416W Poster - Science & Society
Wednesday June 08, 8:30 PM - 9:15 PM

Authors:
Nicholas Miller ¹; Molly McDonough ²; Cindy Voisine ³; Aaron Schirmer ³

Affiliations:
1) Illinois Institute of Technology; 2) Chicago State University; 3) Northeastern Illinois University

Keywords:
Educational Initiatives

Thanks to rapid technological advances in DNA sequencing, obtaining the genome sequences of non-model organisms is now feasible for individual labs, even in cases of species with relatively large, complex genomes. This is opening up a wealth of new opportunities in the fields of population and evolutionary genomics.

Genome sequence data is accumulating so quickly that the main bottleneck to understanding it is a large enough scientific workforce to analyze the data. This is especially true for non-model organisms, which are often studied by small to moderately sized research communities. Undergraduates are a sometimes-overlooked pool of trainee scientists who can assist in the annotation and analysis of new genome sequences.

Equally, participating in research is known to benefit undergraduates' educational, professional and personal development. Unfortunately, access to opportunities in laboratory and field research is often limited and sometimes unequally distributed. Much of the analysis of genome data can be done using software accessed through a web interface. Because of this, students only need a web browser to do research, making opportunities accessible to a diverse population.

StRoNG Net (Stem Research on Non-model Genomes Network) is a network of scientists and educators dedicated to developing opportunities for undergraduates to engage in scientific research by contributing to the analysis of non-model genomes.