The Genomics Education Partnership: Teaching and Research Opportunities
Authors: Raffaella Diotti 1; Cindy Arrigo 2; Martin G. Burg 3; Justin R. DiAngelo 4; Sarah C. R. Elgin 5; Christopher E. Ellison 6; Christopher J. Jones 7; Jennifer Kennell 8; Judith Leatherman 9; Wilson Leung 5; David Lopatto 10; Vida Mingo 11; Laura K. Reed 12; Chinmay P. Rele 12; Katie M. Sandlin 12; Jamie Siders 13; Norma Velazquez-Ulloa Velazquez-Ulloa 14; The Genomics Education Partnership
Affiliations: 1) Bronx Community College, Bronx, NY; 2) New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ; 3) Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI; 4) Penn State Berks, Reading, PA; 5) Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; 6) Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ; 7) Moravian University, Bethlehem, PA; 8) Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY; 9) University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO; 10) Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA; 11) Columbia College, Columbia, SC; 12) University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 13) Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH; 14) Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
Keywords: c. genomics education partnerships
The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP; thegep.org) is a nationwide collaboration of faculty from 180+ institutions with the goal of increasing understanding of genetics and familiarity with bioinformatics in diverse student populations through the incorporation of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) in the curriculum. Participating institutions range from community colleges, to PUIs, MSIs, HBCUs, and R1 universities. To facilitate both faculty and student access to curriculum materials and support active participation in the research, GEP provides a web-based platform with curated curriculum/training materials that can easily be incorporated into existing courses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the accessible and immersive GEP curriculum and custom bioinformatics tools provide an inexpensive online framework for students to participate in research despite the lack of access to a traditional lab environment. During the 2020-2021 academic year, GEP reached over 3900 students. Through the GEP curriculum, students learn to annotate newly-sequenced eukaryotic genomes. They learn to leverage evidence from related informant species, experimental data (e.g., RNA-Seq), gene prediction algorithms, evolutionary conservation, and basic molecular biology rules to create a defendable gene model. The GEP research projects include investigation of venom evolution in parasitoid wasps, the evolution of insulin pathway genes across 27 Drosophila genomes, and expansion of the F element in four Drosophila species. We plan to expand the projects to additional species. Student gene models are reconciled and collated to generate a large dataset for evolutionary genomic studies, with student/faculty co-authors. In addition, GEP supports the publication of the gene models as microPublications, with students as lead authors. The GEP also engages in science education research. Our recent findings suggest that student perceptions of science, positive and negative, impact student learning outcomes. In addition to accessing the curriculum materials and tools, GEP faculty benefit from professional development opportunities and the support of a national network of like-minded colleagues. With the support of NSF and NIH, GEP is actively recruiting additional faculty members, particularly at MSIs and community colleges, and both science and science education partners to collaborate on additional projects. Supported by NSF grants 1915544 and 1431407, and NIH R25GM130517.