Pilot Projects
Members of The Jackson Laboratory Scientific Staff and researchers at outside participating institutions are encouraged to participate in Center research through pilot projects. All Center investigators, including external collaborators and consultants as well as The Jackson Laboratory staff, are included in the role of recruiting pilot projects, with the goal of providing Center support for their junior colleagues. Projects are reviewed and selected by the Center Advisory Board using the standard NIH criteria for significance, approach, innovation, qualifications of the investigator, and suitability to the Center's environment. The Center also considers the following specific criteria: likelihood to lead to a successful NIH grant application in an area of systems biology; reasonable budget; capacity to enhance CGD resources; interdisciplinary collaboration; and involvement of external collaborators. Pilot project funds are typically used to support personnel effort; supplies; user fees for Scientific Services; mouse purchases; etc. Pilot projects may be awarded for up to two years.
Examples of Center pilot projects include:
Ellisa Chesler
Genetic Structure of Reference Populations
Evaluation and comparison of genetic reference populations based on the development of linkage disequilibrium and segregation distortion observed systematically through combinatorial analysis of high density genotype data.
Leonard McMillan & Wei Wang
Computational Tools for Systems Genetics
Creation of a database to host the genotyping, transcript, copy-number variation, and methylation data for Center projects, and external users of the Mouse Diversity Genotyping array. Genome Compatibility and Tree-based Association Analysis.
