IGERT: Vertically Integrated Training with Genomics

这个综合研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）奖是围绕生物学中的两个重大挑战建立的：1)基因组如何与环境相互作用以产生生物多样性？2)生物系统如何从分子到生态系统的整合？我们的训练模式旨在让学生做好准备，让他们有能力学习有机体如何？生物的特征是由储存在DNA中的遗传信息和生物体一生中所经历的环境信息的复杂相互作用产生并不断形成的。该培训将使学生掌握解决紧迫的科学和社会问题所需的知识、工具和观点，包括：气候变化对农业和粮食安全的影响；生物和生态系统对景观的人为影响的响应；传染病的出现，以及基因对行为的影响。这个提案使用了“回到未来”这个词。这种教育模式断言，利用基因组学来解决生物学重大挑战的最佳方式是建立一个研究生项目，将基因组学的最先进的培训与一个完整的、以分类单元为导向的视角结合起来。我们的指导原则是，为了能够尽可能有效地利用强大的新基因组资源，学生需要在他们正在研究的生物的基础生物学方面有坚实的基础。这个IGERT的另一个基石是招募和指导代表性不足的少数民族进入科学学科。由于基因组学主题经常涉及煽动性的问题，学生们还将接受科学伦理和如何向公众传达敏感话题的培训。IGERT是一项nsf范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战，他们具有跨学科背景，所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训模式，在一个超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，促进研究生教育的文化变革。

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award is built around two grand challenges in biology: 1) How do genomes interact with the environment to produce biological diversity? and 2) How are biological systems integrated from molecules to ecosystems? Our training model is aimed at preparing students so that they are empowered to learn how an organism?s traits emerge from, and are continually shaped by, a complex interplay of genetic information stored in DNA and environmental information that an organism experiences throughout its life. This training will equip students with the knowledge, tools and perspectives needed to address pressing scientific and societal problems, including: effects of climate change on agriculture and food security; responses of organisms and ecosystems to anthropogenic influences on landscapes; emergence of infectious diseases, and influences of genes on behavior.This proposal uses a ?back-to-the-future? educational model that asserts that the best way to use genomics to address grand challenges in biology is to have a graduate program that blends state-of-the-art training in genomics with an integrated, taxon-oriented, perspective. Our guiding principle is that to be able to use powerful new genomic resources as effectively as possible, students need to have strong foundation in the basic biology of the organisms they are studying. Another cornerstone of this IGERT is the recruiting and mentoring of underrepresented minorities into a scientific discipline. Because genomic topics often deal with provocative issues, students will also get training in scientific ethics and on how to communicate sensitive topics to the public.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, 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 innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.