“Institutional Training Grant in Genome Science” led by SDRC affiliated member Dr. Michael Snyder (NHGRI)

This is a competitive renewal application of The Stanford Genome Training Program, which is one of the first NHGRI sponsored program established in 1995. This program has been highly successful and has supported and trained 119 graduate students and 44 postdoctoral fellows since it began; many of these have gone on to become leaders in their field. This application proposes to modestly increase its number of Trainees to 28 predoctoral fellows and 6 postdoctoral fellows from its existing level, consistent with its substantial increase in expansion of the program. There are presently 60 Participating Faculty in 15 different departments at Stanford. Research opportunities abound in broad areas of genomics and computational biology including genome characterization, medical genomics, technology development, comparative genomics, diversity and variation, development genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, gene regulation and systems biology, all with an "omics" emphasis. Organisms that are studied include yeast, flies, worms, fish, mice, and humans and other primates (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans). The emphasis of the SGTP will be to continue to provide a broad interdisciplinary education to a wide range to trainees, to serve to coordinate genomic research and training activities across the entire campus, and to help disseminate genomic science by preparing Trainees for the next steps in their careers. The program contains many unique elements that prepare Trainees for genomics research and highly successful careers. In addition, the SGTP proposes to continue an active Diversity Action Plan (DAP). The DAP will continue to recruit, retain and train individuals of diverse backgrounds for careers in the genomic sciences.