Driven in part by the Human Genome Project, genetics and genomics are taking an ever more central role in the biomedical sciences. In the same way, advances in computational methods are driving the mathematical sciences forward. These factors, the increasingly quantitative nature of the biological sciences, and the explosive growth of genetic and genomic data, have resulted in a rapidly increasing demand for investigators trained at the interface of genetics, genomics, and the mathematical sciences. The successful translation Of DNA sequence and annotation to address questions of human health and disease and to better understand human evolution require the talents and energies of individuals trained at this interface; at the same time, there is a severe shortage of individuals with this training. We propose a 5-year competing renewal of our University of Michigan Genome Science Training Program (UMGSTP) to support pre- and postdoctoral trainees at the interface between genetics, genomics, and the mathematical sciences, with particular emphasis on training statistical human geneticists, and human molecular geneticists with a strong grounding in statistics. This Training Program is based in the participating departments of Biostatistics, Human Genetics, and now also Epidemiology; other participating faculty come from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Mathematics; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; and Statistics. The fundamental premise of the UMGSTP is that graduates should have substantial training in both the mathematical and biological sciences and at their interface. Such training facilitates communication between disciplines, identification of important problems, and identification of the mathematical and computational methods required to solve those problems. We request support for 6 predoctoral trainees and 2 postdoctoral trainees, consistent with our numbers in the first 10 years of the Training Program. Trainees will continue to be supported for 2 to 3 years to provide time for the degree of interdisciplinary training we have demonstrated is critical to their success. Graduates of this Training Program will continue to help fill the increasing need for statistical geneticists and genome scientists. In so doing, they will help the National Human Genome Research Institute to achieve its goals in the translation of DNA sequence and annotation into advances in our understanding of human disease and evolution.
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