Centers, Institutes, Laboratories, and Programs Directory

Cornell Institute for Nutritional Genomics (CING)

Directors:

Patrick J. Stover, Ph.D.

Cutberto Garza, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director

 

Address:

315 Savage Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853

 

Fax:

(607) 255-9751

 

E-mail:

pjs13@cornell.edu

URL:

Under construction

 

Reports to:

The Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences. The Deans of Human Ecology and Agriculture and Life Sciences jointly administer the Division of Nutritional Sciences.

 

Mission:

The Cornell Institute of Nutritional Genomics (CING), promotes, facilitates and advances multidisciplinary genomics research related to understanding the interrelationships between human nutrition and genetic variation in health and disease.

CING advances its mission by:

1. nucleating and advancing multidisciplinary nutrition research and collaborative interactions at Cornell University. CING is comprised of scientists with diverse disciplinary backgrounds including biochemistry, medicine, chemistry, genetics, molecular epidemiology, physiology, pathology and oncology, who share a common interest in elucidating the interrelationships among nutrition and genetics in human health and disease. This combination of diverse expertise brought together by common research interests enables Cornell to uniquely position itself to meet the new scientific paradigm of integrative biology. CING is the intellectual and financial resource center across the Cornell Campus that enables programmatic and research interactions that otherwise would not occur.
 
2. providing innovative research training opportunities at the Nutrition-Biochemistry-Genetics interface. The collaborative and multidisciplinary research program advanced by CING, in concert with the Cornell Graduate Field System, provides a wealth of research and educational opportunities for students interested in developing a strong discipline-based graduate education while acquiring breadth in and integration with other life science disciplines of their choosing. 

3. facilitating the formation of active collaborations with other research universities, centers, foundations and the private sector. The collective expertise of CING membership makes the Institute an attractive collaborative partner for external collaborative nutrition research. CING currently has initiated or plans active collaborations with the Normative Aging Study, Nurses Health Study and The Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

4. attracting extramural resources to enable individual research investigators within the Cornell community to participate in large-scale genomics related research that is often beyond the scope of a single investigator. The completion of the human genome project and the emergence of associated genomics technologies are enabling high impact research opportunities never imagined even 10 years ago. However, the costs of taking full advantage of these technologies are often beyond the scope of a single investigator. Research using array technologies, proteomic analyses and mouse mutagenic screens are now all too necessary but often resource prohibitive. CING enables genomics research at the nutrition-genetics interface by facilitating and sponsoring multidisciplinary program project grants, research center grants and genomics facility and equipment grants.

5. sponsoring outstanding seminar speakers at the nutrition-genetics interface. Rather than launching a new and independent seminar series, CING recommends and supports external speakers within existing departmental and graduate field seminar series and therefore reaches a broader audience.

 

Collaborators:

Participating units at Cornell University currently include the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Departments of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Biology and Genetics.

 

Board:

CING is advised and reviewed by a multidisciplinary review panel comprised of external and internal experts in the fields of genetics, nutrition and genomics. The Panel is currently being assembled. Current membership includes:

External Panel: Gene Renchick, Ph.D., Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratories; and Barry Shane, Ph.D., Professor of Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley

Internal Panel: Charles Aquadro, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics; Michael Kotlikoff, DVM, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Biomedical Sciences; and Rodney Page, DVM, Ph.D., Professor of Oncology and Director of the Cornell Comparative Cancer Center, College of Veterinary Medicine.

 

Review Process:

Annual review by the Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences in consultation with the external review panel.

Funding Sources:

CING is self-supporting and aggressively seeks extramural support in the form of program projects, doctoral and postdoctoral training grants, and collaborative research center grants.

 

Current Support:

Special Research Grant (CSREES), USDA (2001-2003)

 

Established:

2001

 

Outreach:

CING membership and resources support and advise Cornell Cooperative Extension, conferences and popular press releases.

 

*Institutes with asterisks were established by action of the Cornell Board of Trustees

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For questions regarding the Cornell Institute for Nutritional Genomics (CING), please use the e-mail address or fax number above. Last updated: