Provided by Narayanan Rajendran

Visiting researcher Narayanan Rajendran at the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility.

A researcher from Kentucky State University has chosen Cornell's National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Nanobiotechnology Center (NBTC) to fulfill a faculty-training grant that will allow him to create a nanobiotechnology course at his home institution.

Narayanan Rajendran, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and biotechnology at Kentucky State University and a visiting assistant professor at Cornell, was one of five faculty members nationwide to receive an award, funded by the NSF through the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. The grant supports minority faculty members to train at one of 13 science and technology centers around the country and then to return to their home institutions and implement new programs and courses.

Rajendran, whose 10-week training at Cornell began in early May, has learned about biomolecular nanodevices and nucleic acid analysis, working closely with Professor Larry Walker in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering. Rajendran has studied the use of nanoparticles to trap and analyze bacterial DNA in soil bacterial communities. The technique also has many other potential uses, including medical DNA analysis. Rajendran will use the training to develop a nanobiotechnology course at Kentucky State.

"Getting trained here at the NBTC will change the course of my future planning on biomolecular analysis of nucleic acids and nanobiotechnology approaches," said Rajendran. "The main purpose of the QEM grant is to give awareness of science and technology such as nanobiotechnology to undergraduate and graduate students so we can build human resources for future nanobiotechnology work."