By Jim Shamp, North Carolina Biotechnology Center
Students at Appalachian State University in Boone and at Duke University’s coastal research facility have a chance to become real “Inspector Gadgets” thanks to their share of $540,481 in Education Enhancement Grants distributed to a dozen educational institutions statewide by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Shea Tuberty, Ph.D., ASU assistant professor of biology, received a $62,000 grant to help buy instruments to be used for sewage sleuthing, to detect toxic threats in the waste stream. That’s one of two Biotechnology Center grants to ASU this round, reflecting the university’s burgeoning scientific research and education capabilities. Libby Puckett, Ph.D., also got $49,916 to help integrate modern biotechnology/analytical instrumentation and data-handling technology into some of ASU’s advanced-chemistry labs.
The Biotechnology Center awarded a $27,000 grant to Jens Carlsson, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort. Carlsson is using the funds for a program in which students will develop forensic field kits for genetic testing in marine conservation pursuits.
The educational enhancement grants support science education at colleges and universities statewide. Other recipients include:
- Steffen Heber, Ph.D., of North Carolina State University, got $80,146 to to develop a library of interactive bioinformatics animations and to organize a symposium about bioinformatics education. The results of the animation library, the symposium and additional links to related educational resources will be made available online. (Map, #10)
- Mickael Cariveau, Ph.D., of Mount Olive College, got $71,807 to develop a new cell biology course, with an accompanying laboratory, for undergraduate juniors and seniors. The course is being designed to better prepare Mount Olive graduates for careers in North Carolina's growing biotechnology companies. Some student research will be done in collaboration with the department of radiation oncology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. (Map, #9)
- Warren DiBiase, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, got $59,000 to develop and implement a graduate-level biotechnology course for science teachers who work in North Carolina’s middle schools and high schools. This innovative course will model the use of techniques that teachers are encouraged to employ in their classrooms, such as open-ended inquiry and problem-based learning. (Map, #12)
- Lori Seischab, Ph.D., of Western Carolina University, got $52,410 to help equip a new biotechnology teaching laboratory. The lab includes specialized rooms for molecular, chemical, and microscopic analyses and provides eight laboratory workstations accommodating 12 to 24 students per class in molecular biology, microbiology and forensics. (Map, #13)
- The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center's DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got $48,770. The grant helps pay for hands-on curriculum that introduces high school students to the use of the standard biotechnology process called polymerase chain reaction. The curriculum uses genetic testing for breast cancer as its context, melding classroom instruction, laboratory activities and the N.C. Standard Course of Study. (Map, #11)
- Russell Reeve, Ph.D., of the Campbell University Clinical Research Center, got $33,650 to develop continuing-education courses aimed at helping scientists around the state better prepare themselves to work in research-based pharmaceutical companies. (Map, #3)
- Cynthia Warrick, Ph.D., got $18,000 to help the School of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Elizabeth City State University develop multi-disciplinary science curricula in fields such as bionanotechnology and bioinformatics. (Map, #6)
- Joy Callahan got $15,482 to develop an aseptic-environment certificate program to add to the workforce training offerings of Business and Industry Services of Johnston Community College's Continuing Education Division. The program will teach such fundamentals as gowning, environmental monitoring and operating a product fill line in an aseptic, or sterile, environment typical of those found in the state’s growing number of biopharmaceutical manufacturing sites. (Map, #8)
- Because many of the state’s biotechnology-related jobs are ideally suited to people who understand science and business, Mary Farwell, Ph.D., of East Carolina University got $15,000 to develop a certificate program in applied biology for MBA students who have not completed degrees in biology. (Map, #5)
- Jameson McCann, Ph.D., of the Biotechnology Institute at Guilford Technical Community College, got $7,383 to boost the program’s biotechnology workforce training program. (Map, #7)
Below is a map of the recipients by county.
