Next Steps for Functional Genomics Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
9 Big-Picture Challenges in Research, Education, and Training
9 Big-Picture Challenges in Research, Education, and Training
Pages 127-144
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 127... ...
To begin, participants divided themselves into smaller groups to discuss three questions related to the future of functional genomics education. The three questions were: • What are the training needs for future genotype-to-phenotype researchers?
|
From page 128... ...
The panel included Terry Magnuson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arnaud Martin of The George Washington University, Lauren O'Connell of Stanford University, Grace Anderson of Octant, and Rebecca Walker of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Education and Training Needs Much of the conversation in the breakout groups and in the discussion that followed the group reports was focused on what students need to learn in order to pursue careers in functional genomics.
|
From page 129... ...
Another approach is to offer short courses to introduce students to various topics. There are some areas that all students should be familiar with, Sokolowski said, including strong training in evolution, and being comfortable thinking about issues from an evolutionary perspective.
|
From page 130... ...
"For grad students, we have free association times sometimes in lab meetings where we try to figure out two different things that are going on in the lab or with another lab or what is our connection to another lab in our department that we may not have an obvious link to." At the undergraduate level he is team-teaching a biology and music course with a composer. In answer to a question from Arnaud Martin about what the students do in the biology and music course, Dudycha said that the class is half biology students and half students in the composing program, and they form teams to build musical simulations of genetic processes.
|
From page 131... ...
She mentioned the importance of giving students hands-on functional genomics experience. "You really want students to be in the wet lab, extracting DNA, getting their results, analyzing them statistically, and being guided through that process." O'Connell's group concluded that it is important to have some genomics tools, such as rapid sequencing tools, in undergraduate classrooms so that students can use them and get a sense of what genomics researchers do.
|
From page 132... ...
To answer this question Katz began by examining how various federal science agencies define "model organism." The National Institutes of Health (NIH) website says, "The term ‘model organism' includes mammalian models, such as the mouse and rat, and non-mammalian models, such as budding yeast, social amoeba, roundworm, Arabidopsis, fruit fly, zebrafish, and frog." Katz noted that
|
From page 133... ...
As an example, he pointed to the physical model of a DNA molecule that James Watson and Francis Crick built. Not only did the model show what the molecule looked like, but it also made clear how a DNA molecule could be copied to create additional identical molecules.
|
From page 134... ...
It turns out Drosophila was the weirdo." Discussion To begin the discussion, panel member Lauren O'Connell of Stanford University commented that one of the reasons the planning committee chose to include a panel on model organisms was because "we were kind of arguing about the language regarding a model system versus non-model systems and whether that was a useful framework in the first place." At some level, she said, all of the organisms that people study are modeling
|
From page 135... ...
For example, if one finds "a set of transcription factors that work in a certain way with certain partners that is absolutely the same" in a plant species and an animal species, that can only be explained by convergence and explains something about the developmental events that drive this convergence. One speaker noted that discussions around work using non-traditional model organisms, such as Ciona intestinalis, end up devolving into conversations about whether the organism is a "model" or not, and are not necessarily about the science being represented.
|
From page 136... ...
Continuing that line of thought, Bergmann said that assuming research is funded to improve lives, one argument for studying diverse organisms is because it may reveal multiple solutions to a problem. That led to a brief discussion among multiple participants about balancing research on single organisms versus research across broad systems in such a way that the research across systems can be used to determine if principles discovered in a single organism represent general patterns or are specific only to that organism.
|
From page 137... ...
Thus, on the afternoon of the first day of the workshop, a panel discussion moderated by Zoe Donaldson of the University of Colorado Boulder was devoted to the societal and ethical implications of functional genomics research. The three panelists -- Rebecca Walker of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scott Jackson of Bayer Crop Science, and Ronald Sandler of Northeastern University -- each offered some initial comments on the topic, followed by a discussion with the audience.
|
From page 138... ...
SOURCE: Rebecca Walker presentation, slide 1.
|
From page 139... ...
There is, for example, talk of using synthetic biology and conservation cloning to increase the genetic diversity of populations that have been through a genetic bottleneck, such as the black-footed ferret. Some have suggested using gene drives to suppress or eliminate populations of invasive species, such as rodents on islands.
|
From page 140... ...
The goal of the standard conservation approach, he said, is to eliminate anthropogenic impacts wherever possible, and the strategies for this typically have to do with limiting human activities in and around a space. Examples include carrying out captive breeding programs and performing ecological restorations.
|
From page 141... ...
Department of Agriculture noted that the public is often leery of, if not completely opposed to, genetically modified organisms despite various efforts to help gain their acceptance. "What needs to change in our messaging so that we can make some progress in communicating what these technologies have to offer?
|
From page 142... ...
Steven Moss from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine asked about the ethics of editing species in nature. He mentioned specifically a study on corals that brought up the possibility of using genomic editing tools in corals as well as the possibility of using genomic tools to deal with invasive species.
|
From page 143... ...
"The research community and other folks who could potentially implement this stuff are going to be facing these hard questions before they have good guidance from regulatory bodies." If those researchers on the technological frontier think carefully through the issues, their practices can serve as the bases for the regulations or policies that come along afterward. Jackson commented that this is what happened with genetically modified organisms in the 1980s and 1990s -- that many of the policies eventually put into effect by regulatory agencies were first developed by the companies working on these organisms.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.