This award funds the acquisition of a Dionex Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE) system to enhance faculty and student research opportunities and to improve teaching infrastructure at HPU. The ASE system will be used in a variety of active research projects funded by NSF and other agencies which require frequent use of ASE equipment for extraction of lipids, environmental contaminants, and natural metabolic products. The instrument will be used for a number of diverse projects including (a) carbon isotope fractionation in lipid biosynthesis by piezophilic bacteria isolated from the deeply buried Shimokita Coalbed (1498.48 and 2406.84 meter below the seafloor) in the northwest Pacific; (b) assessing historical changes in Kawai`nui marsh ecosystem; (c) measuring stress-induced hormones in wild dolphins as an indicator of negative environmental impacts on dolphin populations (d) the development of natural product chemical libraries; and (e) measuring organic contaminants in tissues of marine vertebrates. HPU is currently in transition from a predominantly undergraduate, non-Ph.D. granting teaching institution into a comprehensive university with a strong research program, and such state-of-the-art instrumentation will help facilitate this transition. Postdoctoral research associates and M.S. graduate and undergraduate students will be trained on the use of the instrument. Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) is a minority serving undergraduate research institution on the Island of Oahu in a state with few centers of higher learning in Hawaii compared with the continental United States. The HPU student population includes significant representation by local native Hawaiians as well as Pacific Islanders that come to Hawaii for a college education. Hence the funding of this instrumentation will have broad impacts on a diverse student population in research and education in fields such as Biology, Biochemistry, Marine Biology and Oceanography.
