Seven years ago when science faculty members at Minot State University (MSU) were asked what it would take to get their students more involved in research, the answer was: less time in the classroom and more time in the lab.
Since then, two grants to the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have enabled faculty at North Dakota’s four baccalaureate institutions and five tribal colleges to spend more time getting undergraduates involved in research.
“The money has meant that I can spend a lot more time on my research, and student involvement has more than doubled,” says Chris Keller, Ph.D., associate professor and MSU biology chair.
In 2001, the medical school, in partnership with NDSU, received a three-year, $6-million grant from the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) to establish the North Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN). The program was renewed in 2004 with a five-year, $16.3-million Institutional Development Award (IdeA) for the North Dakota IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).
“One of the major goals of the INBRE program is to create a pipeline of undergraduate students from the state’s primary undergraduate colleges who would go into biomedical research, behavioral research and the health sciences, such as medical, dental school and pharmacy,” says Donald Sens, Ph.D., professor in UND’s department of pathology and INBRE principal investigator.
“As soon as we placed INBRE funding at Minot State, they expanded their faculty to take advantage of the opportunity,” he notes.
After six years, the results are paying off. Perhaps it’s most evident at MSU where research has expanded from four to seven INBRE-funded projects, a molecular biology lab has been added, up to 75 students have received research experience and more of the university’s graduates are pursuing careers in science and healthcare professions.
In addition, researchers at MSU are collaborating with Sens and scientists at NDSU to study heavy metals in the environment.
“We have some good environmentally based programs at Minot State that interface well with our laboratory expertise, which is the effect of heavy metals on human health,” Sens says. “We look at heavy metals and how they impact on the development and progression of bladder cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer and kidney disease.”
Today, thanks to the BRIN and INBRE grants, researchers at MSU and other institutions across North Dakota not only have more time to conduct research, but also better equipment..
