NRT: Integrative Bioinformatics for Investigating and Engineering Microbiomes (IBIEM)

微生物研究与工程综合生物信息学（IBIEM）微生物在塑造地球上几乎所有的生态系统中起着至关重要的作用。了解微生物及其微生物群落（微生物组）的能力是一系列变革性发现的基础，这些发现对维持生命和环境至关重要。然而，由于缺乏共享的知识库和共同的分析过程，研究和处理微生物的众多学科往往处于孤岛状态，从而限制了开发新应用的潜力。这个国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将汇集杜克大学和北卡罗来纳州农业技术州立大学的生物学家、工程师、计算机科学家和生物统计学家来填补这一空白。该实习生计划培养100名博士生，其中包括来自这两个机构的45名受资助的实习生，以解决数据支持的科学和工程微生物组研究中当前和下一代的挑战。元基因组和元转录组学(meta？组学分析与先进的生物信息学工具相结合，提供了一种强大的方法，可以深入了解微生物组组成和功能背后复杂的微生物相互作用。学术机构常常难以跟上不断增长和多样化的文化。他们的学生的培训需求。这种培训将通过创建一种新颖且可复制的教育模式来解决这些培训缺口，在这种模式下，微生物学家、工程师、统计学家和其他经验科学家将与理论家、模型构建者和计算科学家进行交叉培训。学员将学习如何有效地在跨学科团队中工作，参与环境工程与科学、生物医学工程、微生物遗传学、生物统计学和生物信息学等令人兴奋的研究，并在他们的团队中分享发现。与从业人员有针对性的互动将使学员了解现实世界的挑战，掌握各种沟通工具的能力，在工作中使用的协作技能，并接触到广泛的职业。通过灌输知识的广度和跨学科的意识，实习将促进创造性的整合，并最终加速发现，同时帮助提供国家？我们的员工队伍配备跨学科技能的学生，以应对全球挑战，包括恢复生态系统，开发创新的代谢工程途径和设计下一代疗法。最后，通过让受训人员沉浸在一系列外联活动中，将形成一个具有动机和技能的社区，向更广泛的人口推广科学和工程，目标是使科学、技术、工程和数学领域中代表性不足的群体广泛而实质性地参与。NSF研究培训（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、具有潜在变革性和可扩展的STEM研究生教育培训模式。通过创新、循证、适应不断变化的劳动力和研究需求的综合培训模式，培训项目致力于在高优先级跨学科研究领域对STEM研究生进行有效培训。

NRT: Integrative Bioinformatics for Investigating and Engineering Microbes (IBIEM)Microbes play a vital role in shaping almost every ecosystem on the planet. Understanding the capabilities of microbes and their microbial communities (microbiomes) is the foundation for a range of transformative discoveries essential for sustaining life and the environment. However, the numerous disciplines studying and working with microbes often operate in silos resulting from the lack of a shared knowledge base and common analytical processes, thus limiting the potential to develop novel applications. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award will bring together biologists, engineers, computer scientists and biostatisticians at Duke University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technology State University to fill this gap. The traineeship anticipates preparing one hundred (100) doctoral students, including forty-five (45) funded trainees across the two institutions, to solve both current and the next generation of challenges in data-enabled science and engineering microbiome research.Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic (meta?omic) analyses in combination with advanced bioinformatic tools present a powerful approach for obtaining key insights into the complex microbial interactions underlying microbiome composition and function. Academic institutions have often struggled to keep pace with the growing and diverse meta?omics training demands of their students. This traineeship will address these training gaps by creating a novel and replicable education model where microbiologists, engineers, statisticians, and other empirical scientists will be cross-trained with theorists, model builders, and computational scientists. Trainees will learn to effectively work in interdisciplinary teams, engage in exciting research in environmental engineering and science, biomedical engineering, microbial genetics, biostatistics, and bioinformatics, and share discoveries within their cohort. Targeted interactions with practitioners will provide trainees with an understanding of real world challenges, competencies in various communication tools, collaborative skills utilized in the workforce, and an exposure to a wide range of careers. By instilling breadth of knowledge and cross-disciplinary awareness, the traineeship will foster creative integration and ultimately acceleration of discovery while helping to provide the nation?s workforce with students equipped with interdisciplinary skills to address global challenges including restoring ecosystems, developing innovative metabolic engineering pathways and engineering the next generation of therapies. Finally, through immersion of trainees in an array of outreach activities, a community will be developed with the motivation and skills to promote science and engineering to the broader population with goals of broad and substantial engagement of underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative, and scalable models for STEM graduate education training. The Traineeship Track is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary research areas, through the comprehensive traineeship model that is innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.