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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
AWARDS $1 MM GRANT TO
DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY
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Delaware
State University has been awarded a $1 million National Science
Foundation (NSF) grant titled to support its new Neuroscience Doctoral
Program and to build a consortium of neuroscience researchers
throughout Delaware.
The principal investigator of the grant is
Dr. Leonard G. Davis, (R),
chair of the DSU Department of Biological
Sciences, and the co-investigator
is Dr. Melissa A. Harrington, both of whom collaborated in writing the grant.
The centerpiece of the newly funded project is to develop DSU's new Neuroscience Ph.D. program into an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional program in which students will take the majority of their classes and receive their degrees from DSU, but can conduct their research training with faculty members at any of the partner institutions. The new grant will continue to support student stipends and research supplies, start-up and release time for new faculty with neuroscience-related research, as well as a neuroscience seminar series.
Ms.
Gianna Brisbone, a graduate student, prepares a chicken embryo for
brain extraction, neurobiology research that the new grant is funding.
Dr.
Princy Mennella, assistant professor of biology, is engaged in
developmental neurobiology research that the new $1 million grant is
supporting.
In addition to providing funding support for research, the $1M Grant will
also help DSU build a Neuroscience Consortium of Scientists throughout
Delaware.
Support from an earlier HBCU-Research Infrastructure
for Science & Engineering grant from NSF enabled DSU to establish a
Master of Science Degree Program in Cellular and Molecular
Neuroscience, which was linked to the Neuroscience Ph.D. program at
Drexel University.
Since the original grant began in 2006,
this DSU master degree program has added 10 full-time graduate
students. The grant also allowed DSU to hire new neuroscience faculty
members and provide start-up support for them. DSU established its
Neuroscience Doctoral Program in the spring of 2007.
"DSU has a unique opportunity to become the center for neuroscience research and education in our state," Dr. Davis said. "To capitalize on this we have reached out to local universities, corporations, and research institutes to develop a state-wide consortium for research and education in neuroscience."
DSU's neuroscience faculty are currently involved in a collaborative work with faculty from the University of Delaware and scientists at the Nemours Foundation/A.I duPont Children's Hospital.
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