PMBC

History and Purpose Statement

The Plant Molecular & Bioinformatics Center (PMBC) at Northern Illinois University was established in 1985 by the Illinois Board of Regents as an autonomous Center of Excellence within the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry & Biochemistry. Located in Montgomery Hall on the NIU campus, the Center provides a locus for the promotion, coordination, and facilitation of research and instruction activities relevant to plant molecular biology and plant bioinformatics. The Center is also concerned with the transfer and application of this technology to public and private enterprises. The PMBC receives funding through research grants and contributions.

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Research Activities 

Research activities at the PMBC focus on plant bioinformatics.  Plants are sessile organisms. Consequently they have to adapt constantly to fluctuations in the environment.  The PMBC laboratories collect basic knowledge about the relevant processes and disseminate this basic knowledge. The PMBC is obtaining fundamental data on the ways plants respond and adapt to their environments  The research involves important crops such as barley, corn, rice, peas and soybeans, as well as model plants such as tobacco, Arabidopsis thaliana, and Petunia hybrida.  Still other species are studied because they are phylogenetically significant, of concern for conservation, or serve as useful models of physiology, host-parasite interactions or long-term adaptation to the environment.

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Instructional Activities

An important mission of the PMBC is to train undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows and research specialists in technical and theoretical methodologies relevant to plant molecular biology, biotechnology and genetic engineering. PMBC faculty teach regular university courses and provide individual instruction to students carrying out experimental research in their laboratories.

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Dissemination and Development Activities

The PMBC is dedicated to disseminating the research results of its faculty to the professional community and to the public. This is done by publications in scientific journals, presentations at national/international conferences, seminars, and banking of sequence data in scientific repositories. Short read archive data will be made available in the Grasses III project.

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Molecular Core Lab

The PMBC coordinates and supports a core lab that assists the researchers with their molecular experiments and provides general analytical services including DNA sequencing, oligonucleotide primer synthesis, real-time PCR, and genotyping. For more information click here: Molecular Core Lab

See below to contact the PMBC for more information.

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