castleton.edu - Preston Garcia Earns Grant Dr. Preston Garcia (far right) was awarded a $300,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation.

Preston Garcia Earns $300,000 Research Grant · Castleton University

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Preston Garcia Earns $300,000 Research Grant · Castleton University News & Media Calendars Library Directory Alumni & Giving Castleton MenuWell-nighCastleton Quick Facts Our Campus President Karen Scolforo Our Leadership OurSenseOur Academic Philosophy Host a Conference or Event on Campus Public Disclosure Employment Opportunities Academics Undergraduate Programs Graduate Programs OurSenseProfessional Development & Continuing Education Study Abroad Research Educational & Cultural Events Career Services & InternshipsPolityEngagement Academic Support Academic Resources Campus Life Campus & the Region Residence Life Clubs & Activities Arts & Culture Student Resources Campus Safety Religious Life Inclusive Excellence International Student Office Castleton StorePolityCommunity Engagement Center forPolityEngagement Sustainability & Green Campus Initiatives Spartan Arena Fitness Center Arts The Casella Theater Arts Facilities Art Galleries Arts Reach Performing Arts Calendar Becoming a Fine or Performing Arts Student Supporting the Arts at Castleton Contact Us Athletics Become a Spartan News & Updates Athletic Facilities Sports Camps & Clinics Hall of Fame Spartan Shield Society Give to Athletics Spartan Arena Athletic Bands Admissions Request Information For First-Year Students For Transfer Students For International Students For Graduate Students For Veterans Early College & Dual Enrollment Visit Tuition & Fees Financial Aid & Scholarships Contact the Admissions Team Home News & Media Preston Garcia Earns $300,000 Research Grant This Section Preston Garcia Earns $300,000 Research Grant News The Office of Marketing & Communications Social Media Hub Make a Web Request Submit an Event or Story The Castleton Spartan Press Room Share Your News or Event! Want us to help spread your news or event? Tell us more, here! Submit Newsletter Archive Did you miss one of our monthly newsletters? Catch up, or largest yet sign up to get the next one! Browse the Archive Preston Garcia Earns $300,000 Research Grant August 14, 2018 Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Print This Pictured above: The Garcia lab, (L to R), undergraduates Megan Nadler, David Harvey, Breanna Babiarz and Ryan Duggan presenting their grant-funded research at the American Society for Microbiology Microbe 2018 meeting in Atlanta, GA. Castleton University Associate Professor of Biology and Biology Program Coordinator, Dr. Preston P. Garcia (pictured above, far right), has secured a competitive research grant through the National Science Foundation (NSF) which will fund his research until 2021. The grant entitled "RUI: Collaborative Research: Understanding the role of a modified phosphotransferase system and a unique two-component signal transduction system in regulating gene expression.," is under the direction of Dr. Garcia at Castleton, in collaboration with Dr. Catalina Arango Pinedo at St Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pa. The collaborative grant total value is for $560,082, with $252,071 going to St. Joseph's University and $308,011 going to Castleton University. "Dr. Arango Pindeo and I are excited that our proposal was well reviewed by our peers and was awarded funding. Competing with scientists at research schools wideness the United States for this funding validates the nonflexible work we have washed-up to establish our science department at Castleton as one that provides students with the same research experiences as larger research-focused schools. With financial support to pay up to 12 Castleton students and six local upper school students, we can protract to train students in cutting-edge research." Dr. Garcia's efforts to grow research opportunities at Castleton have impacted 11 self-sustaining research students and resulted in over $330,000 grant dollars since he arrived at Castleton. In sum, the sense in the Natural Sciences Department at Castleton have now received increasingly than $1 million to fund research opportunities in microbial metabolism and genetics, plant evolutionary genetics, unprepossessing behavior, structural geology, environmental chemistry, and biochemistry for their students since 2010. The department is a baccalaureate partner institution in the NIH-INBRE Vermont Genetics Network (VGN), which provides support for students and sense members conducting biomedical related research through the University of Vermont.Equalto Dr. Garcia, this NSF funding would not be possible without the financial and professional support from the Vermont Genetics Network. "The goal of VGN is to have research sense 