Molecular Biology Program
Chris Fields, Director
This document outlines strategic planning objectives for the NMSU Molecular Biology Program in response to targets for AY 03-04 and AY 04-05 specified by the NMSU Board of Regents in September, 2003. Responsive to the request of Dean Waded Cruzado-Salas (Arts and Sciences), this document focuses on targets relevant to graduate education (Targets 2.1, 7.1, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6), research (Targets 2.2, 2.3), and business development (Targets 2.4, 2.5).
This update (in italic bold) summarizes progress toward
previously-established goals, and in some cases revises these goals based on
current understanding of the status of and opportunities for the NMSU Molecular
Biology Program.
The NMSU Molecular Biology Program (MOLB) is an inter-departmental, cross-disciplinary MS and PhD program, established in 1988. The Molecular Biology Program reports administratively to an Executive Committee comprising the Deans of the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. The program currently includes 24 faculty members represented the departments of Agronomy and Horticulture, Animal and Range Sciences, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science, and Fishery and Wildlife Sciences, as well as the Computing Research Laboratory, the Physical Science Laboratory, and the Molecular Biology Program itself. The program currently has 26 active graduate majors.
As of March 31, 2004, faculty participation in MOLB has
increased to 29 faculty members. The new
faculty are: Donovan Bailey (Biology), Erin Silva (Agronomy and Horticulture),
Carol Potenza (Agronomy and Horticulture), Claudia Trevino (Chemistry and
Biochemistry), and Jinfa Zhang (Agronomy and Horticulture).
The MOLB program has 25 active graduate students. Student activity from August, 2003 to date is
summarized in the table below.
Action Number Names
|
Defended PhD |
2 |
M. Qutyan, J. Abubaker |
|
Defended MS |
3 |
S. Riordan, K. Trujillo, R. Moore |
|
MS to PhD transfer |
2 |
S. Riordan, K. Trujillo |
|
New Recruits Sp 04 |
3 |
M. Barrow, T. Romero, L. Nhan |
|
Transfer in (NMSU) |
2 |
R. Gutierrez, D. Rodriguez |
|
Transfer out (NMSU) |
2 |
R. Molina, D. Sultmeier |
|
On Leave |
2 |
G. Ybarra, R. Moore |
|
Left NMSU |
1 |
B. Vasudevan |
Target 2.1: Increase percent of degree-seeking students at the graduate level to 22% by fall 2005
Increasing graduate student enrollment in the Molecular Biology Program will require:
While goals in these categories are outlined separately below, these requirements are clearly interdependent and demand a coherent strategy to be addressed successfully.
Success in recruiting and retaining quality graduate students is critically dependent on being able to offer a quality curriculum, exciting and relevant research opportunities, and attractive financial support. Molecular biology is an extraordinarily competitive field, in which the best students are actively recruited by top research universities able to offer very attractive financial packages. To be successful in this recruiting competition, NMSU must identify and build on its strengths using a niche-marketing strategy.
MOLB does not admit graduate students for whom funding is not available. This policy is consistent with that of molecular biology departments at other universities, and reflects the time-intensiveness of graduate training in molecular biology.
The policy of admitting new graduate students only when
assistantship or fellowship funding was available was unanimously re-affirmed
at the MOLB faculty meeting February 2, 2004.
Subgoal: Develop recruiting strategies for AY 04-05.
Target: Consistently recruit sufficient incoming students to fill all available supported positions.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Over 100 MOLB information packets have been sent to
prospective students, either via the NMSU Graduate School or in response to
independent requests.
MOLB received a total of 41 applications for admission
in Fall, 2004 by the posted deadline of February 15, 2004. Of these applicants, 8 were current or former
NMSU students, 6 were US citizens or residents not from NMSU, and 27 were
international applicants. International
applicants are primarily from India (14) or China (8).
The MOLB web page (http://darwin.nmsu.edu/~molbio/) is
being redesigned to highlight the program’s strengths. Included in this redesign are additional
pages on MOLB graduate students and their research projects, and on the MOLB
core lab facilities and services.
Subgoal: Develop strategy for recruiting international students with home-country funding.
Target: Consistently recruit at least one international student with home-country funding per year, starting in AY 04-05.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
One student (Lam Dai Nhan) with home-country funding
(Vietnam) began the MOLB PhD program in
January, 2004. Another Vietnamese
student with home-country funding is expected to start in August, 2004.
