Tulane launches genomic precision medicine training program with $1.62 million NIH grant

SOM Communications
David Crosslin, PhD, is the director of the biomedical informatics graduate program at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Tulane University has received a $1.62 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to establish a new predoctoral training program focused on genomic precision medicine.

Led at Tulane by Dr. David Crosslin, the program will prepare the next generation of biomedical researchers to use genomics, biomedical data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to better understand health conditions and develop more individualized approaches to care.

The Tulane University/Ochsner Health Genomic Precision Medicine Program is a partnership with Ochsner Health and is designed around a Health Education through Robust Omics and Individualized Care, or HEROIC, mission. The program is the first NHGRI-funded training program located in an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) state.

The program will be anchored in the interdisciplinary PhD concentration in Biomedical Informatics within the Tulane University School of Medicine Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program. Trainees will receive advanced education in biomedical data science, with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning, from faculty in the School of Medicine's Division of Biomedical Informatics and Genomics. Tulane genomic researchers will also serve as mentors throughout the program.

The two-year training experience will prepare students to master data science and research methods, identify health conditions that could benefit from genomic interventions, and understand the sophisticated clinical informatics infrastructure required to implement precision medicine tools in real-world health care settings.

Through summer training experiences, students will work with clinical informatics researchers at Ochsner Health who will serve as co-mentors and provide exposure to real-world health data and clinical informatics infrastructure. Working with their Tulane mentors and clinical co-mentors, trainees will identify health challenges affecting the New Orleans region and design genomic precision medicine projects to address them.

By combining advanced training in biomedical data science with opportunities to apply those skills to real-world health challenges, the program aims to prepare researchers who can translate increasingly complex genomic and health data into precision-medicine approaches that benefit patients in Louisiana and beyond.