Thursday, May 15, 2025
5/15/2025
Exploring genomic diversity in commensal Escherichia coli - Research Strategy: Describe how undergraduate and/or graduate students will be exposed to and supervised conducting hands-on research. Describe how students will participate in research activities such as planning, execution and/or analysis of research. Formal training plans (e.g., non-research activities, didactic training, seminars) should not be provided. A sound rationale should be offered as to why the approach and the research team, including undergraduate and/or graduate students, are appropriate to accomplish the specific aims and to make an important scientific contribution. Drs. Stephens and Hess have developed a 10 week laboratory module, piloted in Spring quarter of 2017, that will expose dozens of students to hypothesis-driven science utilizing whole-genomic sequencing and multidimensional phenotypic data. This portion of the supported research will have the broadest impact on student research and is detailed in multiple sections of the grant including the Introduction to the Resubmission and the Main Proposal. Santa Clara University Department of Biology does not have a graduate program, thus our research groups consist of the P.I., undergraduate researchers and a lab technician when the lab is funded extramurally. Both Dr. Stephens and Hess have a proven track record of recruiting motivated undergraduate students to collect and analyze primary data in both public health and genomics. We each have several undergraduate student co- authors, including first authors, on peer-reviewed manuscripts. We will continue to recruit and train undergraduate researchers using our methods that have proved successful. Importantly these extramural funds will provide our labs with a lab technician. This position is critical to act as primary point of contact for undergraduate researchers, especially during the academic year when the P.I.s have significant teaching responsibilities. We have recruited for these positions from amongst our best graduating research students and have had excellent success in this regard. Recent technicians supported by extramural grants used those positions to further their career paths. Lab technicians supported by previous RUI grants to Stephens have included Lisandra West (who subsequently received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2012), Kelly Watanabe (PharmD, UCSF, 2011), Amanda Lieu (M.D., Tufts University, 2014), and Cindy Dick (currently working on her Ph.D. at UC Irvine). In the Hess lab technicians supported by previous grants have included Cindy Dick (currently working on her Ph.D. at UC Irvine), Kiana Espinosa (currently working on her M.D. at Loyola University Chicago), Jillian Gerrity (accepted to medical school at UCSD, working for the non- profit Amigos de Jesus in Honduras) and Farid Tadros (accepted to medical school at Albert Einstein Medical School).
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).