Achievement

The IGERT Program participated in a Knowledge Base Workshop (March 2011) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and participated in a DOE Knowledge Base proposal, followed by a reverse site-visit in Washington DC. The model microbial communities we have studied and used as case studies in community network modeling are excellent systems for beta-testing and bioinformatic algorithm development in a fluent, tool-driven work-space especially as we move forward into proteomic and transcriptomic based analyses that will feed back to the genome enabled platform for data convergence and integration of community dynamics. The IGERT Program has assisted in pioneering community network modeling and would welcome the opportunity to continue systems biology research on model communities in this context. Currently, five to six IGERT students have projects that focus on network modeling and so these research achievements form a direct link with educational activities and programs.