Rather than placing individual students with individual faculty, or integrating parts of research into traditional laboratory courses, the FRI revolves around the "Research Stream,"a fully functional research laboratory in which students do cutting edge research that is supplemented by weekly lectures that are organized around the work being done in the lab.

Each research stream is led by a faculty member who has designed a program of research using our educational model to pursue their fundamental research questions. These faculty provide guidance to their respective Research Streams, set goals and directions, and develop and teach the Research Experience course to the students within their stream. The research labs themselves are each run by a Research Educator (RE), a PhD research scientist dedicated to each Research Stream.

Students have the option to continue through the summer and will return in the fall to receive research credit for continued work in their lab.

• Supramolecular Sensors
• Computational Nanoparticle
• Nanomaterials for Chemical Catalysis

• Biobrick
• Aptamer Selection
• Mitochondrial Gene Expression

• Discovery Laboratory in Plant Biology
• Vertebrate Interactome Mapping
• Viral Evolution

• Autonomous Vehicles
• Computational Intelligence in Game Design
• Virtual Drug Screening
• Frontiers of Linear Algebra Library Development

Other

• Lloyd Stream
• Martin Stream
• Iyer Stream
• Jones and Holliday Stream

Physics

• TBD

Chemistry

In this stream, students learn organic chemistry techniques that make them capable of performing solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS).  The peptides created are used as components of an indicator displacement assay that is performed in an array. The students also implement the assays, which are targeted to the classification of wines, and perhaps other systems for metabolic analysis. 

Calculations of catalytic reactions at nanoparticles:  Computer simulations will be used to investigate metal nanoparticle catalysts, and compare their reactivity to what is  measured in the companion experimental stream.  Students will also be  able to construct their own particles, each with a different  composition and structure, and use quantum chemistry calculations to  evaluate their properties in order to design new catalysts. 

In our lab, we make nanoparticles that are in the nanometer scale (10^ -9m!), and use them as catalysts to efficiently convert reactants into useful products that have potential applications for fuels production, environmental remediation, and specialty chemicals production. To limit the particles to nano scale, we use "dendrimers", a class of large organic molecules resembling a tree-branch structure, as "containers" or "molecular templates" in synthesis to make nanomaterials with uniform size, shape and composition. 

Biochemistry

Our research stream involves synthesizing genes from short DNA fragments, piecing them together like Legos (BioBricks) with molecular cloning tools to build protein expression "machines" that function in bacteria.  The proteins we will "build" range from factors in involved in plant protein synthesis to fluorescent proteins from coral with new properties. You will receive training in all aspects of molecular cloning as well as recombinant protein expression in bacteria.

In this research stream, undergraduates will perform in vitro nucleic acid selection experiments against a variety of biomedically relevant protein and cell targets.  They will learn about both the underlying biochemistry of human disease, and about the process of biopolymer drug development.  In the lab, students will plan research goals, learn fundamental molecular biology techniques, design and conduct experiments, and analyze and archive data.  As a result students will be in a position to apply their knowledge to new problems, potentially of their own design 

Genetic Dissection of the Mitochondrial Gene Expression Machinery:  Mitochondria possess the machinery to replicate and express their own DNA, which is essential for the proper function of this critical cellular organelle.  This Research Stream will utilize the power of yeast genetics to identify and dissect the mitochondrial gene expression machinery. 

Biology

Students in this stream carry out never-done-before experiments and discover new findings on significant research questions related to the topic of signal transduction. In so doing, they learn methods of experimental design, data gathering, data interpretation, and data presentation, and they learn principles of stimulus-response coupling that apply equally well to animals and plants. 

Essential functions in gene expression and other cell functions are performed by complexes containing large numbers of proteins, and an important step in understanding these processes is cataloging the proteins present and characterizing the interactions between them.  We are using genetic recombination in bacteria and in animal cells to attach tags to vertebrate genes and to replace the normal gene in cultured cell with the tagged version, allowing us to purify the protein as it is normally expressed using the tag, and identify the other proteins that interact with it. 

You will evolve (safe) viruses to new environmental or genetic conditions and determine the genetic bases of adaptation.  This will help you answer questions about how organisms evolve, as well as the predictability of evolution in an organism with a well studied genetic interaction map.

Computer Sciences

The goal of this stream is to create a fully autonomous vehicle that can drive in traffic.  Students will learn about, and contribute to cutting-edge research in, artificial intelligence and robotics. 

In this class, you will learn about different aspects of video game technology and will get hands on experience in working with a real game engine. You will also be exposed to cutting-edge AI research that may play a central role in the next generation of video games. 

The research uses computers to match proteins (potential drug targets) with a library of pre-existing inhibitor candidates.  This method is being used by many pharmaceutical firms to identify potential drugs. 

Linear algebra is not just a subject in mathematics, it is a fundamental tool of scientific computing since many applications at their core require compute intensive matrix operations to be performed.  In this course we examine new
techniques for developing high-performance libraries for these operations, targeting modern architectures including processors with multiple cores. Importantly, these techniques allow novices with little background in linear algebra and computer science to develop algorithms and implementations
that outperform traditional libraries.

Physics