NSF Award
1714163
Intellectual Merit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's three-week summer course on Yeast Genetics and Genomics prepares students for modern scientific research in molecular genetics. The highly intensive laboratory-based course work is designed to make each student proficient in the fundamentals of yeast genetics, which then establishes the conceptual backbone for more sophisticated molecular technologies such as genome editing and next generation sequencing. The experimental portion of the course is complemented by daily theoretical lectures by instructors chosen for their proven expertise in the system and a world-class seminar series from renowned investigators that utilize the yeast system. Although the general organization of the course is intended to remain the same from year to year, changes in content are introduced as yeast biology and genomic approaches advance; as instructors are replaced new expertise is added to the course and the latest technologies and approaches are incorporated into the curriculum by the new instructors. Course participants are chosen from a pool of highly qualified applicants ranging from early career scientists to senior investigators and coming from diverse research backgrounds, including biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science.<br/><br/><br/>Broader Impacts: The course trains researchers in the most up-to-date experimental and computational resources and tools available for biological research in the yeast model, and trains teachers in the use of yeast to demonstrate the fundamental concepts of eukaryotic biology. Many of the students are likely to have educational and supervisory responsibilities in the near future; others are already professors or post-doctoral fellows who will immediately pass on what they have learned in the course. Many of the students who take the course go on to lead their own laboratories, with the course providing a foundation of knowledge and an important network of scientific contacts for these new lab heads. In recent years, female and male students were equally represented and under-represented minority students took part in the course. To further this trend, the course is advertised widely and specific contacts are made to institutional programs that facilitate recruiting and retention of underrepresented groups into the life sciences research community. The experimental protocols and associated materials are disseminated via publication by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
