NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

博士后研究员：Shane Cornell Campbell-StatonProposal Number：1612283This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016，Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology.该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。 Shane Campbell-Staton博士的研究计划的标题是“探索鹿鼠高海拔适应的遗传基础”。“该奖学金的主办机构是伊利诺伊大学香槟分校和蒙大拿大学，赞助科学家是Julian Catchen博士（UI）和Zachary Cheviron博士（UM）。该研究员的研究解决了进化生物学的一个主要目标，即确定允许生物体适应其环境的基因，并了解这些基因如何发挥作用以完成这一壮举。在这个项目中，研究员正在使用鹿鼠，Peromyscus maniculatus，作为研究适应高海拔的模式物种。确定复杂性状的遗传基础已被证明具有挑战性，部分原因是复杂性状通常是许多生理和分子途径相互作用的结果。研究生理适应高海拔的遗传基础提供了独特的优势，解开复杂的遗传相互作用，产生适应，因为参与氧气运输和使用的具体步骤已被描述。鹿鼠分布于北美西部海拔4300米以上的地区，是一种优良的模式动物。他们展示了心脏、肺、血液和骨骼肌的一系列生理适应性，这些适应性共同作用，使高海拔地区的人口能够通过运输和使用比低地人口更多的氧气，在其环境特有的低温和低氧水平下生存下来。该研究员正在对高地鹿和低地鹿的种群进行杂交，并进行一系列实验，以（1）确定导致氧气使用差异的基因;（2）将这些基因划分为有助于整体氧气使用的不同步骤（呼吸，氧气运输和肌肉中的新陈代谢）以及（3）确定这些基因影响总氧气使用的机制。这项研究将提供宝贵的洞察力的遗传基础复杂的性状，并作为动物适应高海拔的模型，这名研究员正在帮助扩大在生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与在几个方面。该研究员是一个代表性不足的社区的成员，正在指导和培训来自代表性不足背景的未来科学家，并向学生和公众教授和传播研究成果。伊利诺伊大学和蒙大拿大学的合作者之间的专业知识的巨大多样性提供了一个丰富的知识社区的想法分享，加强了这个项目的成果，并推进研究员？作为一名科学家的发展。学习所需的分析工具，以完成这一建议的主要目标将允许研究员开发一个跨学科的方法来进化生物学。通过这项研究金，研究员正在通过两所东道大学的既定渠道从代表性不足的群体中招募学生，并指导这些学生研究人员。此外，他正在扩大他在面向国家和大学一级代表性不足的背景的学生招聘外展计划的经验。所有这些活动都在加强和扩大研究员？s？工具箱？分析，管理和指导技能，这将使他成为气候介导的进化研究的新兴领导者，并继续开发将扩大少数民族参与科学的计划。

Postdoctoral Fellow: Dr. Shane Cornell Campbell-StatonProposal Number: 1612283This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton is "Exploring the genetic basis of high altitude adaptation in deer mice." The host institutions for this fellowship are the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and the University of Montana, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Julian Catchen (UI) and Zachary Cheviron (UM). The Fellow's research addresses a major goal of evolutionary biology, to identify the genes that allow organisms to adapt to their environment and understand how these genes function to accomplish this feat. In this project, the Fellow is using the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus, as a model species for studying adaptation to high altitude. Identifying the genetic basis of complex traits has proven challenging, partly because complex traits are often the result of interactions of many physiological and molecular pathways. Studying the genetic basis of physiological adaptation to high altitude offers unique advantages for disentangling the complex genetic interactions that produce adaptation because the specific steps involved in oxygen transport and use have been described. Deer mice are an excellent model species because they are distributed from sea level to above 4300 meters elevation in western North America. They display a suite of physiological adaptations of the heart, lungs, blood and skeletal muscle that work together, allowing high elevation populations to survive the cold temperatures and low oxygen levels characteristic of their environments, by transporting and using greater amounts of oxygen than their lowland counterparts. The Fellow is interbreeding highland and lowland deer mice populations and conducting a series of experiments to (1) identify the genes that contribute to differences in oxygen use; (2) partition those genes into the different steps that contribute to overall oxygen use (respiration, oxygen transport and metabolism in the muscle) and (3) identify the mechanisms by which those genes influence total oxygen use. This research will provide valuable insights into the genetic basis complex traits and serve as a model of animal adaptation to high elevation.This Fellow is helping to broaden the participation of groups under-represented in biology in several ways. The Fellow is a member of an under-represented community and is mentoring and training future scientists from underrepresented backgrounds, and is teaching and disseminating research findings to students and the general public. The tremendous diversity of expertise among collaborators at the University of Illinois and the University of Montana provides a rich intellectual community for idea sharing that strengthens the outcomes of this project and advances the Fellow?s development as a scientist. Learning the analytical tools needed to complete the major goals of this proposal will allow the Fellow to develop an interdisciplinary approach to evolutionary biology. Through this fellowship, the Fellow is recruiting students from underrepresented groups through established channels at both host universities, and mentoring these student researchers. Additionally, he is expanding his experience in outreach programs geared towards recruitment of students from under-represented backgrounds at national and university levels. All of these activities are enhancing and expanding the Fellow?s ?toolbox? of analytical, managerial and mentoring skills, which will position him to become an emerging leader in the study of climate-mediated evolution, and to continue developing programs that will broaden participation of minorities in the sciences.