This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2007. The goal of the fellowship is to increase the participation of minority scientists at the postdoctoral level and to prepare them for positions of scientific leadership in US science. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training and research of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. It is expected that Fellows supported through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.
The research and training plan is entitled "Searching for Adaptive Genes Using a Global Approach." The primary goal of this research is to understand the relationship between an organism's genotype in conjunction with the environment it lives in and how these two factors contribute to its phenotype. It uses state-of-the-art genomic techniques that are capable of monitoring the interactions of several hundred genes at once to identify genes being expressed under different environmental conditions for Clinocottus analis, an inter-tidal sculpin. Genomic approaches using other fish have already provided insights into the mechanisms that underlie short-term and long-term environmental adaptations. It will also contribute to the growing recognition of the need to move beyond model organisms and explore the mechanisms by which natural populations operate. The sponsoring scientist is Andrew Gracey at the University of Southern California.
The research goals are to gain proficiency in genomic technologies and bioinformatics
