# Training Program on Genetic Variation and Human Phenotypes

> **NIH NIH T32** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $112,491

## Abstract

Project Summary
The Vanderbilt Training Program in Genetic Variation and Human Phenotypes provides support for primary
pre-doctoral research in the field of human genetics. While this program has enjoyed broad success
throughout its tenure, with students in the program exhibiting good productivity (mean, median publications for
students funded on the training grant – 4.7,4), there is a new and palpable excitement in the field of human
genetics today that can only bode well for the future success of the program. Much of that excitement has
grown from the unprecedented availability of data: larger numbers of samples are available for studies in
human genetics and this as been coupled with breakthroughs in technology allowing us to interrogate much of
the common variation in the genome (MAF – minor allele frequency – greater than 0.001) for less than $75.00 /
sample, and to conduct whole genome sequencing of subjects for less than $1200 / sample, with costs for both
genotyping and sequencing technologies continuing to drop. There is a wide array of other –omics
technologies that are allowing us to better understand the function of genome variation as well. Vanderbilt
University has hardly been immune to the excitement. With the establishment in 2015 of the Vanderbilt
Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt has committed substantial new resources (more than $12 million) for establishing
a new university-wide institute, recruitment of additional faculty in genetics and genomics, and additional
investment in genome interrogation of subjects in BioVU, the biobank at Vanderbilt University. By mid-2017,
BioVU will include more than 230,000 subjects with DNA and more than half of those samples (120,000-
140,000) will have at least dense genome-wide genotype data available, and thousands more will be whole
genome-sequenced. Our graduate students are well-rounded biologists, with most matriculating through the
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) at Vanderbilt and the rest from the Quantitative & Chemical Biology
Program (QCBP). They conduct research in an amazing variety of topics interfacing with human genetics,
largely focused on generating and/or analyzing state-of-the-art genetic and genomic (and other –omic) data,
including data from the utterly unique BioVU resource. Their education is clearly empowering them, as the
students themselves are major drivers of collaborative research within Vanderbilt, and they rightly feel that they
are not just benefitting from the excitement in the field of human genetics today, but also contributing to it.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10163858
- **Project number:** 5T32GM080178-15
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Nancy J Cox
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $112,491
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10163858

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10163858, Training Program on Genetic Variation and Human Phenotypes (5T32GM080178-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10163858. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*