Whole genome shotgun: modeling, optimization, assembly

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DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): I am a mathematician with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Through theory and computation, including large-scale software development, I solved longstanding open problems in the fields of algebraic geometry and error-correcting codes. I have grown increasingly interested in the computational aspects of biology and recognize that a number of important and challenging biological problems can be addressed using the mathematical tools I am familiar with. Stimulating and productive interactions with researchers at the Whitehead Institute, including work on whole genome shotgun assembly, have confirmed my enthusiasm for this area of research and revealed my need for deeper and more formal training to understand the biological context of these problems. I am committed to a course of retraining which will enrich my biological background and facilitate a career in genomics through coursework, on the job training, and research experience. The grant will enable me to continue and extend my work on fundamental open problems of the field, including cost-effective and accurate sequence acquisition and assembly, cross-species genomic alignment, and through the latter, effective location of genes and regulatory regions, thereby shedding light on vast riches of new genomic data. I will carry out my work at the Whitehead Institute, where an interdisciplinary spirit and stimulating intellectual environment meshes with a cutting-edge production facility. Dr. Eric Lander will direct my project. His background and research interests make him ideally suited to supervising me. He also earned his doctorate in pure mathematics and has worked successfully at the interface of pure mathematics and molecular biology as well as in genome research. I look forward to joining his team, which will design the sequencing and assembly of the mouse genome, do the sequencing itself, and from there make deductions about both the human and mouse genomes.