A student in the laboratory has also applied for a NSF Predoctoral Fellowship. With the support of the NIH grant, this project will serve as a major focus of the laboratory for the next 5 years. Five peer-reviewed publications resulted from this project. One of the project s graduate students received an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship award. Genomics, the technical arm of genetics, is essential to finding disease genes, defining their structure and ultimately to developing new modes of treatment.
Physical maps are a key part of the technology of genomics.
For Columbia University to be an important contributor to this field required the construction of laboratories designed for the high technology methods, especially robotics, that are at the forefront of physical mapping. The Strategic Initiative Program provided additional funding toward the completion of the renovation that enabled expansion of the physical mapping part of the genome program. The Physical Mapping laboratory is currently among the world leaders in fine mapping of single chromosomes. Considerable external support from the NIH and from industry has been received, is planned, and is pending. Laboratory equipment and personnel will eventually be transferred to the new physical center once construction has been completed.