Archived Edition: November 30, 2005 | Back to Current	Jul 31, 2010

Wilder gets 145K federal grant for DNA research
Chris Richardson - MANAGING EDITOR

The National Science Foundation recently awarded the College a $145,924 grant for “Acquisition of DNA Analysis Instrumentation for Research and Education,” a project under the direction of Jason Wilder, assistant professor of biology. The grant will foster the development of a laboratory in Bronfman for the collection of DNA sequence and genotype data. The equipment will support laboratory components of several biology courses and faculty research.

While much is known about DNA, many of its precise mechanisms remain a mystery. Only in the past decade or two has technology allowed researchers to analyze and understand how the genomes of various organisms are structured and how they function. DNA analysis is having an enormous impact on the scientific community.

“The centerpiece of the new facility will be a machine that has the capacity to perform automated DNA sequencing and fragment analysis,” Wilder said. Until now, faculty wishing to sequence DNA for their research or courses must send samples to a commercial sequencing operation. In addition to the DNA analyzer, the grant will fund the purchase of equipment for DNA amplification and purification, and computer workstations equipped with software for data analysis.

When the facility is installed, students in several courses, including BIOL 102, “The Organism,” an introductory course required of all majors, and the upper-level BIOL 305 “Evolution” course will use the new equipment.

Students in BIOL 102 traditionally engage in a population structure lab where microsatellite analysis is performed by hand to examine genetic differentiation of frogs living in two different areas, Wilder said. “With the DNA analyzer, we will be able to perform this experiment in a much more sophisticated way, allowing us to generate more data – and data of much better quality – using the same methods that are widely used in research applications,” he said.

In the evolution course, students sequence a portion of their own DNA and then compare that information to published datasets, including sequences recovered from ancient samples, such as Neanderthals and the Tyrolean Ice Man, Wilder said.

The lab also will assume a key place in the BiGP (Bioinformatics, Genomics and Proteomics) program.

In addition to improving the biology curriculum, the new technology will be of particular support to the research of biology professors Jason Wilder, Lara Hutson, David C. Smith, and Robert Savage. Wilder is currently studying human DNA variants that confer resistance to severe malarial parasitism. Hutson’s laboratory is working to characterize the role of heat shock proteins in the neural development of zebrafish. In a study of natural selection, Smith uses genetic markers to individually identify tadpoles. Savage is looking to understand the function of Hox gene regulators in basic pattern formation in living creatures.