Subgoal: Improve graduate student retention.
Target: Retain at least 75% of all qualified MS students as PhD students.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
The MOLB Curriculum Committee recommended, and the
faculty adopted at the meeting of December 3, 2003, a requirement that all
graduate students meet with their full committees at least once each semester,
and that these meetings be documented by the MOLB program. A form with which to document these required
committee meetings was developed and distributed to all MOLB faculty and
graduate students.
A MOLB graduate student database has been developed to
track students throughout their graduate careers. This tracking was previously the
responsibility of the individual advisors.
In response to student requests, the administrative
facilities of the MOLB program office have been upgraded to provide student
mailboxes and access to postal, fax, and Federal Express services for program
business at program expense.
The MOLB graduate students were requested in October,
2003 to select a representative who would attend all MOLB faculty meetings and
report on student concerns and issues.
Shara Reihani volunteered for this role, was confirmed by her fellow
students, and began attending faculty meetings in February, 2004. Minutes of faculty meetings are posted on the
MOLB web site.
Negotiations are underway with the NMSU English
Department to provide limited technical editing services to MOLB graduate
students in the final stages of MS Thesis, PhD Dissertation, or research
publication preparation at program expense.
Two MS students, Skye Riordan and Kristina Trujillo, entered the PhD program this spring following successful MS defenses. A third qualified student chose to take a leave of absence following his MS defense.
Goal: Continue curriculum development.
The MOLB program was initiated as a collaboration between faculty in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Agriculture and Home Economics; the program therefore has a history of strength in the application of molecular biological techniques to agricultural problems. Since the program was established, the applicability of molecular, and now genomic techniques to medicine, public health, and related fields, as well as agriculture, has increased enormously, and the new discipline of bioinformatics has become established as a key element of contemporary bioscience and biotechnology. The demand for adequate training in quantitative and computational biology has become sufficient to warrant national attention (Bio 2010, National Research Council, 2003). Successful recruitment and retention of students will increasingly depend on NMSU’s ability to develop and offer a curriculum that meets the requirements imposed by this large-scale evolution of the biosciences.
Subgoal: Extend the MOLB curriculum to encompass additional relevant faculty and courses.
Target: Demonstrable improvements in the MOLB curriculum in response to identified needs.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
The outstanding need in the MOLB curriculum is in
developmental biology. MOLB has
participated in a Biology Department recruiting effort in this area, and
anticipates that Dr. Barbara Lyons will join the MOLB faculty when she arrives
at NMSU in Fall 2004.
The entry of high-level automation into the biomedical
sciences and the consequent rapid growth of biological databases (the volume of
DNA sequence data alone has increased by a factor of approximately 50,000 in
the last decade) has created increasing demand for professional level training
in bioinformatics. An attempt to launch
a new bioinformatics course at the 460 level in Spring 2004 was unsuccessful
due to lack of enrollment. A process to
develop a bioinformatics graduate curriculum has been initiated by the
Bioinformatics subcommittee (Chris Fields, Chair) of the NMSU Information
Sciences Umbrella Committee (Ken Paap, Chair).
MOLB added personal web site development as a bioinformatics requirement
for all graduate students starting Spring 2004.
A web site development workshop has been organized by the MOLB graduate
students for April 16, 2004.
While a number of courses of biomedical relevance are
now offered at NMSU, the curriculum in this area, which constitutes the primary
employment sector for molecular biologists, remains weak. Discussions are in
progress with Dean Jeff Brandon of the College of Health and Social Services on
approaches to developing joint offerings in areas such as molecular diagnostics
or molecular epidemiology. Such courses would almost certainly have to be team
taught if existing faculty are used; hence a mechanism for allocating teaching
credit for team-taught courses across college boundaries will be needed. An ability to offer adjunct faculty or
similar status to experienced clinical practitioners who may not have academic
qualifications as required by current guidelines would facilitate the
development of curriculum offerings in this area.
Goal: Expand research opportunities.
Research opportunities for graduate students are largely dependent on external funding (see Target 2.2 below).
Subgoal: Expand scope of research opportunities for MOLB students.
