Human and Mammalian Genetics and Genomics: the McKusick Short Course

Human and Mammalian Genetics and Genomics: the McKusick Short Course, developed through a six- decade long partnership between Johns Hopkins University and The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), trains the next generation of basic research and medical genetics professionals. The McKusick Short Course is purposefully an intense, two-week program that covers human and mouse genetic and genomics processes and the mechanisms of human disease. With graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, medical genetics residents, and faculty being the dominant audience, the course offers ~50 lectures, 10 workshops, multiple evening lectures by featured speakers, a poster session, and both formal and informal networking opportunities over a 12-day period, uniquely providing medical genetics, mouse genetics, and ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics content training. The content delivered by the Short Course would normally be covered by one or many more graduate-level, semester-long university courses. Additionally, the McKusick Short Course will be delivered in a hybrid format, with online/virtual access to the seminars and, where practical and feasible, the workshops. The hybrid format reduces barriers to participation for individuals who could not otherwise attend. Likewise, scholarships have been, and will be, provided to enable Course participation. Thus, JAX continues to be deeply committed to recruiting and training biomedical scientists from a breadth of backgrounds. Health care disparities will be discussed with regards to the initiatives, tools, and resources being generated to study the genetic basis of disease. This includes best practices for genetics and genomics research to address ongoing health care disparities, the need for studies of genetically representative models and populations, and representation of a breadth of backgrounds within genetic databases and samples.