This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Delaware INBRE Annual Progress Report (APR) 2006 Grant No. 2P20RR016472-2006 Undergraduate Research Experience Core Core Directors: Dr. Lisa Plowfield, UD School of Nursing Ms. Jeanette Miller, DBI Research Administrator Dr. Cliff Robinson, UD Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry Core Objective: To strengthen the biomedical research skills of undergraduates by involving them in faculty research. School of Nursing Undergraduate Research The School of Nursing offered NURS362: Research Concepts in Healthcare both during Fall 2005 and Spring 2006 semesters. During the Fall, 76 undergraduate nursing students were enrolled; 25 are enrolled for the Spring 2006 semester. All students participated in nursing faculty research activities. A total of 7 faculty researchers led small group research initiatives. As a result of this type of activity, nine posters have been accepted at an annual regional nursing research conference sponsored by the Delaware Nurses Association and Schools of Nursing honor societies. The following list identifies the projects on which students served as research assistants: A woman s sexual orientation: A determinant of gynecological practices. (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Carolee Polek) Role of sexual orientation in seeking healthcare. (Faculty sponsor: Dr. Carolee Polek) Comparison of upper arm and forearm automatic, noninvasive blood pressures in college students. (Faculty sponsor: Kathy Schell) A survey of job enjoyment in direct-care registered nurses with baccalaureate degrees and non baccalaureate degrees. (Faculty sponsor: Linda Bucher) Perceptions of instructor caring: Qualitative analysis of caring and non-caring vignettes. (Faculty sponsor: Gail Wade) A pilot study of predictors of intensive exercise among college students. (Faculty sponsors: Erlinda Wheeler & Paula Klemm) The link between risk taking and drug use at college. (Faculty sponsor: Tom Hardie) Siblings perceptions of diabetes and its treatment. (Faculty sponsor: Judy Herrman) The effect of average hours worked on nurse job enjoyment. (Faculty sponsor: Karen Avino) A literature review of unmet needs of older hospitalized patients. (Faculty sponsor: Diane Mick) Student evaluation responses were a mix of positive and negative. Those students who reported a negative experience noted difficulty understanding how a nursing research course would be beneficial to them in a nursing practice career and that the time-intensive nature of research process was not satisfactory to them. Student responses who noted a positive experience reported working with faculty on actual research projects was beneficial, group process was important, and a benefit of participating in research outcomes of poster presentations and publications. Faculty were asked to respond to a survey about these undergraduate student-related research experiences. (Six of seven faculty responded to the survey.) Faculty reported that students assisted in the following types of research activities literature reviews; human subjects approval; data collection support that included informing agencies and potential subjects of the study, survey distribution, and recruitment of subjects; and data analysis via data entry, data cleaning and data audits. All faculty reported that their own research programs were supported by the assistance of the students and the majority of faculty and students submitted abstracts for presentation. Five of the six faculty who responded reported they would continue to participate in this activity. One faculty member perceived that leading the group of students was too labor intensive even though she had significant support and progress of her research. Overall, faculty were highly positive and expressed the desire for this type of undergraduate research activity to continue. The faculty funded to lead this initiative submitted and have been accepted to present this undergraduate initiative at a large international nursing research conference. Drs. Erlinda Wheeler and Thomas Hardie will present Supporting an Embryonic Research Environment for Faculty with Undergraduate Research Students at the Sigma Theta Tau International Research Conference in Summer 2006. To date, 101 students have either completed or are enrolled in an undergraduate course that increases students participation in research, 10 regional poster presentations of student research, and 1 international paper presentation are outcomes of the undergraduate research initiative in nursing. Summer Undergraduate Research Internships Overview: The Delaware INBRE grant supported twenty-three undergraduate research interns in a ten-week program conducted June 6-August 12, 2005. All INBRE students participated in a three-session seminar series on clinical and translational research and research ethics, hosted by INBRE partner Christiana Care Health System. The program required students to work forty hours per week at their research assignments, and to prepare a poster or talk for an end of summer research symposium, hosted by the University of Delaware through a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Each student was also provided a stipend, housing allowance, and when needed, transportation