Human genetics has emerged as dominant force in biology and medicine. The dominance of genetics stems from its central importance in explaining the most basic mysteries of life and its repertoire of methods that can elucidate function and mechanisms of normal and deranged gene expression in virtually every area of biology. A remarkable change is now underway where information and discoveries generated from once disparate subfields (e.g. molecular genetics, population genetics, and human genetics) are now spawning new developments in other areas of genetics and biology. Indeed, genetic subfield identities are quickly eroding as investigators are taking advantage of multiple approaches and multiple model organisms. Thus it is incumbent upon us to train graduate students more broadly to take advantage of this developing synergy. Genetics also entails special and important social, ethical, and political implications. It is also critically important that students learn about genetic policy and bioethics as they apply to both research design and the use of research results. This proposal represents an interrelated program between Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College to train future investigators to characterize genetic variation and its phenotypic implications. The primary focus will be human genetics, with opportunities to study model organisms. Areas of exploration will include population genetics, computational biology, informatics, genetic contributions to common both multi factorial (e.g., diabetes and hypertension) and single gene disorders (e.g., hemoglobinopathies and inborn errors of metabolism); mechanisms of gene expression; technologies to detect genetic variation; end-product effects of genetic variation; ethical and social implications of genetic differences, and effects of genetic variation on social policy. Special emphasis will be placed on training individuals to recognize and study the basis of differences between human populations with respect to the distribution of genetic diseases. This emphasis will help ensure that the benefits of advances in genetics will be available to more members of society.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32GM062758-03
Application #
6628954
Study Section
National Institute of General Medical Sciences Initial Review Group (BRT)
Program Officer
Rhoades, Marcus M
Project Start
2001-07-01
Project End
2006-06-30
Budget Start
2003-07-01
Budget End
2004-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$209,667
Indirect Cost
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004413456
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37212
Balik-Meisner, Michele; Truong, Lisa; Scholl, Elizabeth H et al. (2018) Population genetic diversity in zebrafish lines. Mamm Genome 29:90-100
Chandler, Kelly J; Chandler, Ronald L; Mortlock, Douglas P (2009) Identification of an ancient Bmp4 mesoderm enhancer located 46 kb from the promoter. Dev Biol 327:590-602
Motsinger-Reif, Alison A; Reif, David M; Fanelli, Theresa J et al. (2008) A comparison of analytical methods for genetic association studies. Genet Epidemiol 32:767-78
Thatcher, Elizabeth J; Paydar, Ima; Anderson, Kimberly K et al. (2008) Regulation of zebrafish fin regeneration by microRNAs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:18384-9
Thatcher, Elizabeth J; Bond, Jordan; Paydar, Ima et al. (2008) Genomic organization of zebrafish microRNAs. BMC Genomics 9:253
Motsinger-Reif, Alison A; Dudek, Scott M; Hahn, Lance W et al. (2008) Comparison of approaches for machine-learning optimization of neural networks for detecting gene-gene interactions in genetic epidemiology. Genet Epidemiol 32:325-40
Chandler, Kelly J; Chandler, Ronald L; Broeckelmann, Eva M et al. (2007) Relevance of BAC transgene copy number in mice: transgene copy number variation across multiple transgenic lines and correlations with transgene integrity and expression. Mamm Genome 18:693-708
Motsinger, Alison A; Brassat, David; Caillier, Stacy J et al. (2007) Complex gene-gene interactions in multiple sclerosis: a multifactorial approach reveals associations with inflammatory genes. Neurogenetics 8:11-20
Thatcher, Elizabeth J; Flynt, Alex S; Li, Nan et al. (2007) MiRNA expression analysis during normal zebrafish development and following inhibition of the Hedgehog and Notch signaling pathways. Dev Dyn 236:2172-80
Velez, Digna R; White, Bill C; Motsinger, Alison A et al. (2007) A balanced accuracy function for epistasis modeling in imbalanced datasets using multifactor dimensionality reduction. Genet Epidemiol 31:306-15

Showing the most recent 10 out of 24 publications