BIOMEDICAL BIG DATA 4 ISU 

BD4ISU (Big Data 4 ISU) is a program to prepare ISU undergraduate students for high quality jobs and graduate programs in the area of big data and the biomedical sciences, one of the hottest areas nationally and in Indiana.  ISU is partnering with The Ohio State University (OSU) to develop a curriculum that includes biology, mathematics, and computer science, and a knowledge base and skill-set using big data and the latest tools.  ISU and OSU are grateful to have the support of the NIH (National Institutes of Health, citation below) to fund the program and small cohorts of student researchers from under-represented groups.  

 For more information visit:  https://www.indstate.edu/cas/bd4isu 

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience 

The Center for Genomic Advocacy had 10-20 undergraduate student researchers participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program each summer. Student researchers did work in areas including (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlRW15eM9nU&feature=youtu.be) 

• personalized medical approaches to improving cardiovascular health
• investigating genes involved in cardiac development
• identifying clusters associated with cancer development
• researching the relative effectiveness of different disinfectants in preventing foodborne illness
• investigating genetic diversity among a geographically confined population of white-tailed deer
• identifying links between particular genes and traits in white-throated sparrows
• researching resistance of breast cancer cells to chemo-therapeutic drugs
• investigating the different values, attitudes, and beliefs between scientific researchers and parents regarding the use of newborn screening blood samples in genetic research
• developing computational methods and building bioinformatics databases by integrating various genomic and proteomics tools/databases, and analyzing next-generation sequencing data

For more information visit:  https://www.indstate.edu/cas/chem_phys/summer-undergraduate-research-experiences-sure-program 

Sycamore Undergraduate Research Fellowship

The Center for Genomic Advocacy is hosting several new Indiana State undergraduate students as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience. Students are engaged in research in a variety of areas including: 

• the current and developing role of genetic counselors in medical practice 
• ethical issues related to informed consent in genetic research, with particular emphasis on the use of newborn screening data in genetic research 
• running a variety of bioinformatics tools on big data sets

For more information on student research visit:  https://www.indstate.edu/csrc 

Rich and Robin Porter Cancer Research Center

In September of 2020, a gift of $250,000 was given to ISU to create a cancer research center. Since then, other donations upwards of $100,000 have been received through continual pledges and fundraising events. The announcement can be viewed at https://www.tribstar.com/rich-and-robin-porter/image_c89fc648-f862-11ea-9dba-5b686befbfd1.html