CAYEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE - BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM

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Cayey University College is an undergraduate teaching institution with limited research activities. To improve the quality of the biomedical research and to stimulate the active participation of faculty members and students in research activities we want to initiate the MBRS Grant Program. The Program has these major goals: 1) to develop professionally our faculty members to make them competitive biomedical research scientists, 2) to expose undergraduates to biomedical research and thereby motivate them to pursue research careers and, 3) to improve the overall quality of the academic programs by developing an appropriate setting in which research and teaching activities can best be accomplished. To achieve the proposed goals we are requesting funds for the acquisition of instrumentation and technical assistance. Additional funds are requested for the enrichment activities which will include seminars by guest speakers, workshops, and off-campus research experiences for students and faculty members that would motivate and encourage both faculty and students to enter biomedical research activities or careers. Since the College does not have at the present moment the facilities for multi-disciplinary research activites, we decided to start the program with a pilot study and a research project in the biomedical field. The research project is in the area of cell biology and involves the study of the intracellular distribution of hsp 70, the major protein induced by heat stress in Tetrahymena. The pilot study is in the area of developmental biology and will study the effect of factors such as photoperiod conditions on the activity and amount of N-acetylglucosaminidase, which is an enzyme related to limb regeneration in the newt Notophthalmus viridescens.