A Missouri Western State University undergraduate research project has received the largest grant in school history.
Missouri Western, along with colleagues at Davidson College in North Carolina are involved in the project.
Missouri Western President Dr. Robert Vartabedian announced Wednesday afternoon the over $1.1 million grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation.
“This money will continue to produce research in synthetic biology,” Vartabedian said. “I just have to formally congratulate Dr. Eckdahl and Dr. Poet and their colleagues at Davidson College and the students involved in this research for this significant accomplishment. So I thank them for admirably representing this university as well as Davidson College and would only encourage them to keep up the outstanding work.”
Professor of Biology Dr. Todd Eckdahl and Professor of Mathematics Dr. Jeff Poet and several students involved with the synthetic biology research project spoke about their work so far and how the grant will benefit their research and learning.
Dr. Eckdahl said part of the review criteria of their grant proposal is know as “broader impacts.”
“All NSF grants are judged by their broader impacts which refer to societal outcomes of the grant proposal,” Eckdahl said. “So in what way is it going to benefit the scientific enterprise in this country, in what way is it going to create jobs, in what ways is it going to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in research. On broader impacts we did pretty well, so we have an opportunity here to work with talented undergraduate students. Although we may have contributed to the advancement of science in the area of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, I am certain that we have made important contributions to the training of undergraduate research students.”
The grant is a three year grant and will fund a total of 36 full-time summer research positions for undergraduate students, as well as faculty support, research supplies and more.
According to a press release, since they began conducting synthetic biology research in 2006, the group has published nine research papers in peer-reviewed journals. This is the fifth NSF grant the group has received, including a $1 million grant in 2013 that funded summer research in 2014, 2015 and this year.