IGERT: Evolutionary, Computational, and Molecular Approaches to Genome Structure and Function

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This multidisciplinary IGERT program will train graduate students in areas at the interface of evolutionary biology, functional genomics, and computational biology in a way that will enable them to collaborate productively across traditional disciplinary boundaries. The emerging fields of comparative and functional genomics will reshape biological research in the next twenty years and have a profound impact on medicine and human health, agriculture, engineering, and our understanding of the origin of life and the relationships among living organisms. Research in these emerging disciplines requires the coordinated interaction of scientists with diverse backgrounds in evolution, molecular biology, and computer science, yet current departmental boundaries at most universities do not foster interactions among these areas. The comprehensive IGERT training plan at the University of Arizona is intended to meet these challenges. This program includes advising, research rotations and colloquia, two novel multidisciplinary courses that engage students in hands-on problem solving, additional lecture and laboratory courses, training in ethics, a monthly discussion group, opportunities to interact with visiting scientists, bi-annual mini-symposia, opportunities to mentor undergraduates in research, and offsite internships at other academic institutions or at leading genomics companies. Finally, the training plan includes a strategy to recruit both minority undergraduate and graduate students into science, drawing on the Hispanic and Native American populations in Arizona. Some of the proposed training initiatives build on existing structures; others are entirely new. The University of Arizona is particularly well suited for this training program because of existing strengths in evolution, functional genomics, and computation, a strong graduate program, and an institutional commitment to interdisciplinary programs. Moreover, the individual participants in this program have a long track record of success in training students and a commitment to multidisciplinary collaborations. The impact of the proposed training program uniting three research areas will be to equip the next generation of biologists with the tools to tackle the challenges of genome-scale research.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the multidisciplinary backgrounds and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing new, innovative models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In the fourth year of the program, awards are being made to twenty-two institutions for programs that collectively span all areas of science and engineering supported by NSF. The intellectual foci of this specific award reside in the Directorates for Biological Sciences; Engineering; Computer and Information Science and Engineering; and Education and Human Resources.