NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2018

Literman Robert, Warwick RI

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2018, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Specifically, the Fellow will develop new methods to understand how species are related. This understanding is critical to many research areas. For example, to understand how disease-causing bacteria and viruses are spread, we need to know which outbreaks are similar. Biologists determine species' relationships by looking for similarities in DNA sequences. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology have created lots of data to compare species; however, the relationships within certain groups of species are still debated. The Fellow will develop methods to filter large DNA datasets to include only subsets useful for understanding species' relationships. This process will remove data that may be misleading. This research will help scientists across the globe to piece together the Tree of Life. Because "Big Data" work requires that researchers have strong quantitative and computer skills, the Fellow will work with URI students and faculty to develop training strategies for underrepresented biology majors to work with biological "Big Data". Embracing inclusion and diversity at the undergraduate level is important to combat the lack of diversity at higher levels of research, which is critical to fostering diverse perspectives and opportunities for all. The Fellow will address the problem of conflicting results in estimating species' relationships in three ways. (1) Starting with whole-genome datasets, the Fellow will apply novel filtering methods to remove loci that fail to resolve well-supported clades, as these loci likely carry non-historical signal. Specifically, the Fellow will analyze data simulated under biologically-relevant conditions, and sequence data from two clades that have been a focus of numerous incongruous phylogenomic studies: mammals and birds. (2) The Fellow will test historically accepted notions regarding the informativeness of different genomic subsets (e.g. coding, non-coding, intergenic regions). (3) The Fellow will investigate how functional annotations of loci correlate with age-specific node resolution. To develop students' computational skills, the Fellow will lead workshops for existing groups of underrepresented biology students at URI. These workshops will include coding lessons that are accessible to novice students, and highlight career / internship opportunities in "Big Data" and biological data science. Students will engage with real biological data and problems, and participate in team-based exercises. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.