This award from the Division of Chemistry (CHE) and the Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI) at the National Science Foundation supports a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site led by Professor Mary J. Cloninger at Montana State University (MSU) and Professor Ruben M. Ceballos at the University of Montana. Undergraduate research will occur primarily in the following areas of chemical biology: activity based protein profiling, radical reactions in biology, antimicrobial materials, cardiac mitochondrial functions, protein-small molecule interactions, protein structure-function relationships, enzymology, metabolomics, bioinspired nanoreactors, neurotransmitter receptor, biofuel production, and membrane biology. These areas are all the focus of current research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University, in the Native American Research Lab at the University of Montana, and at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Most participants will conduct ten weeks of research in Montana and will attend weekly workshops and group meetings to learn about state of the art instrumentation and methods for chemical biology. These students, especially the Native American students, will have the option of working the entire summer at MSU or in the Native American Research Lab at the University of Montana, or distributing their time between both locations. In addition, two Native American students who already have research experience will spend four weeks in Montana and six weeks in Thailand. All students will participate in a daylong symposium, will write a final paper, and will present a poster about their research.
The REU Site is committed to working with Native American students, students from regional tribal colleges, and students from small Montana and regional colleges with limited resources. The partnership of Montana State University, the Native American Research Lab at the University of Montana, and Chiang Mai University in Thailand will allow research in chemical biology to be more accessible to all students, including Native American students.
