Dr. John Kyndt, Professor of Microbiology and Sustainability is one of this year’s recipients of the Nebraska EPSCoR grants for Undergraduate Research Experience in Small Colleges and Universities.

His proposal entitled: ‘Nebraska Salt Marsh Microbiome: an exploration of spatial and temporal microbial diversity’, will allow BU students to delve deeper into the largely unexplored world of microbes in these distinctive environments. The Nebraska Salt Marsh areas are a relic of ancient oceans that once covered the middle of North America. This project is focused on the conservation of this unique area, and aimed to identify the presence of any potentially harmful viral contaminants that might impact plant, animal, and human disease development.  

“With our preliminary studies we had already shown that the microbial composition of the Nebraska Salt Marshes is quite unique and contains some potentially very interesting new species” says Dr. Kyndt. That study was published in 2021: https://doi.org/10.3390/life11050446. “Now, thanks to the EPSCoR funding, we can explore this further and study the spatial and temporal variations of these environments over an entire year”

Not only will this project address broader questions about long-term habitat and groundwater conservation, and potential disease prevention from environmental pathogens, but it is also an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to gain real-life field sampling experience and learn specialized lab techniques like genome sequencing and metagenomic data analysis.

The Undergraduate Research Experience grant program was established by EPSCoR to provide research experience for selected students interested in research projects, and the program is funded by an NSF infrastructure grant to Nebraska EPSCoR. If you are a student interesting in working on this project, feel free to contact Dr Kyndt at jkyndt@bellevue.edu.