Binford earns CAREER award from NSF

Prestigious award supports early career development of newer teacher-scholars

Posted March 24, 2006

(Portland, Ore)—Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology at Lewis & Clark College, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award. The award is one the foundation’s most prestigious and supports the early career development activities of newer teacher-scholars who are considered most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

Binford will receive $643,877 from the National Science Foundation over a five-year period to develop her research program titled “Venom evolution in brown recluse spiders: a system for undergraduate training in integrative biology.”

“My research goal is to understand the evolutionary origin and diversification of a unique toxin in the venoms of brown recluse spiders and their relatives,” said Binford. “This enzyme causes damage when brown recluse spiders bite people.” To do this, Binford is combining analyses of relationships among species in this group of spiders with analyses of patterns of diversity in the toxin. Research published recently by Binford and a colleague found evidence for a close evolutionary relationship between the spider toxin and a similar toxin in a bacterium. This finding has inspired Binford to investigate how the toxin may have moved between species.

Binford’s work under the grant will enable her to engage students in a broad discourse on analyses of biodiversity, and species discovery and identification. “In the classroom and lab I help students to bridge the divides between organismal and molecular biology and between basic and applied sciences,” Binford said. She strives to demonstrate practical applications for her research, such as helping to develop globally effective diagnostics and treatments for spider bites.

“My excitement about spiders dates back to an undergraduate project where I studied the feeding biology of social spiders in Peru,” Binford related. “That opportunity opened my eyes to the fantastic diversity of the biological world in general and to the diversity of some 38,000 species of spiders. We have so much more to learn about the diversity of arthropods.”

Binford delights in fieldwork, where she sees biodiversity in its natural setting. “I’m happiest in the field, flipping over rocks to see what crawls out,” she said. “There’s a whole world that lives under rocks and in wood. Being in touch with the natural history of the organism you study is the starting point for any good researcher.”

She joined the faculty at Lewis & Clark in 2003. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Miami University of Ohio, master of science degree from the University of Utah, and doctorate from the University of Arizona. She is a spider identification and venom consultant for the Arizona Poison Control Center. Binford served as a set design consultant for Sony Pictures’ 2002 release “Spiderman.” Discovery Channel and PBS public television science programs have interviewed her about spiders and spider venom and her research has been profiled in Discover magazine.

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For more information, please contact:
Tania Thompson
Senior Communications Officer
503-768-7960
taniat@lclark.edu