Outreach

Bioinformatics Challenge Undergraduate Fellowship program is a unique opportunity for Texas Tech undergraduates to contribute to exciting bioinformatics research during the summer, through a program supported by Dr. Brown’s NSF-USDA supported CAREER Award. See details below:

Do you… Want to learn bioinformatics and get research experience for your resume? Want to learn through peer-mentoring to solve important problems? Want to test your computational skills in an exciting hackathon competition? Want to develop new code for biomedical/biological/agricultural problems? Want to get paid to do all this? Then consider applying for the “Bioinformatics Challenge Undergraduate Fellowship”. This is a paid summer opportunity (8-10 hr/wk x 6-10 wks) open to anyone with strong interests and skills in computation who is an undergraduate at TTU registered for summer or fall 2023 (seniors graduating in May 2023 are not eligible).

Fellowship awardees will have training sessions, then work in small groups on one of two challenges related to genomics data mining and genomic “dark matter”. To apply for the Bioinformatics Challenge Undergraduate Fellowship, simply email your resume or CV and a short paragraph (5 to 10 sentences) explaining something about your skills, interests, and future career goals related to biocomputing, bioinformatics or computation to amanda.mv.brown@ttu.edu, please use “Bioinformatics Challenge” as your email subject line.

Awardees are also encouraged to also enroll in fall in Bioinformatics CURE (BIOL 4301.110 CRN 46793), if possible. Don’t yet have strong computational skills? Then consider enrolling in fall CUREs (course-based undergraduate research experiences) on Bioinformatics (BIOL 4301.110) or Microbiomes (BIOL 4301.010). Email amanda.mv.brown@ttu.edu for more information.

Genomics Scholars High School Summer Fellowship – This program is for high school students interested in biology, science, or medicine. Genomics Scholars do summer research in our laboratory at Texas Tech University, conducting hands-on projects to understand how genomes regulate microbial symbiosis. High school students work in pairs with senior undergraduates and graduate students to solve real research problems while learning molecular biology methods as well as advanced genomics technologies.

This program is open to Lubbock ISD high school students of all backgrounds and achievement levels with aspirations to a future in biology, science, or medicine. A financial stipend will be awarded to successful applicants, which may offset time away from other potential summer jobs.

To apply… it’s easy! Just email Dr. Brown at this address: amanda.mv.brown@ttu.edu using Genomics Scholars in the subject line and answer two questions (one paragraph each): Q1: What interests you most about genes and genomes, DNA and RNA, and microbes or microbiomes? Q2: How would this Genomics Scholars summer research program help improve your knowledge, skills, and how would it help you achieve your future goals beyond high school?

Note: All involved educators and mentors have done all required State trainings and background checks for working with minors. Minors will need parents to sign a consent form before beginning.

Details: We will discuss goals with each student’s teachers or counsellors or parents or guardians and have initial, mid-term, and final goals and reflection sessions to ensure success in learning and experiments. Research will consist of ~4 hours per day, for 4-5 days per week for 7 weeks in the summer in a biology laboratory at TTU. Genomics Scholars will present their final results at our joint lab meeting.

About Dr. Amanda Brown and the funding: Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor in Microbial Metagenomics in the Department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech University and has mentored high school students in genomics through the STEM Camp and Clark Scholars programs. She has also mentored over 90 graduate and undergraduate students. The Genomics Scholars program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant titled “CAREER: Discovering hidden drivers of rhizosphere symbiosis and parasitism” led by Dr. Brown.

Other Outreach

In addition to academic activities (teaching, mentoring undergraduate researchers, supervising graduate students), we interact with farmers and get involved in presenting this work at every opportunity. We look forward to developing further connection with communities, schools, and the public — please contact me if you want to get involved or have an outreach idea for us. We also have openings in our lab — we welcome people from a wide range of backgrounds to join our team.

Teaching & Mentoring

Dr. Brown is an Associated Professor at Texas Tech University. She has taught a range of subjects including microbiology, microbiomes, introductory biology, host-microbe genomics, bioinformatics, microbiology, evolutionary ecology, parasitology, genetics, etc. She has developed and taught several “CURES” (course-based undergraduate research experiences) and she mentors PhD and Masters students, as well as undergraduate researchers from biology and computer science programs, and also high school students.

Collaborators

Dr. Brown collaborates with scientists at a number of institutions, including Oregon State University, University of Montana, Emory University, and others.

We are always looking for exciting research collaborations on the topics of nematode-bacterial symbiosis, insect-bacterial symbiosis, or metagenomics & bioinformatics! Please contact me if you have some ideas for working together.

I am working on developing a research program in plant-associated microbes (foliar endosymbionts) and I have several active pursuits in areas of human and mosquito microbiomes. If you see overlaps between my work and these areas, I’d be happy to talk with you.