The Sociogenomics Initiative RCN aims to identify the fundamental mechanisms of social behavior common across all organisms by bringing together faculty researchers, students, and science educators to advance understanding of the genomic mechanisms of social behavior. It integrates molecular genetic knowledge with biological higher levels to understand how gene expression modulates brain areas, how those areas regulate behavior within and between individuals, and how social systems evolve to yield the diversity of behavioral, brain, and gene expression patterns seen in the biological world. It facilitates interaction among researchers and enhances student training through a program including an annual Sociogenomics International Meeting (SGIM) to review and solidify ongoing research and develop new multidisciplinary projects, combined with technical workshops and other scientific activities to advance the skills and training of researchers and students in genomic approaches to social behavior. These activities are supplemented by exchanges between Network laboratories to foster new research collaborations, with a special goal of placing organism-oriented students or postdocs into systems biology, informatics, or molecular labs to facilitate integration across multiple levels of analysis. An SGI web site will facilitate on-going interactions among the Network members and the scientific community at large.
Broader Impacts: The Initiative will have a transformational impact by stimulating new genomic approaches to the study of social behavior and integrating them across levels from molecular to organismal to evolutionary. It will also contribute to training the next generation of scientists with programs for students from undergraduate to postdoctoral.
Data Management: Collection of new data will not be supported by this grant. However, summaries of symposium talks and technical presentations will be posted on the open-access SGI website, and network members will be encouraged to post relevant, published research articles on the SGI website (as consistent with applicable copyright and intellectual property considerations).
