A grant has been awarded to Brigham young University under the direction of Dr. Leigh Johnson for partial support of acquiring two research instruments: a robotic PCR and sequencing workstation, and a workstation for manipulation of E. coli and other cloning vectors. These instruments will be housed in the core DNA sequencing center (DNASC) at Brigham Young University (BYU). The DNASC was established in 1998 solely by BYU, and serves faculty from six departments and two colleges on campus, as well as patrons from institutions off campus. Enhancing the DNASC core facility with appropriate technical equipment provides a cost-effective central location that will aid collaborative research and the new lines of investigation. The new instruments will provide the following: 1) enhance the scope of research by increasing data accuracy and throughput for a large group of researchers on and off campus; 2) enhance and provide new teaching and state-of-the-art equipment training to a large group of undergraduate and graduate students involved in faculty-mentored research; and 3) increase and enhance the involvement of student researchers in data analyses and manuscript preparation aspects of research by decreasing the time currently spent in several repetitive processes supplanted by the robotic equipment.
Many avenues of research, and student training through direct participation in this research, will be impacted by the new equipment. Active research programs include, among others, the molecular biology of cartilage differentiation, protein signaling, virus reservoirs and epidemiology, plant and animal systematics, nematode biology and pathogenesis, indigenous crop improvement, conservation biology, molecular ecology, and DNA sequence analysis. The instrumentation requested will impact the large student-research mentoring program at BYU by effecting the following outcomes: 1) provide opportunities for students to gain real-world experience with modern equipment and gain training through four current and one to-be-established courses; 2) enable student researchers to increase involvement in analytical, data synthesis, and manuscript writing phases of research that demand and develop greater cognitive and critical thinking skills by decreasing time spent in repetitive tasks; and 3) involve students in collaborative projects at the forefront of biology made feasible by access to this equipment. Continued heavy participation in graduate and undergraduate mentored-research experiences by women and underrepresented groups is anticipated. Visitation and use of the enhanced DNASC by off campus users and visiting scholars, already common activities, are also expected to increase.
