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

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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.