The Award from PITTCON Will Positively Impact Student Research

BETHLEHEM, PA., March 6, 2017- Today, Moravian College announced the Biochemistry program has been awarded a grant from the Pittsburgh Conference Memorial National College Grants (PCMNCG) Program for the purchase of a NanoDrop spectrophotometer—the gold standard instrument of microscale spectrophotometry. Not only will the acquisition of this instrument speed up the research process, but students in the Moravian College chemistry and biochemistry classes will now be working with the same instrument employed by researchers in top laboratories around the world.

“If you have a solution that’s precious, you don’t want to measure a lot of it because your sample then has to be thrown away,” points out Dr. Christopher Jones, geneticist and associate professor of biology at Moravian College.

A traditional spectrophotometer is used to identify and quantify molecules in a solution or mixture. The NanoDrop does the same but requires only a tiny fraction of the material that one would need when using a standard spectrophotometer. A sample as small as 0.5 microliter (1 microliter is the volume to fill the eye of the smallest needle) can be analyzed by the NanoDrop. It is particularly valuable for measuring small quantities of DNA.

“Since only a tiny sample needs to be prepared for analysis, the NanoDrop saves time, which speeds up the ability to make decisions in the research process, allowing our students to go further,” adds Dr. Stephen Dunham, associate professor of chemistry at Moravian College.

To be eligible for an award from PITTCON, schools must meet the following criteria:

• Enrollment must not exceed 5000 full-time students.
• No more than 25% of the operating budget may come from national or state governments. 
• Requests for materials to be used only for research purposes will not be funded.

Media contact:
Michael Corr
Moravian College
610.861.1365
corrm@moravian.edu

About PITTCON

Pittcon is the world’s leading annual conference and exposition on laboratory science. Pittcon attracts attendees from industry, academia and government from over 90 countries worldwide.  Visit pittcon.org to learn more.

About Moravian College

Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. For 275 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, science, cultural values, global issues, ethics, artistic expression, and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit Moravian.edu to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.
 
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