Target: Demonstrable improvement in breadth of research opportunities to MOLB students.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Five new faculty have joined the MOLB program,
providing new research opportunities in molecular systematics (Bailey), cell
biology (Trevino), genetic engineering (Potenza), and crop improvement (Silva,
Zhang). Two additional faculty members,
in Computer Science and Health Sciences, have expressed interest in MOLB and
are expected to join the MOLB faculty later this spring.
Subgoal: Develop an appropriate mechanism for
interacting with the Las Cruces area medical provider community that will
provide collaboration and advising opportunities to MOLB students pursuing
biomedically-relevant research.
Target:
Expanded and productive research interactions with area medical
community.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Eleven NMSU faculty (4 from MOLB) from A&S and
CHSS submitted a Center Planning Grant (P-20) to NIH (L. Olsen, PI) proposing
to develop a regional Center integrating molecular and sociobehavioral
approaches to improving public health.
Seven members of the area medical community, including three from Ciudad
Juarez, submitted letters of collaboration for this proposal.
Two prospective students already holding MD degrees
have been accepted into the MOLB PhD program for Fall, 2004. Both of these individuals plan to pursue
research that applies molecular analysis methods to problems in public health.
Discussions are underway with Dean Brandon, CHSS
regarding offering Continuing Medical Education through MOLB to area
physicians.
Goal: Increase availability of financial support.
MOLB students are currently supported by MOLB or departmental teaching assistantships (TAs), by externally-funded research assistantships (RAs), or by externally funded (e.g. RISE) fellowships. The primary available mechanism for increasing financial support for graduate students is to increase external research funding (see Target 2.2 below).
Sources of support for MOLB graduate students as of
March 31, 2004 are summarized in the table below.
Source Number Comments
|
MOLB TA |
5 |
3 first-year students |
|
Departmental TA |
5 |
4 first-year students |
|
RISE RA |
9 |
7 PhD, 2 MS |
|
Other RA |
3 |
2 PhD, 1 MS |
|
Fellowship |
1 |
Sloan |
|
Home Country |
1 |
Vietnam |
|
Own Funds |
1 |
No longer resident at NMSU |
This table reflects the extreme vulnerability of MOLB
students to interruptions or decreases in the NIH RISE training grant program
(M. Bernstein, PI), the renewal of which is currently under review at NIH with
a result expected in May, 2004. It also
reflects the intended use of TAs as funding for first-year students, hence as
recruiting tools.
Subgoal: Design and implement an internal NMSU competitive fellowship program.
Target: Proposal with identified funding sources by Spring 2005.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Non-traditional sources of support that could provide
program income that could be used for competitive fellowship or RA support,
including offering Continuing Medical Education (CME) or other services to area
medical providers, are being investigated.
No firm sources for such funds have been identified to date.
Subgoal: Increase availability of non-RISE RAs for MOLB
students.
·
Encourage all program faculty to create
additional RA positions with new or supplemental external grant funding
(Spring, 2004 – ongoing)
·
Initiate multi-investigator proposals that
include RA positions at the Program Director level (Spring 2004-ongoing)
·
Encourage program faculty participation in
multi-investigator proposals initiated by others (Spring 2004-ongoing)
·
Seek RA positions via agreements with other
NMSU units or external institutions (Spring 2004 – ongoing)
·
Identify external grant programs to which
graduate students can apply as PIs or Co-PIs and encourage such applications
(Spring 2004 – ongoing)
Target: At least
33% of MOLB graduate students supported by non-RISE RA funds by Fall, 2006.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Student funding status is now being tracked by the MOLB
student database, and the need for additional RA positions has been discussed
explicitly at MOLB faculty meetings. Two
new RA positions may become available this summer if funded under the 2004
SCORE renewal (J. Gustafson and W. Lott, Co-PIs). Additional RA positions are being requested
in several supplementary SCORE applications to be submitted this summer. Several multi-investigator proposals
including MOLB Co-PIs have been submitted; all request RA positions. One RA has been committed by PSL in the area of
phytoremediation (P. Lammers, PI) using income funds from Genetic Testing Lab
(GTL) operations. Two incoming (Fall,
2004) graduate students who have terminal degrees (MD, MPH) are planning to
submit research or career-development proposals as PIs or Co-PIs by summer,
2004.
Target 7.1: Increase number of Native American first-time students by 18% per year
The MOLB program does not currently include any Native American students.
