This NSF award by the Chemical and Biological Separations program supports work by Professors Dilip Gersappe and Miriam Rafailovich to develop a technology that uses patterned surfaces to separate large DNA molecules. Patterned surfaces offer significant advantages over conventional gels used to separate DNA. They are reusable, portable and most importantly do not cause breakage of large DNA fragments. Further, with the advances in patterning techniques we can engineer surfaces with the particular pattern that will optimize the separation of DNA molecules.
While this proposal addresses the development of a methodology to separate large DNA fragments, the broader impact of this work is that we ultimately aim to use this methodology to sort whole chromosomes. Chromosome sorting is a tool of great value but one that is available in only a very few institutions worldwide. Furthermore, it requires great skill and training and relies on the use of expensive equipment. Many workers experience is that it is extremely difficult to obtain custom sorted chromosomes from the relevant institutions. If chromosome sorting were available on a wider scale, and at low cost, it would be used much more routinely to answer fundamental questions in genetics, questions for which alternative (and often much less suitable) methods have had to be developed over the years.
As part of this project, we will host high school students in our lab over the summer and (when possible) over the school year. We propose to add a module on surface dielectrophoresis within the framework of the Research Scholar Program run in our Department. Undergraduate students will also act as mentors for the high school students in this module. The students will gain hands-on experience in patterning of surfaces and will perform dielectrophoresis experiments. The graduate students (following the methodology adopted by the Center) will mentor the undergraduate students. In this manner, graduate students will get valuable experience learning how to manage a small team, undergraduate students will gain mentorship experience and high school students will get involved in cutting edge research.
