After more than a decade of rich scientific discovery and significant faculty and student recruitment, on June 30, 2014, the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) will evolve into three distinct units.
A new center will continue to provide education, research and training in genomics and computational biology, hosting a suite of core resources and a coherent research community involving faculty from several schools. A second center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine will be dedicated to applying genome-inspired insights to improve patient care. The third major component is the Science & Society initiative that was launched in the IGSP last year. It will welcome its first class of master’s students in bioethics and science policy in Fall 2014. A PhD program in computational biology and bioinformatics will continue as well.
“With the success of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy under the skillful leadership of Hunt Willard, PhD, the genome sciences have grown from being a distinct discipline into a collection of approaches and tools that permeate imaginative and path-breaking research across our campus,” said Nancy Andrews, MD, Ph, Dean, Duke University School of Medicine. “Today, genomics impacts everything from comparative studies of primate evolution, to the diagnosis of infection before symptoms have appeared, to the discovery of new genetic disorders in individual patients. New programs emerging from the success of IGSP will define a next generation of genome science and its applications.”