to required events. A number of students will continue their research projects during the academic year, and will present at poster sessions at national meetings. Institutions Involved: All five Delaware INBRE partner institutions participated in the program, as host research sites or as a source of students. This year featured an increased number of cross-institutional assignments, with nine interns (39%) conducting research at an institution other than their home institutions. During the placement process, students were asked to describe their areas of scientific interest, to review faculty research descriptions and to suggest up to four labs of interest throughout the INBRE network. Whenever possible, students were placed in one of their labs of choice. Some thirty network faculty were involved, either as research mentors or in selecting student participants from their respective institutions. For the first time in a Delaware IDeA program, the group included nursing faculty and students from the University of Delaware and Wesley College. Jeanette Miller, Research Administrator, Delaware Biotechnology Institute provided student placement and program oversight. Student Data: The diverse student group included 60% women and 30% underrepresented students (five African-American and two Hispanic students). Interns were sophomores, juniors and seniors in baccalaureate life and health science majors, including biology, chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, and nursing. Research interns also included three students involved in the two-year histotechnician program at Delaware Technical & Community College. To be candidates for an internship, students were required to have a minimum GPA of 3.00. Program Evaluation: Interns completed evaluations at the conclusion of the internship. Students reported that the internship was a very positive experience, which in many instances confirmed or catalyzed a student s interest in a biomedical research career. Students often reported that the internship developed or gave them confidence in some of their own skills: that they could function as a member of a lab team; that they could develop a deep understanding of a scientific project and talk about it to other scientists, which they had the opportunity to do at the end-of-summer research symposium. All INBRE students prepared scientific posters, and two INBRE students were invited to give symposium talks during the August 10, 2005 event. INBRE students also present their research at other venues, including at the Delaware INBRE EAB meeting, which took place September 19-20, 2005. Students are encouraged to apply to national meetings that host undergraduate researchers, such as the NIGMS Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Atlanta in November 2005. INBRE assisted three students in attending this conference. One INBRE intern (a rising senior) was offered a part-time job after summer, and was awarded an academic scholarship of $16,000 for the coming school year, an award facilitated by her internship mentors. Delaware INBRE Summer 2005 Undergraduate Research Intern Projects Purification of Euglandina and Helix DNA for Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene (Debra Barninger, Wesley College and Melissa A. Harrington, Delaware State University Department of Biological Sciences) Are Smoking Cessation Classes Beneficial or Ineffective Within a Lung Cancer Screening Program (Jamie Bartsch, Wesley College Department of Nursing; Barbara Marconi, Angela Steele-Tilton, James Lally, & Thomas Bauer, Christiana Care s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center) Smoking Cessation: An Opportunity to Have an Impact (Ashley Cephas, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences and Thomas L. Bauer, Christiana Care s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center) Anabolic Steroid Use Found among Teenage Physical/Sexual Abuse Victims with Longitudinal Trends (Julie M. Cullen & Thomas L. Hardie, University of Delaware School of Nursing) Development of a Laboratory Test for Unconditioned and Conditioned Fear: Light conditions and Test Duration Determines Pattern of Behavior toward Predator Odor (Cameron Davis, Delaware State University Department of Biology and Jeffrey Rosen, University of Delaware Department of Psychology) Spontaneous Baroreflex Sensitivity is Not Effected by an Acute Sodium Load (Kathleen M. DiBiase, University of Delaware School of Nursing; E.E. Paul, M.M. Wenner, A.V. Prettyman, M.E.Stillabower, M.D, & W.B. Farquhar, University of Delaware Department of Health and Exercise Sciences & Christiana Care Health Services) 3D Visualization of Volumetric Data (Allen Huang, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences and Karl V. Steiner, Delaware Biotechnology Institute) The Negative Predictive Value of Preoperative Combined CT and PET Scans on Diagnosing N2 Lymph Node Involvement in Lung Carcinoma (Andrew M. Farach, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences and Nancy Stewart, D. Bruce Panasuk, & Thomas L. Bauer, Christiana Care s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center) Haptic Interaction with Spring-Net Model 3D Data (Robert Forstrom & Raymond Chen, University of