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Learning
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Our Mission
The primary
mission of the Advances in
Bioscience Education (ABE) is to
conduct education and outreach activities for small colleges lacking research
programs to enthuse
faculty and students in genomics research.
ABE is
therefore a partnership between a university with advance research
capabilities and projects and life science faculty of small colleges.
The project
provides faculty development and student mentoring opportunities for a four-year
period through Summer Education and Outreach Activities. Faculty will
participate in the first year and students and faculty will participate in years
two through four.
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Mentoring
students and faculty from community colleges in a collaborative setting |
These activities will inspire
faculty and student participants about the fascinating advances occurring in
plant bioscience research. Participants will experience new molecular, genetic
and cellular methods and will develop curricula and learning experiences that
will strengthen their classroom teaching in their home institutions, which are
junior and community college classrooms.
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Working together |
Our Research
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Arabidopsis thaliana |
University of Hawai‘i (UH) is engaged in a research
project entitled "Functional Genomics of the Protein Disulfide Isomerase Family
in Arabidopsis Plants" funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Our research goals focus on
answering the following questions: What are protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs)
doing in plant cells? What are their biochemical pathways and how can their
activities be controlled during plant growth? The intriguing model system,
Arabidopsis, is used in the research because it has a short life span (40 days
from seed to seed), it is easy to genetically manipulate and its entire genome
sequence has been determined (the first for a plant).
Specific objectives of the project
are:
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Determine the subcellular locations and
expression patterns of all 11 PDIs.
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Identify PDI substrates and interacting
partners.
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Determine the structure and function of
PDIs using mutants.
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Conduct education and outreach activities
to community colleges lacking research programs
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Hands on Research |
Analysis of Results |
To achieve these
goals, the project uses state-of-the-art genomic, bioinformatic, molecular and cellular techniques, which have become increasingly
important for careers in industrial, government and academic laboratories.
Personnel
The Principle Investigator of the project is
Dr. David A. Christopher of the Department of Molecular Bioscience and
Bioengineering of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources
(CTAHR), University of Hawaii. Two co-principle investigators on the
project are Dr. Kabi R. Neupane of the Division of Math and Sciences of
Leeward
Community College and Dr. L.
Andrew Staehelin, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology of University of Colorado.
Funding
Funding for Advances in
Bioscience Education is provided by the National Science Foundation Award #
MCB-034802. In addition, the laboratory renovation, equipment and supplies at
Leeward Community College are supported in part by the cost match funds
for the NSF funded IMUA EPSCoR program,
Agribusiness Education,
Training and Incubation Project (USDA/CSREES), and
BRIN/INBRE programs.
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