9317657 Sogin This proposal seeks to offer interdisciplinary training and promote collaborative efforts between molecular biologists, organismal biologists and theoreticians. Prominent scientists in molecular biology, ecology, population biology, organismal biology and biometrics will offer a high powered lecture series. Topics to be covered include but are not limited to the theory of phylogenetic (genealogical) reconstruction, macromolecular alignment techniques, current trends in molecular phylogenetics, molecular approaches to studies of population biology and biodiversity, comparative molecular biology, and comparative analysis of genome data bases. The lectures will be augmented by a computer laboratory. Students will have the opportunity to use state-of-the-art facilites to test theoretical concepts described in the lecture series. Guided by authors of phylogenetic analytic software programs and designers of data base retrieval software from the National Laboratory of Medicine, the students will have the opportunity to compare different analytical techniques for molecular data. The computer laboratory will be equipped with diverse computer platforms and will offer each student the opportunity to work in an environment that is relevant to hardware configurations available at their home institution. The opportunity to implement concepts described in the lecture series using diverse up-to-date computer hardware is a distinguishing feature of this course. The course is designed for established investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from diverse biological fields.
