Montana universities, colleges to share $16.6 million grant for biomedical research

"I was pretty intimidated going into it," said the Montana State University junior who started working on a project with Marcie McClure, an MSU bioinformatician. Olson’s job was using the computer to survey the agents that are involved when RNA switches to DNA and slips into the human genome. HIV is one example of what can happen when that occurs.

By Evelyn Boswell, MSU News Service

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=1901

The experience grew on her, Olson said. After spending two summers and a school year on research, Olson is now so adept and comfortable with it that she has been chosen to present her findings to a national conference in New Orleans. After graduating from MSU in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, she plans to attend graduate school and then become a professor. She wants to do research, as well as teach.

"I think research is really fun," Olson said recently after completing her second summer in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at MSU. "I really enjoy it. It expands my learning."

More undergraduate students will now be able to participate in such projects, because MSU has just received a $16.6 million grant to support biomedical research throughout Montana, said Adele Pittendrigh, program coordinator of a new program called IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, or INBRE.

The money for that program will be shared with universities, colleges and tribal colleges across the state, Pittendrigh said. Undergraduate and graduate students throughout Montana will be involved in all research projects supported by the five-year grant.

INBRE will build on the $6 million Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network in Montana that began in 2001 and involved more than 800 undergraduate and graduate students in training, mentoring and research, Pittendrigh said. Olson was one of the BRIN students. Both programs were funded by the National Institutes of Health. Research through the INBRE program will focus on infectious diseases and health issues related to the environment.

"Together, BRIN and INBRE position Montana as a leader in biomedical research, and significantly increase education, research, and ultimately, employment opportunities in the state," said Tim Ford, program director for the new grant and head of the portion that focuses on environmental health.

Allen Harmsen, director of the infectious disease focus, said the multi-faceted INBRE program will have significant impacts on college campuses across Montana.

Besides opportunities for undergraduates, it will provide graduate fellowships, for example. It will increase the number of science researchers at Montana’s four-year colleges and universities. It will fund eight research projects at MSU-Billings, Montana Tech, UM-Western, Rocky Mountain College and Little Big Horn College. It will enhance science education and career development at Montana’s six tribal colleges by funding new science faculty and infrastructure. INBRE will link researchers at four-year colleges with researchers at higher-level institutions. It will train researchers in state-of-the-art research methods.

"With large populations of livestock and wildlife, Montana State University is strategically placed to study important diseases that affect the nation’s long-term security," Harmsen said.

Ford said, "INBRE specifically supports research in environmental health. Montana’s history of mineral and energy exploration provides unique research opportunities on the fate of environmental contaminants, the multiple exposure pathways and the consequent risks to human health."

Partners in the INBRE program are:

MSU-Bozeman (lead institution)

University of Montana

MSU-Billings

Rocky Mountain College

Western Montana College

Montana Tech

McLaughlin Research Institute

Rocky Mountain Labs

Blackfeet Community College

Chief Dull Knife College

Fort Belknap College

Fort Peck Community College

Little Big Horn College

Stone Child College

Evelyn Boswell, (406) 994-5135 or [email protected]