MEDIA ADVISORY - The College of Western Idaho (CWI) is beginning to increase its footprint in the Idaho biomedical research community thanks to its newly forming inclusion in the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). For the past year CWI has been participating in Idaho INBRE, which is a collaboration of education and research between 11 institutions in the state, and this fall CWI will officially be welcomed as a partnering institution.
As part of the College’s INBRE involvement, CWI sent four students to the 2013 INBRE Conference, held Aug. 5-7 in Moscow, Idaho. The College validated its presence as a pair of students with CWI connections received prestigious honors at the conference. CWI student, Patricia Turmes, brought home the Best Scholars Poster award for her collaboration with Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) student, Boone Rhinehart. Their poster, titled Sequencing the GAPDH Gene of the Deplospermia cooperi Ice Plant, earned top honors out of hundreds of undergraduate submissions. The illustration mapped a gene in ice plants that breaks down glucose.
“As a student at a new community college, it was exciting to show the local academic institutions that CWI is capable and ready to join the biomedical research community,” said Turmes. “I am truly grateful for the research and networking opportunities I was given through my participation in the INBRE program.”
Turmes participated in the research and poster collaboration as a CWI student. She has since graduated and is attending Idaho State University.
CWI alum, John McMillan, also celebrated an individual achievement at the conference as he was selected for an INBRE Fellows Scholarship. McMillan, who now attends University of Idaho, has been offered a position in Dr. Onesmo Balemba’s lab within the U of I Biological Sciences department.
In addition to the INBRE scholarship, College of Western Idaho is sponsoring $5,000 to be used towards scholar position opportunities for CWI students excelling in the science program.
“Having CWI as a partnering institution in the INBRE program will provide a huge advantage to our students by allowing them to gain research experience in the in-demand field of biomedical research,” said Brian McClain, CWI Physical & Natural Sciences Assistant Professor. “The scholarships that CWI is sponsoring to support this program will allow CWI’s outstanding science students to be competitive with students across the state.”