Admin Core

PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of this Phase 2 COBRE for Computational Biology of Human Disease (CBHD) is to strengthen, expand, and sustain research programs focusing on computational approaches to the basic biology of human diseases. This involves support for faculty investigators that increases their competitiveness for peer-reviewed funding, as well as support for resources and infrastructure that enhances Brown’s broader biomedical research community. A key theme of this Center is to build upon the strengths of biomedical researchers whose individual questions may differ widely, but whose underlying analytical questions share common ground in computational analyses of large-scale genomic datasets that lead to discovery. The Administrative Core will lead, coordinate, and manage 1) the general activities of the Center including strategic planning, advisory committee meetings, fiscal accountability, regulatory compliance, communication, and reporting; 2) the career development activities of the junior investigators including the Research Projects and Pilot Project programs, mentoring activities, and the Computational Biology Core resource, and 3) activities that strengthen program sustainability including strategic partnerships, program integration, community building, program evaluation, and cost-center planning. The Administrative Core in Phase 2 will build upon the resources and infrastructure developed and implemented in Phase 1 with proven effectiveness. Brown University has invested heavily in facilities that generate data (e.g., the Genomics Core), the Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV) that maintains the super computer and staffs the Advanced Research Computing group that supports high performance computing, and research centers with targeted academic interests in biology and medicine. Our CBHD COBRE is distinct from research centers as the sole service Center focused on analysis of omics-enabled data. We will achieve the goals of strengthening and sustaining the COBRE in Phase 2 with the following Specific Aims. 1. Provide scientific leadership, administrative coordination, and fiscal management to support the continued integration, expansion and strengthening of the Center. 2. Provide junior faculty Project Leaders with research funding, career development mentoring, and computational resources to strengthen research competitiveness and achieve peer-reviewed, sustainably funded research programs. 3. Facilitate and ensure Center sustainability and responsiveness by integrative community building, establishing strategic collaborative partnerships, and responding to formative and summative program evaluation.