Amanda Yarnall
By: Amanda Yarnall
Whetstone Staff
Wesley College’s science department has recently gained millionaire status.
The science department got $1.1 million through an INBRE grant, part of a five-year program renewed in March.
The Delaware INBRE established a statewide network linking Delaware institutions of higher education and clinical care and research.
The grant, provided by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health, totaled $17,379,872.
This grant also awarded money the University of Delaware, the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, Delaware State University, the Delaware Technical and Community College, Nemours/A. I. DuPont Children’s Hospital, and the Christiana Hospital Health Care System.
The point of the grant is to establish a statewide infrastructure to build a biomedical research capacity in Delaware.
Dr. Malcolm D’Souza, a professor of chemistry at Wesley, said about 44 percent of the grant will be spent directly on Wesley students, 30 percent on personnel costs, and 26 percent will go toward supplies and equipment. Ten percent of the grant will go toward administrative costs.
Wesley students may use the money to do original research, work one-on-one with a faculty member, or get paid as research assistants.
“Wesley science and nursing majors can participate in the INBRE-program if they have a GPA of 3.0 or are strongly recommended by a science faculty member,†D’Souza said.
Not only will much of the equipment and supplies used in the laboratories be upgraded, but it will also include renovations to the labs themselves.
Instead of keeping chemicals on the countertops, they now will now have a safe home for themselves, D’Souza said.
