Calvin Gets Grant for Sophisticated Microscope

Calvin College has received a $338,000 National Science Foundation  grant to purchase a highly sophisticated Fluidigm BioMark HD.

The technical device is expected to have far-reaching benefits for research and study within Calvin’s science division. And it will also have practical implications outside of the classroom.

One group that will directly benefit from this is the Plaster Creek Stewards. The group—which includes Calvin faculty, staff and students—will use the instrument to monitor nearby Plaster Creek.

“One of the problems with Plaster Creek is that it has a lot of microbial contamination, indicating that it’s getting input from—we don’t really know—but it could be human subject systems, it could be farm animals, it could be pets, it could be all of those,” said Randall DeJong, a biology professor at Calvin.

Students and faculty who monitor the creek will be able to conduct tests considerably faster and implement more sample sites because of the instrument, DeJong said.

The highly sensitive instrument uses a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which amplifies DNA molecules and can detect low levels of DNA.

“In one run you can do somewhere between 1,000 and 7,000 reactions, and get the data in a matter of a few hours, with much reduced setup,” DeJong said. “If you were going to do that on our conventional machines it would take months.”

DeJong was one of the chief undertakers in applying for the NSF grant. Biology professor John Wertz and engineering professor David Wunder were also involved with the grant application.

The new Fluidigm BioMark HD instrument will be used in a variety of other ways by the science department, too. John Wertz, a Calvin biology professor, studies the microorganisms in termite guts that are vital for digesting wood.

The science department plans to incorporate the research into the science curricula.

DeJong credits the NSF grant approval to the long-term support of donors, which likely helped Calvin’s application for the grant. About a year ago, private donations helped make it possible for the science department to purchase a DNA sequencer.