In this RCMI renewal application for the Center for Gene Structure and Function at Hunter College, support is requested for the basic shared facilities which sustain graduate-level research in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry. The facilities form the basis of the productive and growing research effort in the two departments and are vital to Hunter's commitment to train and recruit minority scientists. We have had some success in the recruitment of minority faculty and students but that objective remains a formidable one and our highest priority. The facilities include eight core laboratories which are either established or planned. The Nucleic Acid and Protein Sequencing and Synthesis Facility will be expanded to include a sophisticated molecular separations capability. The Biopreparations Facility wt be newly equipped to provide infrastructure for molecular biology. Also projected to receive new equipment are the facilities for Biomolecular Computation and Graphics, Cell Culture and Electron Microscopy and Cytology. Other facilities will be supported with funds for limited supplies and personnel. Significant personnel costs will be shifted to New York State lines as the new grant period progresses. Major State support will also be committed to lines for new minority faculty to be recruited during this period, and for a multi-million dollar renovation of laboratory space. In addition it i, anticipated that the State will provide a 70% matching fund for an RCMI direct cost award, as has been the case during the first grant cycle. The RCMI Center at Hunter is also planning to use grant funds for support for continued training of minority Ph.D. students in the Center, at a level of five candidates per year. The highly successful Annual Symposium on Gene Structure and Function win be continued. New initiatives in this application include funding for RCMI visiting scholars, to be invited from other RCMI institutions around the nation, as well as for workshops on emerging areas of rr.search technology, to permit sharing of expertise in these areas with other RCMI Centers and the broader scientific community.
