This award provides support to enable the purchase of a high throughput DNA analyzer, thermocycler and robotic workstation to be placed in a core microchemistry facility where it will be used and maintained by facility staff. This set of equipment is now a mainstay of research programs requiring high throughput DNA sequencing, microsatellite analysis, and single-nuculeotide polymorphism surveys. Investigators whose research and training efforts require use of the equipment will be charged using a set fee for service schedule. Placement of such equipment in a core facility fosters communication among different research groups who use the equipment leading to the sharing of ideas, information, and technical innovations. It also maximizes the use of the equipment by making the equipment available to a large number of other users from different disciplines and departments across campus. The equipment will allow the PI and her colleagues to expand their capacity for population-level analysis via enhancement of fragment analysis (e.g., microsatellite DNA), and more importantly, via single nucleotide polymorphism survey. The requested equipment will be housed in the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies - Molecular Systematics and Conservation Genetic laboratory (YIBS - MSCG) which trains students in molecular techniques applied to environmental and organismal level questions. Since its inception, the YIBS - MSCG has trained students via research rotations, formal laboratory courses, dedicated seminars, and workshops. The equipment will enhance training by allowing students to obtain genetic information from large data sets in a time frame that is appropriate to their academic schedules, and do so within the budget available for training. It will also expose them early in their scientific life to state of the art equipment. The equipment is also expected to impact joint efforts of YIBS - MSCG with the Yale Peabody Museum in a science literacy partnership with the public school district of New Haven. Via this program, middle schools characterized by underachieving minority students from low-income families are targeted for educational outreach. The partnership, begun two years ago, plans to integrate the YIBS-MSCG laboratory as a means for offering additional opportunities for learning and hands-on training.
