Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in BIological Informatics for FY 2006

这项行动为2006财政年度的NSF生物信息学博士后研究奖学金提供资金。该奖学金支持在生物学和信息，计算，数学和统计科学的交叉点博士后水平的研究和培训。该研究金的目标是向一名青年科学家提供培训，为从事研究和教育相结合的生物信息学职业做准备。在所有职业级别上对生物信息学培训的需求日益增加，预计通过这些研究金培训的研究员将在培训未来的劳动力方面发挥重要作用，该研究金的研究和培训计划题为“利用功能基因组学研究两栖动物的衰退”。“这是对全球两栖动物减少的综合研究，结合了模型和自然系统中的新数据和现有数据。它使用一种新兴真菌病原体的基因表达模式（Batrachochytrium dendrobaerum）和两种两栖类宿主（热带爪蟾和莫斯科蛙），利用可用的全基因组序列数据，产生新的功能数据和开发新的分析工具，以更好地了解真菌感染对两栖动物种群的破坏性影响。该研究计划的核心目标是了解野生脊椎动物进化的遗传学。培训为研究员提供了工具，可以从根本上更大规模地访问她早期研究的研究生物体的基因组，培养她的计算技能，并为她提供与不同领域合作者合作的经验。最终的结果是弥合功能基因组学和有机体生物学之间的差距，并将基因组数据应用于自然系统中的进化问题。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2006. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Using functional genomics to study decline of amphibians." This is an integrative study of global amphibian declines combining new and existing data in both model and natural systems. It uses gene expression patterns in an emerging fungal pathogen (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) and two amphibian hosts (Xenopus tropicalis and Rana muscosa), draws on available whole genome sequence data, generates new functional data and develops novel analytical tools to better understand the devastating impact of fungal infections on amphibian populations.The core aim of the research program is to understand the genetics of vertebrate evolution in the wild. The training provides the Fellow with tools to access the genomes of the study organisms at a fundamentally larger scale her earlier research, develops her computation skills, and gives her experience working with collaborators in diverse fields. The end result is to bridge the gap between functional genomics and organismal biology and to apply genomic data to evolutionary questions in natural systems.