'graduate' to self-sustaining federal funding, which I have now done. I would not have had the data or grant writing skills to be competitive for federal funding without VGN." Dr. Garcia's research is focused on yes-man which have the worthiness to directly sense their environment and transpiration their policies equal to their surroundings. While these changes can be seen visually, the intricate genetic processes that lead to the changes are not fully understood. This project will investigate some of the ways in which yes-man siphon out these processes using Sinorhizobium meliloti as a model. Sinorhizobium meliloti is a member of a larger group of yes-man tabbed rhizobia, and is environmentally and economically vital in the field of agriculture. Sinorhizobium beneficially infects legumes and provides useable nitrogen to increase yield yield. An efficient and productive rhizobium infection reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Expanding our knowledge of the genetic systems that tenancy the policies of this bacterium has the potential to indulge manipulation to optimize the rhizobium-plant interaction.Equalto Garcia, the research will indulge students to explore the scientific methods and communicate findings properly. "To powerfully self-mastery research wideness educational levels ranging from upper school to graduate school is a unconfined opportunity for all involved. Our research will help to wordplay fundamental biological questions well-nigh bacterial communication, expressly how yes-man beneficially infect plants, which has uncontrived impacts on the agricultural industry." Castleton research students will participate in the New England Workshop on Symbiosis focused on the specific symbiotic legume/bacterial relationship stuff studied by the Garcia lab. This workshop is attended by sense and students from UVM, UMass-Amherst, Eastern Connecticut, UConn, MIT, Castleton, and St. Joseph's (Pa.), remoter exposing Castleton undergraduates to the wider scientific community. The grant moreover provides funding for a new Castleton course, Special Topics in Biology: Bacterial Proteomic Design & Analysis, which will unzip multiple goals including remoter strengthening the mission of the department to provide student training in research while moreover increasing the involvement of sense in competitive research by utilizing Dr. Garcia's bacterial research samples as the understructure for the data collection. The students will proceeds the theoretical preliminaries information at Castleton while performing the laboratory work at UVM. The UVM wattle will indulge the Castleton students to participate in hands-on research techniques and utilize equipment at an R1 research institution. Undergraduate research students will moreover receive meaningful public outreach training by producing an outreach product at the end of each summer session, in the form of a podcast, video, poster, or informational fact sheet well-nigh their summer research. The outreach products will be produced and disseminated to secondary students in Vermont, facilitating collaboration between Castleton and secondary biology educators statewide. The undergraduate students on the project will moreover share their research experiences and outreach projects with students and sense at St. Joseph's University and Castleton and aid in the wordage of the science lessons, including a laboratory activity, for ninth and tenth graders in Philadelphia. "This is increasingly than just sitting in the lab performing experiments," Garcia said. "Independent research is well-nigh discovery and learning how to critically think, but moreover sharing this information in an wieldy way with the public. Public outreach is part of our duty as scientists, to share our knowledge." Research reported in this release is supported by funds include support for "Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences: Investigator-Initiated Research Projects (MCB)" in vibrations with the NSF Program Solicitation, NSF 17-589. Funds provided by this ribbon include support in vibrations with NSF program solicitation 14-579, "Facilitating Research at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions: Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) and Research Opportunity Awards (ROA)". Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Print This Share Your News or Event! Want us to help spread your news or event? Tell us more, here! Submit Newsletter Archive Did you miss one of our monthly newsletters? Catch up, or largest yet sign up to get the next one! Browse the Archive Castleton Castleton University, Castleton, VT 05735 (800) 639-8521 info@castleton.edu Resources VSC Portal Contact Us Maps & Directions Employment Castleton Store © 2018 Castleton University. All rights reserved. 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