A grant has been awarded to Pomona College under the direction of Dr. Laura Hoopes to facilitate genomic and genetic analysis research. The grant will provide funds for the acquisition of a microarray scanner, associated computers and software, a phosphoimager, and a sequence detection system for real-time PCR. All of these instruments will be used in faculty-student collaborative research in 5 different laboratories at Pomona College.
The microarray scanner will be used to examine gene expression changes in yeast aging, in mutants affecting the ability of yeast to recombine by recognizing short sequences of similar DNA, and in archaebacteria that grow in hot vents on the ocean floor. In addition, the microarray scanner will be used in projects to look for changes in gene expression in strains with a homing endonuclease (and mutant versions of it) cloned into the bacterium Escherichia coli. It will also be used to examine gene expression in developmental mutants of Drosophila that disrupt transport of membrane-enclosed vesicles within cells. Real-time PCR will be used to quantitate the results of microarray analyses, and to examine plasmids for double strand break (DSB) repair. The phosphoimager will be used in faculty-student research to examine the creation and repair of DSBs, and in ChIP assays. The phosphoimager will also be used to quantitate the amounts of various DNA replication structures that can be detected using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis, allowing us to analyze replication fork stalling in aged vs. mutant cells.
There are a number of ways this grant will impact the scientific infrastructure. Many students at Pomona College will gain experience in cutting-edge genetics and genomics research, thus reinforcing their interest in pursuing careers in these fields. The microarray scanner and phosphoimager will facilitate a major experiment in the Genetic Regulation in Eukaryotes and other research-style classes at Pomona College, where students will learn the context of these techniques, as well as apply their knowledge to a real problem in the laboratory. Finally, the microarray scanner will enable scanning for the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) West Coast members, whose undergraduate student research projects and research-oriented courses impact more than 100 students annually.
