Local donations and grants totaling $290,000 to the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has led to the creation of a new molecular biology laboratory that promises new learning and research opportunities.

According to biology Professor Ruth Ballard, a group of faculty from the Chemistry and Biological Sciences Departments which calls itself the Molecular Biology Interdisciplinary Group has been awarded a National Science Foundation Grant, a grant from the Merck Foundation, and CSUPERB grant.

Chemistry Professor Linda Roberts credits the cooperative spirit between the departments as key to the venture?s success.

“The bottom line is that we have limited space and resources, so we have to share them so they can go further,” Roberts said.

The idea for the molecular biology lab began three years ago, when the faculty who eventually formed MBIG grew frustrated trying to work with tight space and limited funds, Ballard said.

“We all were facing the same frustrations of not having enough money, space and time to do our research,” Ballard said. “We also envisioned a place where students who were doing the same type of techniques could interface.”

Roberts agreed that mingling disciplines is a big upside to the new lab.

“The lab will promote interdisciplinary research,” Roberts said. “Eventually we want to establish peer teaching between disciplines as we grow.”

Ballard said students would benefit from working in the lab after they graduate.

“In the laboratory, when you?re doing actual cutting-edge research, you?re getting what I call ?competence experience,?” Ballard said. “You?re learning how the technique really works. Employers and graduate schools value that highly.”

Funding for the lab came from several sources after MBIG members began searching for seed money.

“We got funded (with a) $200,000 grant, with $100,000 coming from the NSF and $100,000 (from the) university,” Ballard said.

Merck, a chemical company, awarded $60,000 to fund undergraduate research in the lab. CSUPERB, which is part of the California State University system, tossed in another $30,000 for the facility, Ballard said.

Other area entities, including Calgene, Inc., Applied Biosystems, Gene Screen, the California Department of Justice and the University of California, Davis, have donated equipment to the lab because of MBIG?s work, Ballard said.

“We?ve been very successful in getting a lot of equipment,” Ballard said. “We?re talking probably $60,000 to $80,000 worth of equipment donated from the community.”

The lab is up and running in the basement of Sequoia Hall, and new equipment is coming in all the time, Ballard said.

“One of the really exciting things that just happened this week is that we purchased a 310 Genetic Analyzer, which is about a $70,000 piece of equipment,” Ballard said. “This piece of equipment will allow us to do state-of-the-art DNA sequencing and forensic DNA analysis.”

However, the influx of new equipment presents some challenges. According to Ballard, the university has been slow to provide ongoing support for the lab.

“This university doesn?t have a history or culture of research, so they don?t have any system set up for doing it,” Ballard said. “We don?t have maintenance contracts for anything (in the lab). We can?t get money for maintenance contracts. So even when we get equipment donated, we don?t have the money to maintain it.”

Roberts said that MBIG depends on equipment technicians Roger Reaume and Gordon Zanotti from the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Chemistry Department?s equipment technician James Vanicek for lab repairs.

“Our repair people are worth their weight in gold,” Roberts said.

Service contracts aren?t the only problem the group is facing. According to Ballard, when the lab gets equipment donated, there is often no one to pick it up for them.

“The head of development from the dean?s office and I drove out to Vacaville to pick up a $5,000 refrigerator that was donated by a company there,” Ballard said. “We?re both small women, and the whole time we?re driving back from Vacaville we?re trying to think how we?re going to unload it.”

Roberts said she has picked up entire truckloads of equipment by herself.

“We?ve got a problem with moving equipment,” Roberts said. “Early on, things have been chaotic.”

MBIG has formed a committee to address the issue, and Roberts is confident a solution will be found.

Some of the research that will be taking place in the lab is very advance, including a study of the anti-cancer properties of native California plants and work on combining vaccines with edible plants, Ballard said.

MBIG will hold a fall symposium Oct. 16 that will be open to the campus, Ballard said.

“It?s going to be our open house,” Ballard said. “We?ll have all our donors here and our students, and we?ll have a kind of grand opening.”