Correction: This
statement was in error. Olivia George is
a Native American MOLB PhD student.
Recruitment of Native American graduate students would be facilitated by the presence of Native American faculty in departments relevant to MOLB.
Subgoal: Recruit Native American graduate students to MOLB.
Target: Recruit at least one Native American graduate student to MOLB every two years, beginning in 2005.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Subgoal: Facilitate recruitment of qualified Native American faculty in relevant disciplines.
Target: Hiring of at least one Native American faculty member in a relevant discipline by 2005.
Progress to March, 2004:
Prof. G. Kuehn has devoted considerable effort to
identifying and recruiting qualified Native American faculty in areas relevant
to MOLB. Dr. Robert Marquez, a
well-qualified Native American NMSU alumnus, has expressed interest in a
position at NMSU if one can be made available.
Target 7.4: Increase percentage of graduate students in each college who are minorities to 25% in 2005
Currently 6 out of 26 graduate students (23%) in MOLB are Hispanic-surnamed.
Goal: Recruit additional qualified minority graduate students.
Target: Increase minority student enrollment in MOLB to at least 25% by 2005.
Progress to March, 2004:
Ethnic breakdown of current MOLB students is shown in
the table below.
Ethnic/Minority Status
Number
Comments
|
International |
10 |
|
|
U.S. - Hispanic |
7 |
|
|
U.S. – Native American |
1 |
|
|
U.S. – African American |
2 |
|
|
U.S. – non-minority |
5 |
|
Currently a total of 10 out of 25 (40%) of MOLB
students are U.S. self-declared minority students. Of U.S. citizen or permanent resident
students, 10 out of 15 (67%) are self-declared minority students.
Of six prospective students admitted with funding for
Fall, 2004, one is Hispanic and one African American. Four additional minority-student admissions
are pending RISE or Sloan funding notification. Applications were ranked for admission
independently of funding-source availability.
Target 7.5: Increase the number of international graduate students to 500 by 2005-06
Currently 10 out of 26 graduate students (38%) in MOLB are international students.
Goal: Continue to recruit qualified international students.
Target: Consistently recruit at least two qualified international students per year.
Progress to March, 2004:
As shown in the table above, 10 out of 25 (40%) of
current MOLB students are international.
Two international students have been admitted for Fall, 2004, one with
home-country funding.
Target 7.6: Maintain a balance of female graduate students commensurate with our peers (Current average proportion of women at peer institutions is 49.5%)
Currently 11 out of 26 graduate students (42%) in MOLB are female.
Goal: Recruit additional qualified female students.
Target: Achieve and maintain a 3-year running average of 50% +/- 5% female graduate student enrollment in MOLB by 2005.
Progress to March, 2004:
Currently 13 out of 25 (52%) of MOLB students are
female. Three of six (50%) students
admitted for Fall 2004 are female; three of four (75%) of students who will be
admitted if RISE or Sloan funds are available are female.
A strong program of externally-funded research is crucial to recruiting and retaining qualified graduate students and faculty, and to placing graduates in degree-appropriate jobs following graduation. MOLB faculty are currently supported by Agricultural Experiment Station funding, by a large SCORE program grant from the National Institutes of Health (G. Kuehn, PI), and by numerous individual research grants. A competing renewal proposal for the SCORE program grant was submitted to NIH by Dr. Kuehn in June, 2003.
Molecular biology is an instrumentation-intensive discipline. Strengthening NMSU’s position as a research institution in molecular bioscience and biotechnology requires strengthening our core facilities, and bringing these facilities into a coherent management and financial structure. Doing this will require cross-college and cross-departmental cooperation.
Target 2.2: Increase external research dollars for research, creative activity and other sponsored programs by 6% per year
Subgoal: Develop, document, and implement a research strategy for MOLB.
Target: Documented MOLB research strategy for distribution to deans and VPR by January, 2004, updated quarterly thereafter.
Progress to March 2004:
NIH has confirmed that 8 projects proposed by MOLB
faculty as Co-PIs will be supported beginning in June, 2004 by the SCORE
program (G. Kuehn, PI) renewal. An
additional 7 projects are being proposed by MOLB faculty in the summer, 2004
SCORE Supplementary submission.