Delaware Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Karl V. Steiner, Delaware Biotechnology Institute) Risk Assessment for Lyme Disease in the State of Delaware (Xylene Graves, Arnold Omondi, Kathleen Curran, and Lynn Everett,Wesley College Department of Biology) Use of Bioinformatics Approaches to Identify Novel Cancer Biomarkers (Monica L. Holland, Delaware Technical & Community College; Ben Rohe, and Mary C. Farach-Carson, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences) Histotechnology: Technical Procedures (Joanne M. Kramer, Delaware Technical & Community College and Robert A. Sikes, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences) Cholesterol Depletion of Adipocytes and its Affect on LXR Target Genes (Marysol Lavander, Delaware Technical & Community College; John David & David Usher, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences) An Intervention Study: A Clinical Comparison of the Rectal Trumpet and Fecal Collector in Acutely Ill Patients with Fecal Incontinence (Elizabeth Leary and Linda Bucher, University of Delaware School of Nursing) Microarray Analysis in Mammalian Systems Using Oligonucleotides for Gene Editing (Harvard College; Luciana Ferrara, Hetal Parekh-Olmedo, & Eric B. Kmiec, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences and Delaware Biotechnology Institute) Correlation of the Rates of Solvolysis of IsopropylSulfonyl Chloride and 2,2,2-Trifloroethanesulfonyl Chloride (Stacey L. Mlynarski, Lamia Yaakoubd, & Malcolm J. D Souza, Wesley College; Dennis N. Kevill, Northern Illinois University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) Study of Molecular Interactions Between Cassava and Begomoviruses Infecting Cassava (Patricia Nugent, Chowda Reddy, Christian Felton, Mastingor Desir, Vincent Fondong Delaware State University Molecular, Cellular and Organismal Biology Department) The Effect of SC-2-71 on Angiogenesis in a Mouse Model (Jonathan Odle, Delaware Technical & Community College; Vesi Cooke, Ulhas Naik, Robert A. Sikes, Claire Jacklin, Michelle Hart, & Carlton R. Cooper, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences) BioExplorer An Immersive Tool for the real-time Exploration of three-dimensional Biomedical Datasets (Patrick Ruff, University of Delaware Department of Computer and Information Sciences and Karl V. Steiner, Delaware Biotechnology Institute) Characteristics of Individuals who Undergo Bariatric Surgery: A Review of the Database (Erin Schonewolf and Dr. Erlinda Wheeler, University of Delaware School of Nursing) Marek s Disease Meq Oncogene Regulation of the Host Gene Interferon (Sean Sheridan, Wesley College and Carl J. Schmidt, University of Delaware Department of Animal and Food Sciences) The Effect of G-rich Oligonucleotides on the Inhibition of Huntingtin Protein Aggregation (Michael Skogen, Hetal Parekh-Olmedo, Eric B. Kmiec, University of Delaware Department of Biological Sciences and Delaware Biotechnology Institute) Correlation of the Rates of Solvolysis of Phenylmethanesulfonyl Chloride (Lamia Yaakoubd, Stacey L. Mlynarski, & Malcolm J. D Souza, Wesley College Department of Chemistry and Dennis N. Kevill, Northern Illinois University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) New Undergraduate Laboratory Course at University of Delaware Chemistry 467-011/CHEG 467-011 (Biochemistry and Biotechnology Laboratory) Dr. Cliff Robinson, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Dr. Anne Skaja Robinson, Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a new undergraduate laboratory course in Biochemistry and Bioengineering as part of the INBRE funding. No such course has existed previously on the UD campus, and demand is great. Undergraduates in Biochemistry are required to take 6 units of laboratory in biochemistry, yet the department does not offer a biochemistry lab. In Chemical Engineering, the recent adoption of a Bioengineering minor has created great demand for courses in biochemical engineering. The new lab course has enabled students to learn basic techniques before joining a research group, and prepare them for research in graduate school or in private sector jobs after graduation. The emphasis of the course is on basic techniques in molecular biology /genetic engineering, and protein biochemistry. Students learn to cut and splice DNA, express and purify a protein, and carry out biophysical and biochemical measurements and assays. A pilot version of this course was offered in W05, and the first full version of the course ran in F06. Twelve students participated, 11 of which were chemistry and biochemistry majors. The course was very successful in that students carried out experiments in molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and biophysical methods. Although each group did not successfully produce a mutant in the gene for GFP, each group was successful in overexpressing and purifying either the wild-type or mutant version of the protein, and characterized the protein using CD and fluorescence spectroscopy. All of the students felt the course had a significant impact on expanding their classroom learning and would strongly recommend it to others. They also felt that a two-semester course would be something of value for future years.
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