Dear generous donors to Big Data Science,

It has been two years since this project launched and with your help we successfully raised over $7,600 from 40 donors. We wanted to share with you that this project has had significant impact on our department and led to the purchase of a bioinformatics server. This server was instrumental in the development of two new computer lab classes: Genomic Data Analysis (BIOL477) and Sequence Analysis (BIOL480). To date these classes have been taught 3 times each and amounts to 62 students.

In addition to teaching, the server has facilitated multiple student research projects at both the graduate and undergraduate student levels. Below is a list of projects that used this server for their research.

Graduate student thesis projects:

• Genetic mapping of modifiers of FIG1 protein expression
• Modeling impact of polymorphisms on protein production and degradation
• Genetic mapping of protein expression modifiers 
• A Non-Invasive Technique for Tracking a Marine Predator (Ph​oca vitulina) Through Molecular Scat Analysis

Undergraduate projects:

• Genome assembly and annotation of Pacific Mardone (Arbutus menziesii)
• Population differentiation of an arctic-alpine clade of Saxifraga that is restricted to the North Pacific Rim
• Verification and annotation of the Tuplip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) transcriptome assembly
• Optimizing cell segmentation algorithms for quantitative fluorescence microscopy
• Modeling cell differentiation kinetics

We couldn’t have done this without your support!

With many thanks,

Dan Pollard & Matthew Zinkgraf

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We have passed the $7,000 mark! Thanks to all of you who have already donated, your continued support is so appreciated. Every donation, no matter how small, helps us towards our goal to provide WWU Biology students with the much needed data server that will take their research to the next level.

There is still time to give! If you have not had the chance to participate, please help us reach our total goal of $10,000 with a donation today.

If you are unable to give, please share this link on social media to spread the word about this important project.

Sincerely,

Dan Pollard & Matthew Zinkgraf

Western Washington University

College of Science and Engineering