Mclaughlin Research Institute For Biomedical Sciences

Programs: During fiscal year 2017, institute scientists and staff continued their research into the genetics of degenerative nerve diseases. Institute investigators led or collaborated on ten different projects, working with partners in san francisco, boston, new york, and bozeman, montana. Most work focused on diseases caused by propagation of protein misfolding that include frontotemporal dementia and alzheimer's, parkinson's, huntington's, and prion diseases. During fiscal year 2017, the institute expanded its capabilities as a research institute with a new director, as well as adding international faculty members from around the world. Institute scientists continue to pioneer new approaches to track survival and function of transplanted central nervous system stem cells in mice that will enable studying disease process in human cells integrated into a living brain. In addition to project-specific sub-awards grants from federal and state agencies and collabotators, the institute continued its community outreach to enhance public understanding of science and medicine. As a result of this outreach and its fundraising efforts in great falls and around montana, the intitute received donations totaling $1. 235 million, including two significant bequests, to support its research.

the institute serves as a resource for science education in a rural region lacking a research university. Summer internships for high school students and teachers have long been available at the institute. The goals of the institute's education programs are to foster critical thinking, enhance science literacy, and help train the next generation of scientists. In summer 2016, one pre-college student and one undergraduate student participated in the institute's laboratory internship programs, working with research staff using the neurosphere model to study prion susceptibility and infection. Institute faculty, postdoctoral fellows and research assistants worked with and trained the students in various lab processes, including immunostaining and imaging. While the hhmi project has been completed, the institute is committed to continuing its long tradition of training and support for local students and teachers and continues to raise funds that specifically support these programs.