RIDIR Collaborative Research: Building a Database to Determine Environmental and Familial Effects on Social and Biological Factors

来自德克萨斯农工大学的Qian Wang博士和一个跨学科的同事团队正在开发一个数据库，该数据库整合了遗传、环境和年龄相关信息，以研究它们对波多黎各圣地亚哥岛恒河猴群体健康状况的影响。该团队汇集了人类学、生物学、生物医学科学和计算机科学方面的专业知识。 这个殖民地成立于1938年，是一个罕见的骨骼收集与每个人的性别，年龄和血统（多达八代）的相关细节的来源。 一旦综合数据库可供研究人员和公众使用，来自Cayo圣地亚哥恒河猴群和衍生骨骼收集的信息将为研究人类疾病、家族史、发育、个体经历和衰老提供强大的非人类模型。 王博士和他的同事将建立一个圣地亚哥岛猴健康数据库，用于研究环境和遗传对骨骼发育、衰老和病理的影响。 这些研究基于加勒比灵长类动物研究中心和纽约大学的波多黎各圣地亚哥岛衍生骨骼收集。 将恒河猴的骨尺寸、骨密度、体重、牙齿萌出和可观察到的疾病状况纳入数据库，并详细说明每只恒河猴的性别、出生和死亡日期、亲子关系信息和社会等级。 将评估骨骼特征随时间的差异，以及健康、寿命和年龄相关疾病的家族差异。 将评估主要飓风对恒河猴发育的影响。 数据库开发包括来自不同社区的本科生和牙科学生，提供独特的学习机会。 这些数据将建立一个有用的，可搜索的模型，将提供给有兴趣进一步分析遗传和环境因素的研究人员，影响多种因素，包括健康和疾病。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Drs. Qian Wang, from Texas A&M University, and an interdisciplinary team of colleagues are developing a database that integrates genetic, environmental and age-related information to study their effects on health conditions of the rhesus monkey colony at Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. The team brings together expertise in anthropology, biology, biomedical sciences and computer sciences. Founded in 1938, this colony is the source of a rare skeletal collection with associated details about each individual's sex, age, and pedigree (up to eight generations). Once the integrated database is available to researchers and the public, information from the Cayo Santiago rhesus colony and the derived skeletal collection will provide a powerful non-human model for studying human disease, family history, development, individual experiences, and aging. Dr. Wang and his colleagues will establish a database of Cayo Santiago monkey health for studies of the effects of environment and genetics on bone development, aging, and pathologies. The studies are based on the Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico derived skeletal collection housed at the Caribbean Primate Research Center and New York University. Bone dimensions, bone density, body mass, tooth eruption, and observable disease conditions of the rhesus monkey will be incorporated into the database with details on each individual's sex, birth and death dates, parentage information, and social rank. Differences in skeletal characteristics over time will be assessed, as well as familial differences in health, longevity, and age-related conditions. The effects of major hurricanes on rhesus monkey development will be assessed. Database development incorporates undergraduate and dental students from diverse communities, providing unique learning opportunities. These data will establish a useful, searchable model that will be available to researchers interested in further analyses of genetic and environmental factors influencing multiple factors including health and disease.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.