NEW YORK, April 9 (GenomeWeb News) - Agilent technologies has donated $150,000 in microarray kits to Rhodes College, of Memphis, Tenn., for use in its biology classes, the company said late yesterday.
The microarrays will be used specifically in molecular genetics and molecular biology problem solving exercises, and to help the school plan a new indisciplinary program in molecular genetics, cell biology and biochemistry, the company said.
Numerous students at this college of about 1,500 students go on to careers in medicine or science, and work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, the company said. (In fact, Diyven Patel, a former researcher at St. Jude's, has founded a microarray service firm in Memphis, Genome Explorations.)
"When compared to large research universities, liberal arts colleges have relatively small laboratory and research budgets, but they graduate a disproportionately large number of the country's future biomedical researchers, health administrators and policy-makers," Gary Lindquester, chairman of the Department of Biology at Rhodes College, said in a statement. "Gifts such as this provide our future research and health professionals with experiences that will inform and excite them about the latest tools in molecular research."