Mammalian genetics. Genomics and associated technologies. These are a few of the course offerings at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) that will be expanded, thanks to a four-year, $1.6 million grant from The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

The new funding will support courses aimed at graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professional scientists, at the JAX headquarters campus in Bar Harbor, ME, and The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, CT.

“As the pace of discovery and technology development increases, so does the need for scientist education. With cutting-edge research, an internationally recognized faculty, and the new JAX Genomic Medicine campus, we are well positioned to creatively expand our advanced courses program to better serve the research community,” said Thomas Litwin, Ph.D., vice president for Education at JAX, in a press statement.

The HHMI grant will support courses in structural variants in the human genome, mouse genetics, analysis of mammalian microbiomes, and behavioral analysis.

One of the programs will offer training to professors from smaller colleges and regional universities training that will enable them to enhance their ability to integrate big data genomics into their undergraduate courses.

JAX will also expand its outreach efforts to enroll underrepresented students in its advanced courses, and will build new collaborative relationships with the other institutions receiving HHMI Advanced Courses funding, including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.

JAX is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution and National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center whose mission is to discover precise genomic solutions for disease and empower the global biomedical community in the shared quest to improve human health.

HHMI, based in Chevy Chase, MD, plays a powerful role in advancing scientific research and education in the United States. HHMI has an endowment of approximately $19 billion. 

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