Tusculum College receives $20,000 grant

Tusculum College faculty members Dr. Melissa Keller and Dr. Richard Thompson of the Department of Natural Sciences have been awarded by the Appalachian College Association funds to conduct research in Rocky Fork State Park. The funds will be used exclusively for undergraduate research projects.

The $20,000 grant will be used for “prospecting for bioactive compounds of fungal specimens” collected at the park, according to Dr. Melissa Keller, assistant professor of biology.

“Research opportunities such as this are an important aspect of undergraduate training and we are thankful for the ACA for providing these funds” says Dr. Thompson, assistant professor of chemistry.

According to Dr. Keller, bioactive compounds are those that can potentially be used for pharmaceutical purposes. Dr. Keller and student researchers will collect the fungi from the state park, process them in the Tusculum labs and send the samples off for DNA sequencing. Samples of the fungi will also be extracted by student researchers working with Dr. Thompson in hopes of isolating bioactive components. The students will use a variety of purification and spectroscopic techniques in hopes of identifying novel bioactive compounds from the fungal species.