This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Funds are provided to renovate the Molecular and Cell Biology research facility Purchase College, State University of New York. Established in 1967, Purchase College is a four-year undergraduate institution with a record of research, undergraduate student research training, and receipt of federal grants to fund these efforts dating back to the mid-1970s. The lab facility is used for faculty research and undergraduate research training. All undergraduate students are required to carry out an eight-credit capstone experience involving original research. Many students also do summer research in the College's labs, and/or take independent research courses during the academic year.
The funds will permit: (1) Redesigning part of the Microscopy room by moving some nonstructural walls, allowing for more efficient student research training in the use of Electron Microscopes. (2) Reconfiguring the preparatory room: half of it will become a facility for the analysis of digital microscopy images, DNA sequence data and electrophoretic gel data. The other half will remain a preparatory area. (3) The Molecular/Cell Biology area will contain a new bench configuration, with numerous research stations and areas to properly contain research equipment. All of the benches will be wired for networked computer workstations.
The renovations will support ongoing fundamental research on macrophages, thermophilic bacteria, marine invertebrate cellular defenses and environmental responses, and cellular processes. The renovations will increase the research efficiency and productivity. The renovation will enhance already productive collaborative student/faculty research, as well as continue the undergraduate research training being conducted by Purchase College. It will have a positive impact on the local community colleges that send their students to Purchase College for 5 weeks of intensive, independent research in Molecular and Cellular Biology. The renovation will enable Purchase College's Biology faculty to continue what has become a 30-year tradition of a research-based curriculum for undergraduate students.
Purchase College, State University of New York has renovated its Molecular and Cell Biology research facility (the BioLab Suite) funded by an Academic Research Infrastructure Program: Recovery and Reinvestment (ARI-R²) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). With this grant we redesigned and improved part of the Electron Microscopy research area by moving some non-structural walls, and redesigned and rebuilt the lab benches allowing for more efficient student research training in the use of Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopy. We also built a new preparation room for media preparation and cleanup. This new room contains a new autoclave and dishwasher, and hookups for an ice machine. Our completely renovated Molecular/Cell Biology room contains a new lab bench configuration, with numerous research stations and areas to properly hold all our current and future research equipment. This award allows the Biology faculty at Purchase College to more efficiently do our faculty and collaborative student/faculty research, as well as better train our undergraduate researchers. In a broader sense, this NSF grant allows Purchase College’s Biology faculty to continue what has become a 30-year tradition of a research-based curriculum for undergraduate students. This new BioLab Suite will also enable us to train our students to work in biotechnology companies locally or globally, so that they can have an impact in this exciting realm of scientific res
