Systems Genetics of Metabolic Disease: A Team Science Approach

About

One of our most enduring research questions asks how genetic and environmental factors influence complex diseases such as metabolic disease. Novel approaches to this question employ high-throughput data and statistical methods to model disease processes, together with a holistic view of organisms as complex systems. A “systems genetics” approach requires the coordinated efforts of scientists from diverse disciplines, bringing together insights, information, and skills that are not available within separate disciplines. A team science approach is a feature of systems genetics, and can address research questions in metabolic disease in ways that have not yet been realized.

Team science doesn’t happen by accident. This course will train researchers in the “soft skills” needed to manage conflict and communicate in collaborative research teams, while using metabolic disease research as a platform for team science. Participants will form research teams around shared interest in a research problem, and will interrogate this problem throughout the course with the support of course faculty, and daily lectures and dry labs.

Learning goals

Following the course, participants will be able to:

1. Describe features and unsolved problems of metabolic disease
2. Apply quantitative trait (QTL) mapping methods to genetic and phenotypic data, including RNA and protein sequence data
3. Apply causal analysis (mediation analysis) to QTL analysis results   
4. Apply negotiation strategies when faced with interpersonal conflicts such as authorship
5. Lead a well-organized team meeting with an agenda, goals, and purpose
6. Describe roles of each team member and the interdependencies between these roles
7. Describe the team project with a shared mental model

Prerequisites

1. Basic fluency in the R statistical programming language
2. Knowledge of Mendelian genetics