PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT There has been a revolution in biomedicine fueled by the development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies which has made it possible to address biological questions at a systems level. Now, instead of determining the effect of perturbing one gene, all genes can be assessed simultaneously. Instead of asking how a transcription factor binds to a single promoter or enhancer, all binding sites for that factor can be determined in a single experiment. In addition to looking at expression events across all the cells within a complex, heterogenous tissue, we can determine changes at the single cell level. Taking advantage of these approaches involves the application of specialized technical and analytical skills beyond the reach of most individual laboratories. Mindful of these issues, and of the need to apply cutting edge genome-wide technology to questions of relevance to diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease, we have established a Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics Core. The goals of this Core are to provide access to state-of-the-art methods to members of the BADERC community in order to enhance and facilitate a deeper understanding of how metabolic disease develops, and how it can be diagnosed and treated.