The Molecular Diversity Core has been existence in some form within the University of Washington CFAR for the past three years. To date it has serve a collaborative function housed within and centered around activities within the laboratories of the Core Director James I. Mullins and Co-director Leroy Hood, in collaboration with other members of the UW CFAR community, members of other National CFARs and non-CFAR affiliated AIDS researchers worldwide. These collaborations have resulted in 18 manuscripts and publications to date in areas ranging from development of algorithms for the conduct and quality control of virus sequencing studies, to whole viral genome analysis, HIV molecular epidemiology and HIV gene evolution in vivo. 44 additional projects are ongoing and for the past 1.5 years the Core has also operated at University wide Recharge Center for DNA Sequencing, Going forward, the Core will provide three basic functions within the UW CFAR community of investigators. 1 Perform DNA sequencing and quality control analyses of data (data edits and database searchers); 2 Train and collaborate with CFAR investigators in phylogenetic and bioinformatics based analyses; 3 Develop and make available new genetic technologies and computational tools. These include the heteroduplex mobility and tracking assays now available and high density oligonucleotide array based DNA sequencing methods now under development. Computational tools are being developed for viral sequencing project management and analysis, as new methods of analysis of viral populations and recombination. The core will be overseen by an Advisory Committee composed of the Core Directors and other CFAR members and will be coordinated by Gerald H. Learn and the CFAR Computational Biology Unit (CBU). Core funds will be used to pay portions of the salaries of Dr. Lean and the CFAR Computational Biology Unit (CBU). Core funds will be used to pay portions of the salaries of Dr. Lean and his assistant for sequence project management, as well as a programming specialist and two other investigators engaged in the development of new technologies and computational tools. The DNA sequencing Recharge Center will be supported entirely by a charge back mechanism.
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