Genomics of Diseases in Wildlife Workshop; June 2-9, 2019; May/June, 2020; Fort Collins, CO

野生动物疾病基因组学研讨会；

• 批准号: 1926958
• 负责人: Sue VandeWoude
• 金额: $ 2万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-05-01 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1926958&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Genomics; Diseases; Wildlife; Workshop; June

Wildlife populations can be drastically affected by the outbreak and transmission of infectious diseases. Examples of this include white nose syndrome which is devastating bat populations in the US, and Chytrid fungus outbreaks that have caused declines in frog populations worldwide. Some diseases of wildlife, for example, Rabies, Ebola, and West Nike Virus, can cause outbreaks of disease in people, while other infections of wildlife, such as Brucellosis and African Swine Fever, can be fatal to domestic animals and livestock. Extraordinary new tools greatly improve our ability to detect infection and understand why it sometimes is devastating and sometimes not. While these new technologies make this an exciting time for new discoveries and understanding that will improve wildlife disease management, many researchers would benefit from training in their use. To address this need, we offer hands-on training with real-world data through an intensive workshop "Genomics of Disease in Wildlife" (GDW). The first two workshops offered in 2017 and 2018 were very successful and provided training for nearly 50 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty in Next Generation DNA Sequencing analysis to use in projects about wildlife diseases. Going forward, this project will provide scholarships to 12-14 graduate students or fellows (US citizens) with financial need to attend workshops in 2019 and 2020. We will preferentially use these funds to enhance diverse or underrepresented minority participation and have been successful in recruiting women and diverse attendees to maximize training impacts. This financial assistance will also facilitate building a cohesive, effective scientific community making breakthroughs in control of infectious wildlife diseases. For example, we have recently published a manuscript helping the scientific community identify critical next challenges, and the GDW workshop alumni are also involved in a listserv to promote communications among a growing number of researchers with interest and expertise in GDW problems. Recent technological advances in genomic sciences, and increasingly affordable Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) assay costs, have coalesced to result in powerful tools to monitor, detect, and reconstruct the past, present, and future role of pathogens impacting wildlife populations. Wildlife researchers are thus uniquely positioned to merge ecological, biological, and evolutionary studies with such genomic technologies to exploit unprecedented "Big Data" tools in disease research; however, most researchers lack the training and expertise required to use these computationally intensive methodologies. Previous workshops have consisted of lectures, daily computer labs, and analysis of real-world NGS data. Previous workshops have provided comprehensive training in the use of genomic tools for investigations of a broad range of interactions between wildlife host species and their pathogens, and provided unique networking opportunities among instructors, guest speakers, and participants. This project will provide support for two additional years of workshops. Funds will be awarded as scholarships for US graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in obtaining skills in this emerging area. This award will encourage participation by early career researchers. Participants will learn modern genomics techniques and generate powerful genomic solutions to ameliorate the local, regional, and global impact of wildlife disease.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

野生动物种群可能会受到传染病的爆发和传播的严重影响。这方面的例子包括对美国蝙蝠种群造成毁灭性打击的白鼻综合症，以及导致全球青蛙数量下降的壶菌爆发。 一些野生动物疾病，例如狂犬病、埃博拉病毒和西耐克病毒，可能会导致人类疾病暴发，而其他野生动物感染，例如布鲁氏菌病和非洲猪瘟，可能对家畜和牲畜致命。 非凡的新工具极大地提高了我们检测感染的能力，并理解为什么它有时具有破坏性，有时却没有。虽然这些新技术使现在成为新发现和新认识的激动人心的时刻，这将改善野生动物疾病管理，但许多研究人员将从其使用培训中受益。为了满足这一需求，我们通过“野生动物疾病基因组学”(GDW) 密集研讨会提供使用真实世界数据的实践培训。 2017 年和 2018 年举办的前两场研讨会非常成功，为近 50 名研究生、博士后研究员和教师提供了下一代 DNA 测序分析方面的培训，以用于野生动物疾病项目。展望未来，该项目将为 12-14 名有经济需要参加 2019 年和 2020 年研讨会的研究生或研究员（美国公民）提供奖学金。我们将优先使用这些资金来增强多元化或代表性不足的少数族裔的参与，并已成功招募女性和多元化参与者，以最大限度地提高培训影响。这项财政援助还将有助于建立一个有凝聚力、有效的科学界，在控制野生动物传染病方面取得突破。例如，我们最近发表了一篇手稿，帮助科学界确定​​接下来的关键挑战，并且 GDW 研讨会校友也参与了列表服务，以促进越来越多对 GDW 问题感兴趣并具有专业知识的研究人员之间的交流。 基因组科学的最新技术进步和日益实惠的下一代测序 (NGS) 检测成本结合在一起，产生了强大的工具来监测、检测和重建影响野生动物种群的病原体过去、现在和未来的作用。因此，野生动物研究人员处于独特的地位，可以将生态、生物学和进化研究与此类基因组技术相结合，以在疾病研究中利用前所未有的“大数据”工具；然而，大多数研究人员缺乏使用这些计算密集型方法所需的培训和专业知识。以前的研讨会包括讲座、日常计算机实验室和真实世界 NGS 数据的分析。 之前的研讨会提供了使用基因组工具来调查野生动物宿主物种与其病原体之间广泛相互作用的全面培训，并为讲师、演讲嘉宾和参与者提供了独特的交流机会。该项目将为另外两年的研讨会提供支持。资金将作为奖学金颁发给有兴趣获得这一新兴领域技能的美国研究生和博士后研究员。该奖项将鼓励早期职业研究人员的参与。 参与者将学习现代基因组学技术并生成强大的基因组解决方案，以改善野生动物疾病对当地、区域和全球的影响。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。