To increase faculty and student engagement in the GEP, the NIH’s Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) grant provides support for regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (Regional Nodes). Regional Nodes are encouraged to develop events that allow undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and/or faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula.
In April 2019, the GEP was awarded funding by the NIH’s Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) to sustain and develop centralized support and regional training. A main focus of the IPERT grant is to increase faculty and student engagement in the GEP by leveraging the available regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (Regional Nodes).
Each of the 13 Regional Nodes can offer Regional Node Meetings (symposia) and/or Regional Node (New Member) Training. The Regional Node Meetings serve the dual functions of allowing undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula. The Regional Node Training workshops expand the timing and location options for GEP training, thereby increasing participation while testing a new regional training format. A particular goal of these Regional Node activities is the recruitment and support of new members from Community Colleges.
Regional Node Meetings (RNMs) leverage available regional clusters of participating GEP institutions (i.e., Regional Nodes) to increase faculty and student engagement by allowing undergraduates to present their work to other scientists, and faculty to learn, collaborate, mentor, and develop curricula.
See the “Regional Node Event Planning” web page (generic password) for more details.
The DMV node hosted a series of mini-node events in the form of on-line pedagogy journal club sessions during fall 2024 and spring 2025. They met three times over zoom each semester to discuss papers related to faculty stress, kindness, metacognition, science course support, and undergraduate research.
The Pennsylvania Node Meeting took place on Friday May 23rd from 12–2pm EST. The title of the event was R Workshop for Beginners. The meeting was virtual and was open to everyone in the GEP due to general interest.
The Midwest Node hosted a virtual Student Research Symposium on Thursday, May 8, 2025 via Zoom. Nine undergraduate students presented their research on the Pathways and Parrot Projects, with six GEP faculty in attendance. This meeting provided an opportunity for students and faculty to connect through discussion of research projects and for faculty to plan for the future of the Node. Dr. Jennifer Mierisch and Dr. Sarah Justice, Midwest Node Co-Leaders, moderated the sessions.
The Southeast Regional Node Spring Virtual Symposium was a success with 10 attendees from three institutions (Mercer University, The University of Alabama, and Louisiana State University).
We had 7 GEP faculty, 5 prospective faculty, 1 graduate student, 12 other faculty and administrators, and 56 undergraduate students attend the MN/IA/Dakotas Node Event with representation from Anoka Ramsey Community College, Saint Catherine University, North Hennepin Community College, Crown College, Wartburg College, Bemidji State University, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, University of Minnesota, Carleton College, Normandale Community College, Bethel University, and Mayo Clinic.
The Southeast Node Virtual Symposium on Friday, November 22, 2024, was a success, drawing over 40 attendees from three universities in the node. The event showcased original student research and fostered collaboration among students and faculty, reinforcing the node’s commitment to advancing genomics education and research.
The Midwest Regional Node held an in-person meeting at Marian University in Indianapolis, IN on September 28-29, 2024. This meeting included 7 GEP Midwest Node faculty, 7 undergraduate students, a prospective GEP faculty member, and two keynote speakers: Dr. Saoirse Foley (Marian University) and Dr. Rob Denton (Marian University).
The Rocky Mountain node held an in-person regional node meeting and annotation workshop at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) in Grand Junction, Colorado September 27-29, 2024. It was organized by Zeynep Özsoy and Shan Hays. The meeting was attended by six regional node members and five students from CMU and Western Colorado University.
The Midwest Regional Node held a virtual Research Symposium for students involved in Bioinformatics research through the GEP on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Twelve faculty and nine undergraduate students were in attendance.
The Pacific Northwest (PNW) Regional Node had a virtual meeting on April 20th, 2024. The event included participants from four different institutions geographically spanning from southern Oregon to Southern British Columbia, in Canada!
The Carolinas Regional Node Meeting held a student-centered symposium on April 13, 2024 at the Clemson University Outdoor Lab with a total of 70 students, faculty, and panelists in attendance.
On April 17, 2024, the Rocky Mountain Node held a virtual Regional Node Meeting that was attended by seven Node members and three speakers–two undergraduates and one graduate student.
