Wesley College has been awarded a $1.7 million grant to help expand its biomedical research programs. The grant comes from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Malcolm D’Souza, professor of chemistry at Wesley College, says that the four-year grant will fund a number of areas of biomedical research. That includes their ongoing research in obesity and lately, D’Souza says they want to pay extra attention to young adults attending the college.
“Unfortunately students are not taught how to eat correctly. And that’s something we are beginning to deal with," said D'Souza. "So one of the faculty members is actually going to develop a course in diabetes to counteract that effect.”
Another part of the grant will fund a new minor in informatics. D’Souza says this minor is geared towards science majors with the goal of equipping them with skills to interpret and organize data in a way that’s understandable.
“Especially with electronic health records and stuff like that, there is a need for informatics in the sciences,” said D'Souza, who also leads Wesley College’s directed research STEM program, which involves 72 undergraduate researchers and has a 92 percent student retention rate.
The minor will be developed in collaboration with Delaware State University and the UD Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.
Other portions of the grant will be directed towards student research projects, increased mentorship from faculty and more advanced equipment for their laboratories. The funding will last until 2019.