Educators are called to train the next generation of biology students to be data-savvy scientists who can apply their skills to address emerging challenges in human health, agriculture, and climate. The Genomics Education Alliance (GEA) is a community-based organization driven to sustain established efforts that introduce large number of biology students to bioinformatics, and to provide students with a course-based research experience (CUREs). We invite the community of researchers and educators working in genomics and related fields to join us in shaping this alliance with the aim of achieving transformative change, delivering genomics curriculum that can be globally implemented.

The GEA aims to curate resources and workflows to ensure the sustainability of undergraduate education in bioinformatics and genomics. To date, we have posted lessons to teach students: the basics of performing BLAST comparisons, the use of a Genome Browser to understand gene structure and function, and analysis of RNA-Seq data to monitor gene expression. We would like your help; please pilot our modular curriculum and provide us with feedback on how these resources can be effectively implemented in the classroom and help you manage your teaching responsibilities. If you have ideas for more modules you would like to have available, please contact us  .

The GEA is working to identify limitations to delivering genomics curriculum in the classroom. We aim to provide software and computational tools that are optimized for bioinformatics instruction and implementation of CUREs. We also seek solutions to provide access to needed computational resources needed to run these tools.

As an alliance, the GEA is curating a list of in-person and online faculty training workshops on genomics. These workshops and training materials can help faculty with different levels of experiences in bioinformatics implement CUREs.

The GEA Steering Committee is organized into four committees aligned with the project aims, each chaired by one of the Co-PIs for the GEA. Additional community members, including those from community colleges and minority-serving institutions, will be recruited to committees to participate in network activities, including testing new tools and approaches.