MRI: Launching an undergraduate-driven Genomics Center through acquisition of an Illumina MiSeq

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An Award is made to Occidental College to support the acquisition of a next-generation DNA sequencing system. The Moore Laboratory of Zoology and BioScience building at Occidental College will feature a new Genomics Center and Ancient DNA Lab, which will act as a collaborative hub for faculty and student research in Biology. The new sequencer will enable faculty and undergraduate research in collections-based and marine genomic research that involves specimen of birds, marine invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and a range of other species. Faculty users of the sequencer system will lead semester-long courses to generate data and explore questions in their discipline. Additionally, the sequencer system will enhance a successful and established NSF S-STEM program called COSMOS (Creating Opportunities in Science and Mathematics for Occidental Students), which targets freshman from backgrounds under-represented in STEM.The new sequencer system will be used to advance research in the environmental sciences with particular focus on environmental change through time and urban biodiversity. Specifically, results will elucidate change in North American birds by using the Mexican bird collection at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology, including 49,000 specimens collected at 300 sites across Mexico when habitats were largely intact (1933-1955). The sequencer will also help to advance research on species diversity and evolution of mollusks with the Cosman Shell Collection (110,000 specimens with strengths in Hawaii and the Pacific), as well as evolutionary and ecological questions involving the fish collection of the Vantuna Research Group (15,000 specimens and one of the best collections of the Southern California Bight). Other faculty research enabled by the sequencer includes urban biodiversity genomics on Los Angeles salamanders, parrots, and near-shore rocky-reef fishes, as well as research on Pacific deep-sea symbioses and the evolution of cone snail venom. The results of these studies will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at scientific meetings, and used in public outreach activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.