Conference To Forge Partnerships Among Industry, Higher Education Researchers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - More than 300 students, university faculty, and industry researchers from Arkansas and surrounding states will meet on the University of Arkansas campus September 19 and 20 to share the latest research techniques in their fields during the 2003 BRIN Research Symposium, "Networking Arkansas Institutions of Higher Learning."

Multidisciplinary and innovative, the Arkansas Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) was created to promote partnerships among universities and private industries, open up the resources of university campuses to researchers in the sciences, and to share information in rapidly developing fields such as digital microscopy, biotechnology, and protein structure and function.

"This conference will easily be one of the largest of its kind ever held in Arkansas, bringing together faculty and students from four-year schools as well as surrounding states in chemistry, biology, biochemistry and physics," said Dean Donald R. Bobbitt of Fulbright College, who serves as director of student mentoring for BRIN.

The Arkansas BRIN is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established specifically to broaden the geographic areas awarded NIH funding for biomedical and behavioral research. The lead institutions are the University of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Currently there are BRIN programs in 23 states and Puerto Rico.

"An essential purpose of the Arkansas BRIN is to facilitate the recruitment and development of undergraduate faculty and ensure they have the training and resources they need to compete for research funding," Bobbitt said.

Symposium participants will survey the latest research and teaching techniques in the sciences during two days of hands-on workshops and lectures. The Recruitment and Mentoring Core co-directed by Bobbitt and Dr. Helen Benes of UAMS, allows researchers at the U of A, UAMS, and UALR, who are organized into thematic research groups, to mentor new and existing undergraduate faculty through summer research programs.

These programs also offer fellowships that allow talented undergraduate students to take part in biomedical research in established laboratories. Through these activities, scientists participating in the Arkansas BRIN hope to build biomedical research capacity in Arkansas, to increase the number of faculty with extramurally funded biomedical research programs, and to encourage undergraduate students to pursue graduate studies in the biomedical sciences.

The symposium will include the following talks at the Donald W. Reynolds Center auditorium.

Friday September 19

1 p.m. - Opening remarks by Donald R. Bobbitt and Larry Cornett, Arkansas BRIN director and professor, UAMS department of physiology and biophysics.
1:15 p.m. - Patricia Wight, associate professor, UAMS department of physiology and biophysics, will present "When, Where and How Much: Regulation of myelin Plp (proteolipid protein) Gene Expression."
2 p.m. - Ralph Henry, associate professor, UA biological sciences, will present "Farmaceutical Pharming: The Art of Making Pharmaceutical Proteins in Plants."
3 p.m. - Featured speaker Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea and professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will present "Enlightenment and the Responsibility of the Enlightened."
4:15 p.m. - Poster session in the Reynolds Center banquet rooms with topics in biology, chemistry and physics.
Shakhashiri is known best for his annual program, ""Once Upon a Christmas Cheery/In the Lab of Shakhashiri," and has earned acclaim as the "dean" of lecture demonstrators in America. His shows have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Time, and on national and local radio and television programs, including NBC Nightly News, CNN and The Larry King Show.

The public is invited to attend the lectures and poster session.

The symposium will conclude Saturday with hands-on workshops on topics ranging from mass spectrometry to teaching techniques in the sciences. Prior registration is required for the workshops.