Workshop: Comparative Functional Genomics: A Short Course, Salisbury Cove, Maine, August 27 to September 9, 2000

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Biological sciences are entering an exciting new era: the ability to measure patterns of gene expression for all the genes in an organism. This approach is known as functional genomics, and it seeks identifying interesting patterns of gene expression: patterns that influence how an organism is formed, how it deals with environmental challenges, and how it adapts. One of the major advances in this field is the use of MICROARRAYS to measure the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. Microarrays are thousands of micro-formatted DNA samples printed on a small glass slide. Each DNA spot represents a unique gene that is used to measure gene expression. Examining the patterns of gene expression is just the first step. Additional research will be required to determine how changes in gene expression cause physiological, morphological or other phenotypic change. If we are seeking to understand the functional importance of how patterns of gene expression affects the biology of organisms, one of the more productive approaches is to follow August Krogh's principle (Krogh 1929): for many problems there will be an animal for which it can be most conveniently studied. Thus, functional genomics will be enhanced by examining a diversity of organisms in which physiological, developmental or biochemical traits are readily studied. Unfortunately, many biologists believe that a functional genomics approach is beyond their reach: their ability to acquire the necessary molecular tools (e.g., all or most cDNAs expressed in a tissue) or the funding to acquire these tools. This is far from the truth and is the reason for a short course on Comparative Functional Genomics. Participants in this course will produce 1000s of sequenced and identified cDNAs, microarray of many of these cDNAs and a simple analysis of gene expression. Although this is not a completed microarray for their organism, it does represent a large step toward the completion of one of the fundamental tools for functional genomics: the production, printing, and analysis of many expressed genes. The most important attribute of this course is that it will provide the knowledge on how to produce the necessary molecular tools for functional genomics from any organism simply and inexpensively. These objectives of the Comparative Functional Genomic course will accelerate the utilization of functional genomics among non-model species and thus enhance our understanding of how the variation in gene expression affects biological processes.