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St. Olaf receives major science grant to develop unique "Gene Stream" project

By David Gonnerman '90
April 21, 2005

St. Olaf College has received a $540,000, three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop an educational experiment that bridges laboratory research and classroom activities across several disciplines. The unique "Gene Stream" project will allow students to meld laboratory research in chemistry, biology and the emerging science of biotechnology as they adopt a gene or protein and explore its function through a set of linked research experiences. The grant raises total NSF funding to the college over the past five years to more than $5.7 million.

NSF Grant 2005
St. Olaf faculty (L-R) Cole, Rutherford and Beussman pose with the college's new scanning laser confocal microscope, a 21st century instrument that weds laser technology and fluorescence microscopy with state-of-the-art computer imaging technology.
"The NSF grant supports a remarkable undergraduate research pathway," says Professor of Biology Eric Cole, who applied for the grant with Assistant Professor of Biology Robert Rutherford and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Douglas Beussman. "The grant will give our students an experience that resembles that of a graduate student or professional scientist as they discover new genes and explore their functions." St. Olaf ranks among the top 10 U.S. liberal arts colleges whose graduates go on to earn doctorates in the sciences.

"Students can initiate a project in one class, carry it into another class, and carry it further into a funded summer research experience," explains Cole. Students will then have the opportunity to gain insight into how three very different disciplines approach the problem of solving a gene's function within a living cell. The Gene Stream project is open to any student and is especially well suited to those who are developing a concentration in biomolecular science.

The project is supported by three newly developed facilities at the college that together represent a powerful avenue for student research: Beussman has developed a mass spectrometry facility where students can measure the exact mass of a protein and locate the corresponding gene through computer search technology; students in Rutherford's lab have developed a powerful computer program that can search the entire gene assemblage of an organism for specific genes of interest; and Cole recently acquired a scanning laser confocal microscope, state-of-the-art equipment that helps create three-dimensional images of cells using fluorescent tagging. The NSF grant supports research activities in all three laboratories, and includes student summer stipends and travel money.

The Gene Stream project is just one of many interdisciplinary projects currently being fostered by St. Olaf. "We have a unique opportunity to take advantage of an atmosphere of incredible good will between faculty of different departments, and create an academic environment that nourishes real interdisciplinary science," says Cole.

With Meredith Utt '08.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.