This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Bioinformatics is a new and rapidly expanding field in biology with considerable promise for addressing important questions in both basic biology and applied medicine. As such it presents both opportunities and challenges for faculty and students at undergraduate institutions. Opportunities appear in the form of data mining of publicly available databases, allowing faculty members to carry out meaningful bioinformatics research while reducing the need for laboratory equipment and space. Such resources are often limited or missing on undergraduate campuses. Challenges arise because the bioinformatics discipline is so new that a typical faculty member at an undergraduate institution did not encounter it in his or her formal education. Moreover, bioinformatics is in a state of rapid flux, making it difficult to keep up with recent advances and developments, particularly for faculty members at undergraduate institutions who have heavy teaching loads and must try to stay current in relatively broad areas. Consequently, students at undergraduate institutions may not receive sufficient exposure to this important field. Thus, the OK INBRE provided for the support of a Multi-campus Bioinformatics Education (MBE) specialist, who is dedicated to working with faculty and students on the undergraduate campuses. This informatics position is located on the OUHSC campus, where the MBE Specialist interacts effectively with the INBRE Bioinformatics Core. While the MBE specialist will use OUHSC as a ?home base,? this individual spends considerable time on each undergraduate campus, to assess faculty and student needs at the undergraduate campuses, for development of bioinformatics tools and educational materials to address these needs. The MBE specialist is responsible for developing undergraduate education packages that will provide some of the necessary background for students interested in the developing OU Bioinformatics Graduate Program. The MBE specialist also works with faculty at the undergraduate campuses to acquaint them with the discipline so that they can incorporate bioinformatics into their own research and teaching activities. The MBE Specialist also is well suited to introducing undergraduates to microbial genome sequence analysis, via the Oklahoma Re-Annotation (OKRA) Project, described in the abstract for the Bioinformatics Core.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 165 publications
