The Chemistry Division in the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Directorate and the Division of Biological Infrastructure in the Directorate for Biological Sciences support 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 Minnesota-Morris. Undergraduate research occurs under the theme "New Chemical Insights Into Biology" in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University, in the Native American Research Lab, and at Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia. Eight students participate in the ten week REU program on-site at Montana State University, with strong commitment to and preferential admission for Native American students, Tribal College students, and students from small colleges in the upper northwest region of the United States where resources for research are limited. Two Native American students who have already completed a research experience, either at MSU's REU Site or through another research mechanism, perform research in Malaysia.
The objective of this REU program is to introduce students to state-of-the-art instrumentation and frontier research techniques at the chemistry/biology interface. REU projects are designed to use chemical approaches to study biological questions including extremophile responses to stress, mechanisms of action for radical enzymes, native plant natural product chemistry, multivalent intercellular recognition processes, protein structure-function relationships, virus curing agents, hydroxylase reactivity, excited electron states in DNA, chemical sensing materials, and lipid membrane structure and function. 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, and at Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia. The MSU students attend weekly workshops and group meetings. All students participate in video conference group meetings and a poster symposium, and all write a final paper. This REU program allows interdisciplinary research, which uses chemical approaches to address biological problems, to be more accessible to all students including Native Americans students.
