Pathways Bioinformatics Center

New announcements! - June 03, 2009

The Pathways Bioinformatics & Biomolecular Center, part of the Science Division at the City College of New York (CCNY) seeks to attract promising undergraduate students to major in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and to establish a solid foundation for their future careers. At CCNY, broad access to science is assured by providing a supportive environment in introductory science courses through PLTL workshop. Every semester, more than 600 students (mainly freshman in General Chemistry) participate in PLTL workshops.

The Gateway Research Training Laboratory has acquired all major equipment for gene sub-cloning, protein expression and purification. Students will learn bench work skills in molecular structural biology and gain research experience in protein structure characterization using UV, NMR and x-ray crystallography.

We use the interdisciplinary field of Bioinformatics as a unified theme to prepare STEM students with diverse background for early participation in research training. Students participating in the workshop are introduced to cutting edge interdisciplinary research fields, such as molecular structural biology, molecular genetics, gene expression profiling, and bio-nanotechnology.

Research emphasizes protein structure analysis and modeling, micro-array gene expression data analysis, and structural characterization of protein-DNA interactions, as well as bio-nanomaterials. Students’ research has led to fruitful results which have been presented at NYC local and national scientific meetings, and have been published in major scientific journals.

Biomedical Engineering Design and Experimental Methods Lab Two state-of-the-art teaching labs have been completed and are being actively used to provide student with hands-on experimental in biomedical engineering. This includes bio-electronics, instrumentation, bio-sensors, and cell culture teaching labs.

During the academic year ongoing orientation workshops and instrument demonstrations for high school students in collaboration with the College NOW program help to engage students and stimulate their interest in STEM disciplines and in college and university STEM programs of study.

*Funded by NSF STEP Program, HHMI Education Program and the Science Division of City College