Following a review of NMSU campus-wide activities,
pathogen-related R&D and Operations was identified as a suitable candidate
for a strategic funding effort. As of
FY03, NMSU income in this area totaled $11 million, with a cumulative average 5
year growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15%.
A concept for strategic marketing efforts to increase income growth in
this area was presented to Interim Vice Provost for Research Hills and
Associate Deans for Research Paap (A&S), Dougherty (AGHE), Schoenmakers
(ENG), and Olsen (CHSS) on December 4, 2003.
Based on input received at this meeting, a high-level Business Plan was
developed and presented to CORC on March 12, 2004. Marketing and business development issues
associated with this concept were discussed further with Dean Carruthers of
CBAE on March 19. The key requirement of
this plan is the identification of professional-level marketing resources that
can be allocated to a strategic opportunities analysis and an NMSU-wide
capabilities marketing effort.
A proposed Congressional Initiative in the area of
pathogen surveillance has been generated by MOLB and routed through A&S and
OVPR. A second initiative in this area
was generated in collaboration with PSL for the NM Office of Homeland Security;
this initiative is also being considered as a possible Congressional Initiative
for DHS. Existing and planned activities
in this area are consistent with and will be incorporated into the Advanced
Technology Center merging security and decision analysis technologies being
proposed to the NM Technology Research Corridor by NMSU OVPR, as presented to
CORC on March 12.
Subgoal: Strengthen MOLB core facilities.
Target: Core facility integration under a defined cost-center structure by Spring 2005.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
MOLB currently provides the following core facilities:
Dr. Jeongwon Jun manages the DNA sequencing service;
Dr. John Spalding manages the computing facilities.
Dr. Spalding, with assistance from PSL, upgraded the
operating system of the Beowulf cluster in February, 2004, which allowed
updated versions of public DNA sequence databases and additional sequence
analysis capabilities to be made available.
Room W357J of the Chemistry/Biochemistry building is
being upgraded to serve as a shared tissue culture and fluorescence microscopy
facility. MOLB has committed $5,000 in
student support funds to support this facility.
Completion of the BSL-3 facility, CB W350 has been delayed. A meeting to resolve the status of this facility was held March 18, 2004, at which Vice President Ben Woods committed funds and effort as needed to complete this facility by November, 2004.
Target 2.3: Move
to 100th place in total Research & Development expenditures at
universities and colleges in the nation by FY2007 (FY2002 ranking is 114th)
This target will be addressed by the research strategy developed to address target 2.2.
Target 2.4: Increase number of companies in Arrowhead Research Park to 10 by 2008
This target will be addressed by the spin-off strategy outlined to address target 2.5.
Creation of new commercial entities requires expertise in management and marketing that academic scientists typically do not possess and cannot quickly gain on their own.
Subgoal: Increase level of awareness of MOLB faculty in business development opportunities and available resources.
Target: Improved faculty knowledge of business development opportunities.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
Discussions of business development opportunities have
been initiated with Dean Carruthers and Dr. Richard Oliver of CBAE, with a
focus on opportunities in the area of pathogen analysis as described above
(Target 2.2).
Subgoal: Spin off existing Genetic Testing Laboratory (GTL) as a commercial business.
Target: GTL Spin-off in Fall 2005.
Progress to March 31, 2004:
GTL continues to employ the ABI 3100 and a quantitative plate imaging system belonging to MOLB. These instruments, together with the expertise of Drs Lammers and Spalding, GTL Director and Operations Manager respectively, represent a substantial and ongoing investment by MOLB in GTL operations.
Income from GTL operations has increased dramatically since December, 2003 when GTL began purchasing advertising on Google.com, with March, 2004 income after advertising expenses exceeding $48,000. PSL has agreed to purchase additional automation equipment that will allow considerably higher throughput operations with current staff. While the accounting procedures that are currently in place, which involve both PSL and PSI accounting systems, do not currently allow a fully-transparent breakdown of GTL costs, GTL is believed to be producing income at or somewhat above its full operating expenses at this time.
Discussions involving GTL, PSL, and CBAE have been
initiated on the topics of marketing, business development, and business
organization strategies for GTL.
Development of a fully-transparent accounting system for GTL is an important
goal of this process. Once such a system
is in place, an informed analysis of market opportunity and net income growth
potential that considers various available organizational and financial
management options can be carried out.