UC, Riverside was awarded an HHMI Institutional Grant in 2014. The goals of the project are to expand the Dynamic Genome Course, offer a summer research experience for up to 20 students and host career events for UCR sophomores. These programs are designed to help students become aware of scientific research process and careers available to biology majors. 

Dynamic Genome Course was developed at the the University of Georgia and brought to UCR in 2011. Starting with one sections per quarter we have slowly ramped up, adding one section per quarter each year. Part of the HHMI funds supports this expansion from 4 per quarter to 8 per quarter in 2019. At completion over one-third of life science majors will take the DG course.

2016 HHMI SALSA Scholars Program 

We had 20 UCR students in the program this summer. 

2015 HHMI-SALSA Scholars

This summer the 11 Scholars were joined by 13  USDA DG Scholars and all worked in the Campbell Laboratory for nine weeks. During that time the genotyped seedlings from Fairchild Mandarin and identified potentially active transposable elements. Students got to the cloning stage for 20 of the 22 elements identified. 

Students also investigated using CRISPR technology to propose a solution to a food security issue. They attended a three day workshop at the Keck Graduate Institute to learn about risk assessment, IP issues, and marketing. They presented their ideas and finding during an oral presentation that concluded with a recommendation as to whether the project was viable.