In this competing renewal, we seek funding for 5 years of continued support for the 7-day short course """"""""Genome Sequence Analysis: Theory and Practice"""""""", to be held in June of each year at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor Maine. The Course initially received funding for two years under """"""""COURSES IN GENOMIC ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION AND ELSI RELATED RESEARCH"""""""" PAR-99-059. ? ? The availability of large volumes of sequence data, including complete genome sequences, has resulted in the need for biologists to learn new paradigms for carrying out their research programs effectively. A major shift in the research process has been to rely increasingly on powerful computational and statistical methods for generating hypotheses about genes and their functions that can subsequently be tested in the laboratory. With this in mind, we have developed a 7 day short course, """"""""Genome Sequence Analysis: Theory and Practice"""""""", held every June at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor Maine. The goals of the course are: (1) to increase the understanding of the statistical and mathematical principles among biologists who are grappling with computational methodology and computational biologists grappling with applications of computational methods to the biological interpretation of genomic sequence data; (2) to increase the ability of these researchers to conduct productive research using existing bioinformatics databases and algorithms; and (3) to develop professional relationships that promote interdisciplinary research efforts among course ? participants and faculty. ? ? The Course will focus primarily on the process of analyzing genomic sequences to identify biologically ? significant features using computational and comparative approaches and on the prediction and annotation of the function of genes and gene products. The proposed workshop will bring together scientists with training in computational biology, mathematics, and computer science with wet bench biologists who are seeking to introduce these methods into their research. Participants will be introduced to the mathematical theory behind many of the commonly used computational tools for sequence analysis along with the implementation of these algorithms as analysis tools for genomic sequence data. Biological questions will be framed largely around a variety of human diseases and biological processes for which comparative sequence analysis using genomes of model organisms (especially mouse) is yielding insights. ? ? ?
