Sue Carson

Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreement for Susan Carson.

Integrative molecular plant systems (IMPS) with foci on sustainable foods, fuels, and model systems will draw in students of varying interests and disciplines and will inspire them to pursue research not only for practical applications, but also to answer basic biological questions in plant biology. NCSU has a strong core of researchers who are working in multiple areas of integrative plant biology, as well as faculty collaborators from multiple departments and disciplines. The Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University proposes to renew the REU site to provide undergraduate students with meaningful summer research experiences, complemented by training in core laboratory skills in molecular biotechnology. Targeted student participants will include rising sophomores, juniors and seniors who have demonstrated interest in plant molecular biology; an emphasis will be placed on recruiting students from underrepresented groups in the biological sciences, and students from institutions that are not research-intensive.

Integrative molecular plant systems with foci on sustainable foods, fuels, nutrition and model systems will draw in undergraduate students of varying interests and disciplines and will inspire them to pursue research not only for practical applications, but also to answer basic biological questions in plant biology. NCSU has a strong core of plant biologists who are working in multiple areas of integrative plant biology, as well as faculty collaborators from multiple departments and disciplines. We propose to renew the REU site (formerly named Synthetic Biology REU) to provide undergraduate students with meaningful summer research experiences, complemented by training in core laboratory skills in molecular biotechnology. Targeted student participants will include rising sophomores, juniors and seniors who have demonstrated interest in plant molecular biology, with an emphasis on recruiting students from underrepresented groups.

Project elements: ? This is a new REU site. ? Project title: REU Site: Synthetic Biology Undergraduate Research Experience ? Principal Investigator: Susan Carson ? Submitting Organization: North Carolina State University; Other Organizations: none ? Location of undergraduate research: North Carolina State University ? Main fields and sub-fields of research: Synthetic biology, biotechnology, molecular biology, plant biology, chemical and biomolecular engineering, biochemistry, genomics ? Number of undergraduate participants per year: 8 NSF-funded, 3 NCSU-funded ? This is a summer REU site. ? This is a 10 week program. ? The project includes a research ethics workshop. ? Student Applicant Point-of-Contact: Sue Carson 919-513-0330 sue_carson@ncsu.edu ? Web address will link from http://www.ncsu.edu/biotechnology. Project summary: Synthetic biology is defined as ?the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, or the re-design of existing, natural biological systems for useful purposes? (http://syntheticbiology.org). It is a cutting-edge technology that will attract students from a wide variety of interests and disciplines to the field of plant biology. North Carolina State University (NCSU) has a strong core of plant biologists who are working with two aspects of synthetic plant biology: using recombinant plants as ?factories? to generate useful products, and developing model systems for studying fundamental biological mechanisms. The Biotechnology (BIT) Program and the Department of Plant Biology at North Carolina State University propose to establish an REU site to provide undergraduate students with a summer research experience in this area of synthetic biology, complemented by training in core laboratory skills in molecular biotechnology. Targeted student participants will include rising sophomores, juniors and seniors who have demonstrated interest in molecular biotechnology as it applies to synthetic biology. Our goals are to inspire and train students to pursue research to answer fundamental questions and for practical applications. The intellectual merit of the proposed program stems from the following: 1. The Department of Plant Biology at NCSU has a strong core of faculty engaged in cutting-edge synthetic biology research using plant hosts. The majority of mentors are from this core faculty, with important faculty collaborations from other departments including microbiology, chemical and biomedical engineering, biochemistry, and plant pathology. 2. In addition to the research component, the program will include a three-day laboratory-intensive workshop to familiarize students with critical techniques in the molecular biology lab in the first week of the program. This hands-on workshop will allow all students to master the most critical laboratory skills before beginning in their research labs. 3. All students will receive training in essential bioinformatics skills, including navigating GenBank, performing BLAST searches, and designing PCR primers. 4. Students will have multiple public-speaking opportunities to present their research in various formats, including oral presentations in group meetings, and a poster presentation at the campus-wide undergraduate research symposium at the end of the program. The broader impacts of the program will be to attract undergraduates (with special emphasis on underrepresented groups) to pursue graduate work and ultimately a career in an area of molecular biology, especially plant molecular biology, a discipline often overlooked by minority students. By complementing a traditional summer research experience with introductory laboratory skills training and coordinated advising, we hope to develop a new paradigm for successful undergraduate research programs.