This CDI RRPA workshop provided a first-hand look at Marine Eco-genomics research capabilities, strengths, strategies, and potential partnerships in the EPSCoR community. The core research in this area at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the Marine Biomedicine & Environmental Sciences (MBES) Center led by Dr. Eric Lacy will be the launching point for exploring research partnership strategies aimed at large-scale, center-level endeavors.

Workshop participants:
MUSC and South Carolina:
-- Dr. Eric Lacy (Professor and Director, MBES; MUSC)
-- Researchers in marine eco-genomics from MUSC and other universities in South Carolina, the SC Department of Natural Resources, and NOAA

External presenters:
-- See agenda

CDI external consulting team:
-- Dr. Richard Winn (Director, Aquatic Biotechnology and Environmental Laboratory; University of Georgia)
-- Dr. Dan Edie (Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical Engineering; Former NSF ERC Director; Clemson University)
-- Dr. Carl Rust (NSF ERC Associate Director, Georgia Institute of Technology)
-- Dr. Martin Feder (Professor, Department of Oganismal Biology and Anatomy; University of Chicago)
-- Dr. Ed Abbott (Senior Associate, EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative (CDI); Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Montana State University)
-- Dr. Phil Harriman (Senior Associate, EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative (CDI)
-- Mr. Rand Haley (Director, EPSCoR Centers Development Initiative (CDI); EPSCoR/IDeA Foundation)

EPSCoR research community:
EPSCoR researchers interested in this research partnership/center strategy meeting were encouraged to participate, including EPSCoR researchers in related discipline areas interested in exploring potential collaborations and EPSCoR research groups planning centers in other disciplines.

Logistics:
Location:
The workshop was held at the Francis Marion Hotel in historical Charleston, SC.

Intro to Eco-Genomics:
(Source: RW Chapman, Guest editorial: "EcoGenomics--a consilience for comparative immunology?," Developmental & Comparative Immunology 25: 549-551 (2001).)

"EcoGenomics ... the application of the tools of genomics (and the sister disciplines of proteomics, CHOmics, lipomics, etc.) to ecology."

"At the core of EcoGenomics is the belief that the bewildering array of interactions between species and their environments can ultimately be understood in the same terms as the complex interactions of genes and proteins at the cellular level."

"EcoGenomics is not focused upon the relative abundance of particular molecules, or their immediate interactions in a pathway or cascade, but rather upon the dynamic interactions of genes and proteins (and lipids, carbohydrates, xenobiotics, etc.) in response to environmental change."

"The goal of EcoGenomics is to translate molecular dynamics at the cellular level to functional relationships between the organism and its environment."

"EcoGenomics requires massive amounts of data, both from the organisms and from the environment. ... The massive and diverse data that will be generated by EcoGenomics demands new analytic tools and approaches."

"In proposing EcoGenomics, there is an implicit belief that the dynamics of genes and ecosystems are inextricably linked and that the linkage is accessible to experimental science."