明学院举行的高中教师研讨会上提出，以促进目前成为指导本科微生物学研究人员的新型微生物表征瓶颈的最后步骤。 研究结果将发表在同行评审期刊上，并由学生和教师在地区和国家会议上展示。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Support from the NSF MRI-R2 program allowed Lycoming College to acquire a microbial ID system for the identification of bacterial species, a high performance Liquid Chromatograph, and a combination automated microplate reader and incubator. These systems enable characterization and description of novel microbial species, discovered by undergraduate researchers, allowing the organisms to be added to international microbial culture collections that serve as biological resources used by scientists throughout the world. The resulting data will improve documentation of microbial biodiversity in environments such as freshwater ecosystems, including pristine streams, streams that have been damaged, and those that are in various stages of recovery. The research experience will inspire and motivate the many first generation college students from rural central Pennsylvania studying in the college. Teaching methodologies will be presented in conferences for undergraduate educators, and at a High School teacher workshop, held annually at Lycoming College, facilitating the final steps that currently form a bottleneck in novel microbe characterization for faculty mentoring undergraduate microbiology researchers. Results from the studies will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented by students and faculty at regional and national meetings.