Project Summary The goals of this supplement is to support two students to promote diversity under PA-18-586: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. Both are PhD candidates in the Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (QBS) and Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) graduate programs at the Geisel School of Medicine and both students are working under the mentorship of Dr. Whitfield, the PI on the TGDI core. Both are implementing novel genomic analysis tools that will be made available in the core, as well as additional analysis methods and techniques. They are each using these methods in SSc focused projects that will probe the epigenome in SSc cells and tissues, and further analyze the microbiome in SSc tissue samples. The tools these students will implement in the TGDI core will also be applied to SSc samples as part of the CORT grant and provide novel insights into SSc pathogenesis. The aims are to 1) provide epigenomic analysis of SSc samples using ATAC-seq, and 2) perform RNA- sequencing-derived metagenomics data through microbiome methods, multi-omics statistical methods, and functional networks modeling.

Project Narrative This supplement will promote diversity in our CORT research program by supporting students from underrepresented minority populations as specified under PA-18-586: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research Each is using novel genomic and bioinformatic methods to probe the epigenome and microbiome in SSc. Accomplishing the aims will provide novel insights into SSc pathogenesis and help us develop novel treatments for this disease.