(Core D: Pilot Project Core) The purpose of the Pilot Project Core is to provide resources for follow-up studies that are essential to replicate, validate and extend the results obtained by the center. Follow-up studies may include data collection or analysis. In later years we anticipate conducting follow-up studies in which we produce and phenotype rats with mutations in genes that were identified by our GWAS. Recent advances in the ability to target any gene in the rat genome for deletion (or to produce transgenic overexpressing rats or even knock-ins of putatively causal sequence variants) are one of the key rationales for conducting GWAS in rats. We also hope to use pilot projects to better integrate our findings with emergent findings from human genetic studies. In this section we describe several pilot projects that we would consider for funding and also discuss the mechanism by which we will make decisions about which projects to fund. Pilot project funding will be available to new-, junior-, and senior-level investigators at any of the participating institutions.
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