Thankful for two NCRR grants, Gary Hagen, MSU president says, “Without this program, these opportunities just wouldn’t be here”

Under BRIN and INBRE, UND and NDSU formed partnerships with North Dakota’s four baccalaureate institutions and the five tribal colleges within the state with the objective of creating a pipeline of biomedical researchers by providing undergraduates with research experience.

Gonnella initially began collaborating under BRIN with an adjunct professor at NDSU to commercialize an analytical technique he developed. His research uses specialized lasers in novel fluorescence methods for biomedical applications.

Under INBRE, Gonnella worked the past three years with the UND medical school using his fluorescence technique to study the enzymes responsible for ridding the body of reactive oxygen species. These species, produced as a consequence of oxidative stress, can be linked to medical conditions such as inflammation, aging and carcinogenesis.

Gonnella began collaborating with researcher Matthew Picklo, PhD, who recently left the medical school’s Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics to become a research leader with the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center. He is also an adjunct assistant professor in the UND Department of Chemistry.

“Tom’s work very nicely allowed us to get an insight into the biochemistry of these enzymes,” Picklo says. “It was a good melding because I understood the biochemistry, but the technology he utilized allowed us to look at these mechanisms even more in depth.”

Gonnella describes his work with Picklo as a true collaboration.

“One thing that INBRE has enabled us to do is set up collaborations where both sides are bringing something to the table,” he notes. “Matt wanted to study these enzymes and we have a unique method by which to study their activity. We’ve made observations about the enzymes that other people have not been able to make.”

In the past, Picklo’s lab produced the enzymes and then Gonnella drove to Grand Forks to pick them up. Because the enzymes were unstable, he and his students had to conduct marathon lab sessions to analyze them.  But that will soon change as MSU obtains the technology to produce the enzymes itself.

“It’s a good example of technology transfer from UND to Mayville State,” Gonnella says. “It’s definitely something Mayville State would not have if we hadn’t set up this collaboration and mentoring through INBRE.”

Gonnella is currently exploring another collaboration with the medical school under the next phase of INBRE.

Funding from INBRE enabled MSU to hire another faculty member, Khwaja Hossain, PhD, assistant professor of biology. An expert in plant genomics, Hossain operates a lab, a greenhouse and has three research projects involving collaborations with NDSU and at Minot State with INBRE researcher Chris Keller, PhD, biology department chair.

“Our students are cross-trained to work in both labs,” Gonnella adds. “It helps significantly to have a few different projects on campus. The students aren’t just learning one area of research, but multiple areas of research.”

Janelle Berthold, a senior biology major from Larimore who’s worked on research projects in Gonnella’s and Hossain’s labs, sums it up by asking, “Who would have known that at Mayville State we’d be contributing to something like this?”