Wesleyan University recently received the four-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute -- HHMI -- to enhance its undergraduate science programs on campus and support its Hughes Summer Research Program, university officials said.

The university was invited to apply for the grant, and it is the fifth consecutive four-year grant Wesleyan has received from HHMI, Wesleyan University Hughes Program in the Life Sciences program director Michael Weir said. It is the largest grant Wesleyan has received from the institute, he said.

The HHMI awarded $49.7 million in grants this year to 42 bachelor’s and master’s degree institutions, including Wesleyan University, in 17 states and Puerto Rico, Wesleyan Univer-sity associate media relations director Laura Perillo said.

The grant is primarily supporting the university’s Hughes Summer Research Program, which began in June and runs to Aug. 6. It is enabling approximately 40 students -- freshmen, sophomores and juniors currently enrolled at Wesleyan and a limited number of students enrolled at other Connecticut colleges and universities -- to conduct research while working closely with Wesleyan’s science faculty, she said. The students receive stipends to remain on campus to participate in cutting-edge research and to participate in special seminar, enrichment and social programs.

"This is an exciting time for the life sciences," Weir said. "There are massive amounts of new information from the genome projects, which calls for the integration of analytical approaches from computer and information sciences, as well as the integration of biological ethics, into our life-science studies."

"We’re extending the idea of building bridges between fields," he said. "It’s a way of nurturing interaction between disciplines."

Through the grant, the university will enrich its curriculum and research through the development of collaboratively-taught new courses and modules within existing courses, as well as through dual-mentored student research, Perillo said. The grant will help to fund new staff, including a life sciences computer programmer who will work with faculty in developing the new curriculum. New state-of-the art equipment for teaching laboratories and for future new faculty will also be supplied, she said.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a nonprofit medical research organization that em-ploys hundreds of leading biomedical scientists working at the forefront of their fields. Through its grants program and other activities, the institute is helping to enhance science education at all levels. HHMI is one of the world’s largest philanthropies.

To contact Amy L. Zitka, call (860)347-3331 ext. 211 or e-mail azitka@middletownpress.com.