Pierce Hopes to Fund DNA Research Course

Pierce College biotechnology program officials are awaiting a decision on the renewal of a grant held by an Ohio-based university, which, if approved, would allow Pierce instructors to give other community college science faculty hands-on experience in genetic engineering.

Pierce instructor Martin Ikkanda said the group was asked to submit a proposal to Miami University in Middletown, Ohio, to help the university gain renewed funding of a $1.2-million Advanced Technology Education grant from the National Science Foundation.

“We may be the only college in the Western states to be asked to do that,” he said.

If approved, Pierce would probably receive funding to offer a weeklong “Science and Ethics of Biotechnology” class to two-year college faculty members around the nation. The course involves recombinant DNA research techniques.

“This stuff is still pretty new and most college faculty have not actually done this work before,” Ikkanda said. “They might teach it in a lecture, but may not have actually done it.”

Miami University is not expected to learn the fate of the grant until sometime this spring, but Ikkanda said there is a good chance it will be approved since the foundation encouraged the university to submit the proposals.

Pierce was chosen in part because it has the equipment necessary to do the experiments and it has instructors familiar with the process of combining genes, Ikkanda said.