Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2002

Church Sheri A, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY2002. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce. The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Identifying rapidly changing genes and their impact on the speciation process in sunflowers through genome level sequence comparisons." If speciation is caused by adaptation to different environments, genes under strong selection for different adaptations may also be speciation genes. This study uses comparative analyses of genome sequences among sunflower species to identify genes on which natural selection is strongest and then tests to see if these genes are involved in speciation.