COMPARATIVE GENOMICS AND DATA SCIENCE (CGDS) CORE PROJECT SUMMARY Computational genomics and bioinformatics are now an essential aspect of nearly all genetic studies of regeneration, while genomic studies are similarly changing how we view aging. With new discoveries of transcriptional dysregulation leading to aging/inflammatory states and epigenetic "clocks" impacting gene expression as we age, all biological disciplines now require bioinformatics expertise to plan experiments, acquire and manage data, interpret findings, and integrate results in public repositories. The Comparative Genomics and Data Science (CGDS) Core (formerly the Comparative Functional Genomics Core) was established in COBRE phases I and II and provided essential support to investigators working in the Kathryn W. Davis Center for Regenerative Biology and Aging. CGDS Core staff members have broad expertise in analyzing genome-scale data sets including transcriptomic, proteomic, epigenetic, non-coding RNA, and genetic variation data. The CGDS Core Director Dr. Graber has over twenty-five years of experience in computational analysis of genome-scale biological data, spanning multiple data types and divergent organisms ranging from yeast to mammals. During COBRE Phases I and II, CGDS Core personnel provided essential services in experimental design, data analysis, and education to all COBRE Project Leaders. The CGDS Core will build upon its successes to establish a self-sustaining bioinformatics and data science core in Phase III. The goals of the CGDS Core are 1) to provide both standard service and collaborative levels of bioinformatic support to core users and collaborators, 2) continue to transition bioinformatic analysis pipelines to cloud computing, 3) to educate and empower our users to perform their own bioinformatic and statistical analyses, 4) Establish evaluation metrics for the core in conjunction with the external advisory committee and 5) enact a user fee schedule to ensure long term sustainability of the CGDS core. The proposed CGDS core incorporates state of the art bioinformatic services with the flexibility to engage with core users at multiple levels of investigation. Continued bioinformatic education of users will empower a new generation of investigators and allow for increased focus on innovation and new analytical pipelines as core services. Consolidation of common data formats and broad access to data and analysis pipelines through cloud computing are the current direction of bioinformatic and biomedical data processing and curation. Implementing these core services will enable experimental innovation and increase research impact for CGDS core users.