Project Summary – Bioinformatics Core The SC INBRE Bioinformatics Core uses a variety of approaches to promote Bioinformatics across the SC INBRE Network. The Bioinformatics Core will continue to focus efforts in three areas – training, services, and research – to facilitate the growth of research in genomics, proteomics, and personalized medicine. In order to facilitate a more distributed model of developing the Bioinformatics workforce across the state of South Carolina, the core will implement various models of training. It will continue to support the traditional mechanisms of training students, scientific staff and faculty through the development of a sequence of workshops that are aimed to equip a typical life science researcher with expertise needed to embark on Bioinformatics research. In addition, the Bioinformatics Core will create customized training courses for any interested network institutions to meet the specific needs of their researchers. These custom courses will serve as the foundation for courses that can be adopted by the faculty at PUIs to enhance their Bioinformatics curriculum. The Bioinformatics core will continue to provide data storage, data warehousing, data hosting, host websites, and provide computing services. In addition the core will continue to provide support for genomic and proteomic data analysis including transcriptome/genome assembly, differential gene expression, and comparative genomics and will provide SC INBRE investigators for designing experiments and assistance with grant writing. The Bioinformatics Core will continue to support Bioinformatics Pilot Projects (BIPP) in SC INBRE IV while introducing Student Initiated Research Projects (SIRP). Students (graduate and undergraduate) will propose projects in collaboration with a faculty mentor who will oversee the overall progress of the project. Students will attend a workshop to receive instructions related to best practices in grant writing and will be encouraged to collaborate with an existing BIPP or DRP funded investigator. The Core will continue its support of access to research resources for all SC INBRE network members by continuing its support for library services to all PUI faculty. The Core director will routinely assess the Bioinformatics needs of the SC INRBE network by visiting each campus and meeting with faculty and students in addition to feedback received from training courses/workshops. As part of its research efforts, the Bioinformatics Core will continue to develop and share Bioinformatics tools with researchers across the SC INRBE network.