The University of Maine together with The Jackson Laboratory and the Maine Medical Center Research Institute, has initiated an interdisciplinary, inter-institutional degree program in Functional Genomics, supported by an interactive faculty from the three institutions.

Functional Genomics, perhaps more than ever before, requires a level of interdisciplinary interaction of the biological, physical and computational sciences. This increased need for interdisciplinary research will in turn require scientists trained to work interactively in multiple disciplines. In response this new educational paradigm was developed to train students who can move freely among the disciplines needed to investigate genome function. The students move from a base curriculum giving coverage in the biological, physical and computational sciences to an interdisciplinary thesis project requiring two mentors from two different disciplines. Throughout this process students are in constant contact with other students and with faculty, learning to communicate easily in the different “languages” scientists use. Finally, the degree program provides the bridge linking a set of “virtual” interdependent research Centers of Excellence in: genetics/genomics; cell/molecular biology; biophysics/bioengineering; and computational biology/bioinformatics.

Major research areas:

Control of development in model organisms

• genetic and molecular mechanisms controlling mouse and zebrafish development
• mouse models of human disease
• neurogeneti
• molecular aspects of angiogenesis
• gene-gene interactions in complex traits

Computational sciences, bioinformatics and biostatistics

• automated extraction of spatial information from digital imagery
• information management and display concepts applied to genome data
• systems for data integration
• statistical genetics and mathematical modeling of complex traits
• mathematical physiology

Surface science and biosensor development

• microsensors,biosensors and instrumentation and their fabrication
• surface,interfacial,and thin film properties of materials
• analysis of complex molecules by mass spectrometry
• DNA detection on biochip arrays

Curriculum Information:

Application Information:

For more information
www.ume.maine.edu/genomics
800-828-2699

This program supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation - Integrative Graduate Research and Education Traineeship Program (IGERT)