This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project will revitalize the chemistry laboratory at the San Juan College (SJC) located in Farmington, New Mexico. The project includes the creation of a clean room complete with laminar flow hoods for culturing of cells, installation of two new fume hoods and refurbishment of the instrumentation lab.
The laboratory will be used for research activities and research training. The new capabilities will greatly enhance the research capacity of the SJC Chemistry Instrumentation Laboratory. More specifically, the new capabilities will enable rapid progress on research into silicon microsphere-terminated conducting polymers for neural interfaces, funded through the New Mexico INBRE program. The goal of this research is to extend room-temperature silicon work to biomaterials applications. The project is organized into four thrust areas: polymer growth, electrodeposition of silicon onto conducting polymer, patterning structures, and cell attachment and bioactivity. The laminar flow hoods will allow for cell culturing as well as patterning microstructures. The hoods and clean area will allow a high level of contamination control needed for the research that will be done at SJC. In addition, the laboratory will have increased capacity to perform a variety of research activities including biological and chemical projects.
The enhanced laboratory will provide access to the state-of-the art research facility and thus, enhanced research experiences for undergraduate students, many of who are from underrepresented minority groups. San Juan College has the fifth-highest Native American enrollment among all universities and colleges (including tribal colleges) in the United States, and is the fourth highest-ranked two-year institution for awarding Associate Degrees to Native American students. The student body is comprised of 26% Native American students, 13% Hispanic students and 61% other ethnic groups.
In summary, this project will enhance the expertise of the faculty at a two-year college while enhancing the quality of future scientists and engineers in the transfer pipeline.
The goal of this project was to: 1) Construct a 14 ft x 25 ft class 100,000 clean room in an area that was formerly a storage area. 2) Install two Laminar Flow Exhausting Hoods (LFEHs) in the clean room. 3) Install new island cabinetry in the adjacent area outside the clean room (called the prep lab). 4) Install two new conventional fume hoods in the prep lab. 5) Install customized pump and glove box venting system in both labs. 6) Install a Dry Oil Free compressed Air system (DOFA system) for key points in both labs. The purpose of constructing these facilities is to enhance the undergraduate research capability of San Juan College, a 2 year college in the northwest corner of New Mexico. The new facilities are being used to recruit and train the next generation of scientists and engineers in biology and chemistry related fields. The design of the area enables research in electronic materials, bio materials, cellular chemistry, and general analytical chemistry to be undertaken in a cleaner, more undisturbed, contaminant free environment. San Juan College has been involved in undergraduate research in partnership with various other labs, colleges, and universities for over 15 years. The clean room is approximately as clean as a hospital operating room while the environment in the LFEHs is some 100 times cleaner. The LFEHs are necessary for cell culturing, micro patterning, and general high purity experiments. Our scanning electron microscope also occupies the clean room enabling samples to be observed with less contamination than previously possible. The prep lab remodel has resulted in additional fume hood space, larger bench space, and better ergonomics. There is now one smaller hood for general chemical use and one larger hood that has a specialized glassware set up for chemistry under inert atmosphere (for use with water and oxygen sensitive chemicals). In both labs exhaust vents have been installed that allow continuous exhaust of vacuum pumps, venting lines, and glove boxes in a safe and efficient manner. Both labs have a new DOFA system with the compressor installed in a quiet location remotely. Water, gas, electric, medium house vacuum, and sewer have been installed in specific locations as typically necessary for chemical science laboratories. The project is 100% complete and functioning well. The laboratories are currently being utilized for an integrated biomaterials project related to retina replacement materials and micro test structures involving those materials.
