This proposal will allow the applicant to utilize his engineering and programming background to advance software and instrumentation technologies necessary for genome mapping and sequencing and to develop the capability to carry out independent research. Three specific areas of focus are: l. Continued development of the physical mapping program, SEGMAP, by incorporating algorithms to utilize STS spacing data obtained from RARE cleavage reactions. 2. Analysis of sequence data from T-cell receptor loci in human and mouse in order to better understand the evolutionary development, and the structure a,nd, function of the genes in this family. 3. Development of instrumentation to automate procedures utilized in mapping and sequencing projects; the first effort will be development and testing of an automated gel reader. These development efforts will be enhanced by the unique interdisciplinary research opportunities presented by the Molecular Biotechnology Dept. at the University of Washington. Furthermore, each of the advisors are expert in their respective fields: Philip Green (genome data analysis), Leroy Hood (DNA sequencing and immune system genetics), Maynard Olson (genome mapping), and Ger Van Den Engh (biological instrumentation development). The applicant has a background in aerodynamic research with extensive experience in automation efforts, hardware integration, data acquisition and analysis, and programming. These areas are well suited to the task of developing process automation and data analysis for genome mapping and sequencing.
