September 13, 2023
Division of Biology professor receives grant to enhance biodiversity resources at K-State
Submitted by Division of Biology
Andrew Hope, assistant professor of biology, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Kansas State University Biorepository for mammals and mammalian parasites.
The $276,954 project will renovate, securely house and digitize the existing 2,500-specimen mammal collection in the Division of Biology as well as provide infrastructure for future growth of mammalian specimens and their parasites.
"Modern biorepositories, which are museums that preserve and archive biological materials for research and education, are seeing increased demand from research spanning many disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, environmental science and studies of emerging diseases," Hope said. "Technological advances are allowing for old collections to be digitized into decentralized, searchable databases and for new materials to be preserved for applications associated with genomics, stable isotope analyses, and dynamics of host-parasite evolutionary associations."
Hope's project will ensure that these collections become available for use by the global scientific community, have the capacity for future growth, and are rigorously preserved. The Kansas State University Biorepository will house specimens associated with the Konza Long Term Ecological Research program and more broadly across Kansas and the Great Plains, further advancing K-State as a leader in biodiversity research in the region.