{"468901":{"#nid":"468901","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Center for Integrative Genomics gets a Reboot","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Center for Integrative Genomics (CIG) isn\u2019t new. It just feels that way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re rebooting,\u201d says CIG Director Greg Gibson, professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s School of Biology and faculty member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. \u201cWe\u2019ve got critical mass now, so the time is right for a reboot.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGibson is kind of like a head football coach rebuilding his game plan around a new combination of talented core personnel. But instead of a multi-threat quarterback, nimble wide receivers and tenacious offensive linemen, CIG is counting on a diverse team of biologists, engineers and other researchers to carry out work that can impact the future of medicine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOver the past several years we\u2019ve attracted about half a dozen people who have expertise in quantitative genetics and analysis of human genomes, and that\u2019s in addition to another half a dozen who were already here,\u201d says Gibson.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe CIG team is comprised mostly of faculty from the School of Biology, including Gibson, King Jordan, Joe LaChance, Annalise Paaby, Todd Streelman, Fred Vannberg and Soojin Yi. CIG\u2019s other faculty members are Melissa Kemp, Peng Qiu, Eberhard Voit and May Wang from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGibson\u2019s research collaborators include the Predictive Health Institute and multiple pediatric autoimmune disease experts at Emory University, the Georgia Tech Center for Computational Health (headed by Jimeng\u0026nbsp;Sun\u0026nbsp;and Jim Rehg in the School of Computational Science and Engineering) and Bruce Weir\u0027s statistical genetics team at the University of Washington. \u0026nbsp;Other CIG investigators similarly engaged in dozens of national and international collaborators are expanding the reach of the Center.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey bring a wide-range of interest areas and skill sets to the CIG mix, including but not limited to bioinformatics, machine learning, single cell imaging, computational modeling, the evolution of behavior, infectious disease, human population genetics, cardiovascular disease, electronic medical records, and cryptic genetic variation, or CGV, which refers to unexpressed, bottled-up genetic potential that can fuel evolution \u2013 nature\u2019s curveball, served up under abnormal conditions, and a concept that interests researchers like Gibson and Paaby, for example.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s not a theme you find commonly in human genetics right now,\u201d says Gibson. \u201cBut it\u2019s something we feel is a very important part of personalized medicine.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGibson figures that the CIG\u2019s multi-disciplined team of pioneering scientists and engineers will also serve as an excellent recruiting tool \u2013 to attract graduate students, as well as future grant opportunities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe have a strong nucleus to carry out the real objective of the center, which is to provide a genetics focus for the systems biology and genomics initiatives on campus. It\u2019s pretty much what I envisaged when I first got here,\u201d says Gibson, who came to Georgia Tech in 2009 following a professorial fellowship at University of Queensland in his native Australia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGenetics is a big part of contemporary biology,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd if we\u2019re looking ahead, it\u2019s a big part of anything to do with predictive health and personalized medicine.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.cig.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECenter for Integrative Genomics\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Multi-disciplined faculty researchers form nucleus of re-energized research center"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMulti-disciplined faculty researchers form nucleus of re-energized research center\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Multi-disciplined faculty researchers form nucleus of re-energized research center"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-11-11 15:56:55","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:58","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"468881":{"id":"468881","type":"image","title":"Genomics","body":null,"created":"1449257160","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:26:00","changed":"1475895218","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:38","alt":"Genomics","file":{"fid":"203839","name":"bigstock-genetic-background-with-dna-ge-87910640.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bigstock-genetic-background-with-dna-ge-87910640_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bigstock-genetic-background-with-dna-ge-87910640_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4465087,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bigstock-genetic-background-with-dna-ge-87910640_0.jpg?itok=k_st0hME"}}},"media_ids":["468881"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"146341","name":"go_genomics"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}