REU Site: Plant Genome Research

Boyce Thompson Institute Plant Research, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This REU Site award to Cornell University's Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), located in Ithaca, NY, will support the training of 8 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2014-2018. Undergraduates with an interest in hands-on, plant-focused laboratory research are encouraged to apply to the program. REU students come from throughout the United States, and join a large and active plant research community on the Cornell University campus. The field of plant biology is being revolutionized by rapid advances in DNA sequencing, genetic mapping, gene expression profiling, site-directed mutagenesis, and other genome-enabled research methods. Scientists at BTI and Cornell University are employing these new technologies to conduct cutting-edge research in plant molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, and bioinformatics. Typical summer undergraduate research projects will involve gene cloning and characterization, functional genomics, expression of exogenous genes in plants, and analysis of plant metabolites. Plant species being studied by the participating faculty members include maize, soybeans, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, and Arabidopsis. The student research experience will be enriched by scientific ethics training, weekly faculty research lectures, discussion of graduate school and career options, and tours of BTI and Cornell research facilities. Students will develop skills in scientific communication by writing and critiquing research proposals at the beginning of the program, as well as by presenting their results in the form of a seminar at the end of the program. Assessment of the summer research experience will occur through on-site interviews and completion of a web-based survey that is provided for biology REU sites. By participating in the REU Site program, undergraduate students will receive training in advanced plant biology research methods. This experience will prepare them for graduate school in the plant sciences and future research careers in academia, industry, or government. Students are required to be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting www.bti.cornell.edu/education/internships, or by contacting the program coordinator (Tiffany Fleming, pgrp-ourtreach@cornell.edu, 607-254-6732), the PI (Georg Jander, gj32@cornell.edu), or the Co-PI (Jian Hua, jh299@cornell.edu).