Biology Department at CSUN Gets Grant

Nearly $400,000 in federal grant money was awarded to Cal State Northridge’s biology department, officials announced Monday.

The money will be used to buy microscopes and other laboratory equipment for biology and chemistry classes, said Jennifer Matos, assistant professor of biology and one of the principal investigators responsible for the grant.

“I am delighted to receive this grant and this will make a real difference in regard to teaching and research,” said Matos, who submitted the grant application last October.

“The equipment that we will purchase with the grant money will serve a dual purpose of giving students exposure to molecular techniques and to increase the faculty’s ability to do molecular biology research,” she said.

The money was part of nearly $8 million in grants awarded by the Army Research Office of the Department of Defense to 42 minority-serving institutions across the country and Puerto Rico, Matos said.

Cal State Northridge was designated as an “Hispanic Serving Institution,” due to its 33.5% Latino undergraduate enrollment in the biology department, which allowed the university to apply for the grant, she said.

“We’d have to have a minimum of 25% undergraduate enrollment of Latino students in order for us to apply,” said Mark Lipschutz, director of research at CSUN.

Matos said the purpose of the grants is to train the next generation of scientists for the defense department and increase the number of minority science graduates.