Meet Your Search for Research Microgrant Winners!

Last week the inaugural Search for Research competition came to an exciting conclusion.  While there was movement all across the leaderboard, the eventual top two finishers battled it out for the top spot with over 1000 votes between them in the final 24 hours!  Luckily, thanks to all of your support in downloading and using the toolbar, we raised enough money to fund both of them!  So let’s meet the first class of Microgrant award winners.

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First Place

Photo by Alex Snyder

Tim Williams

Tim Williams is an undergraduate at Ohio University in the Department of Environmental and Plant Biology. From early on he has been eager to get involved in research. As an over-ambitious freshmen he quickly realized how little he knew and how unprepared he was for research. He has spent his last two years filling his course load with everything he could to remedy this even taking a PhD level lab course. He has recently been accepted into the lab of his choice, lead by Dr. Sarah Wyatt and he couldn’t be happier.

Tim intends to use the grant money provided by BenchFly to buy UV water filtration systems to avoid the algae-induced 80% mortality rate (per month) that plagued the preliminary studies on Isoetes’ growth regulation. Water monitoring equipment will also be purchased to regulate the environmental conditions as has been impossible to date. Isoetes is not readily available and without a large, stable, controlled population, significant progress would be impossible.

How long have you been performing research?

I have only very recently gotten involved in independent research. This spring I am completing a PhD level course on cellular and molecular lab techniques so that I might be as prepared as possible for my lab position. My progress on the Isoetes project has been to compile the background knowledge to improve on previous mistakes. I will formally begin after the Isoetes is ready to be collected, which will be soon.

What got you interested in science?

I have been interested in science as long as I have been alive. I can remember being frustrated by the lack of information online before even Google existed. As a kid, no one had satisfactory answers for my questions, but my family encouraged me in every way. In grade school I realized that “why?” is more important than “what?” because once “why?” is answered, it explains everything else. That question, “why?” is what science is all about.

What are some of the major problems you face in performing research?

As a sophomore, my largest hurdle to performing research has been getting a foot in the door. I wanted to start as a freshman, but that option never materialized. It takes a mix of ability, an open spot in a lab, and funding to get this to work. This grant helped close that last gap so I can finally begin in earnest.

How will the BenchFly Microgrant help you move your project forward?

The Benchfly Microgrant is essential to this project. The project was at a stand-still. With no funding, the project has been inactive for over a year. The previous research on Isoetes has been plagued by murderous brown algae. I will now be able to properly combat this foe so that the Isoetes specimens may live long enough to be studied properly. This project is now able to resume with increased vigor.

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Runner-Up

Sergio Diez-de-Medina

Sergio is a Biochemist at the Universidad de Chile who holds a Masters degree in Technology Management from the Universidad de Talca. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD in Biotechnology at Universidad Andrés Bello with the support of a CONICYT fellowship. He works in Plant Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics with Dr. Herman Silva searching for pathogen resistance and biohydrogen production within chilean potato varieties. He also acts as a managing editor for the technology management journal www.jotmi.org.

How long have you been performing research?

If I consider the undergraduate research units that I did before getting into Plant Biotechnology then I’ve been in the lab since 1999, but I´d rather say that I really started research when I got into this field in 2002.

What got you interested in science?

Ever since I was a kid, everything related to science grabbed my attention, particularly astronomy. Also, I think playing with fire and making funny mixtures in the backyard played a role too. But after I met chemistry in high school, I just got captivated by her.

What are some of the major problems you face in performing research?

Considering that I work in a country so distant from the rest of the world, receiving our reagents and equipment in time to perform our work is a major challenge.  Also, I must say that the opportunities for scientists in Chile are very unfavorable, economically speaking. Maybe this is the reason why so many good Chilean researchers go overseas to find a job after grad school (quality of life factor).

How will the BenchFly Microgrant help you move your project forward?

These days I´m looking forward to finding some interesting genes in these potato varieties. So to have a good precision micropipettors will help me to develop the molecular biology assays that I need to use.

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Here are their proposals:

Resurrecting a Fossil: A Window on Evolution (Tim Williams)

Isoetes is an ancient plant, descended from the Earth’s first giant trees around 420 million years ago. These trees reached 180 feet in just a few years, capturing a huge amount of CO2 and forming much of the present-day coal. Modern Isoetes have a defect in growth regulation keeping them very short. By understanding how Isoetes works, we can learn a lot about early plant evolution, and we may even be able to restore these amazing trees. This grant will help establish a controlled population Isoetes and will offset the material cost of the research.

Super-Potatoes!!! (Sergio Diez-de-Medina)

Potato is one of the most important crops included in human diet. Worldwide the production of potatoes is affected by several pathogens, been one of the most devastating Phytophtora infestans, which caused in 19th century the great irish famine. Nowadays this pathogen is still an issue due to its complexity. Lately has been identified chilean potato varieties that are substancially resistant to highly aggresive Phytophtora isolates. A Benchfly microgrant will be very useful to buy materials to identify the molecular reasons of the natural resistance in these chilean “super potatoes.”

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Congratulations again to our winners and thanks to everyone who participated in the Search for Research contest!

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