 Well, I will formally call into session the 78th meeting of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. Welcome, everyone. It's great to see you. Hope you all had an enjoyable and productive summer. It's a beautiful fall day here in Bethesda, and we have, or I guess we're in Rockville, and we have you in this windowless conference room. So sorry about that, but hopefully you'll get outside to at least breathe the air at the break. I'm going to turn this over to Rudy for some introductory items. Okay. Thank you, Eric. Good morning and welcome. Let me remind everyone that NHGRI Advisory Council meetings open sessions are video archived and webcast live. I want you to encourage your colleagues to view the open session, so take that word back to them. Let's start. We have a number of introductions, and let's start by welcoming our Council Society Liaison members, Ellen Giarelli from the International Society of Nurses and Genetics, and Derek Scholes. It's nice to see you again, Derek, as he representing the American Society of Human Genetics. Thank you both for taking the time to be with us in, oh, and Rhonda Schoenberg, sorry, Rhonda, from the National Society of Genetic Counselors is also with us. Thank you all for taking the time to be here with us today in person. We have several new employees to introduce to the Council. When I call your name, would you please stand so the Council members can see you? Let's start with Sheena Fairty. Sheena is a new science writer in the communications and public liaison branch of the Division of Policy, Communication, and Education. Prior to her arrival at NHGRI, Sheena completed her doctoral degree at the Department of Biology at Duke University, where she worked on gene expression changes in hibernating primates. And raise your hand if you knew primates could hibernate. Yeah, you did. You can be on my Trivial Pursuit Team, then, Eric. Jeremy Johnston. Thank you, Jeremy. Jeremy is a new archivist. He's working in the communications and public liaison branch. He comes to us from Hampshire College, where he studied film theory and video production. And he'll work on NHGRI's oral history program and the digitization work that that branch is tackling at this time. So we have a number of program analysts to introduce to you. I'll remind the Council our analysts generally work with us for two years. So every summer we hire a new cadre, and there's several new people to introduce to you. We start with Omar Al-Jamal. Omar graduated from UC Berkeley in May with a major in molecular and cellular biology. As an undergraduate, Omar conducted research inhibiting neurons involved in visiospatial perception in mice. He will provide support to the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements, or ENCODE project. Julia Baker. Julia graduated from Vassar College this year and majored in biochemistry. Her research project involved developing and characterizing mutations in the beta-lactamase gene. Julia works on the Library of Integrated Networks-Based Cellular Signatures, or LINX Common Fund Program, and the Small Business Innovation and Small Tech Transfer Development Programs, affectionately known as SBIR and STTR. Erin Curry. Erin graduated from Wake Forest with a Bachelor of Science degree and a major in biology. Her undergraduate research work included the study of epigenetic mechanisms in yeast and behavioral risk factors associated with sexually transmitted infections on college campuses. Erin will split her time supporting the LC research program and the Clinical Genome Research, or CLINGEN program. Sarah Gould. Sarah received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in biology from Georgia Institute of Technology. Her undergraduate research experience included studies on gene expression changes during the process of immune cell stimulation. Sarah supports two Common Fund projects, the Genotype Tissue Expression, or G-TEX project, and the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, or UDN. Sarah also supports NHGRI's training program. Maggie Genoza. Maggie graduated from Vassar College with a major in science, technology, and society. Her undergraduate research experience included a project on crowdsourcing campaigns to fund research on the roles of viruses in soil microbial communities. Maggie will support the LC research program, the Population Architecture Using Genomics and Epidemiology, or PAGE project, the Phenotypes and Exposures, or PhENIX project, PhENIX project, and the Genome-Wide Association Studies Catalog, or GWAS Catalog. Ellen Howerton. Ellen is a graduate at the University of Virginia, where she majored in chemistry. Her undergraduate research was a study on small molecule modulators that affect binding of the ETS2 transcription factor to DNA and its deregulation in multiple types of cancer. Ellen works on the newborn screening in genomic medicine and public health, or N-site project, the clinical sequencing exploratory research CSER project, and the Undiagnosed Disease Program. Sheethal Joes. Sheethal also comes to us from UVA, where she was a double major in biology and politics and foreign affairs. Her undergraduate research project involved developing T-regulatory cells for better immunity against type 1 diabetes. Sheethal will support the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics, or EMERGE project, and the Common Fund, mouse knockout project, Comp-2. Melke Kapasi. Melke graduated in May from Davidson College, with a major in biology. Her research experience involved a study on novel cis-regulatory element found in the CD4 locus in mouse. Melke provides support for the Cancer Genome Atlas, or TCGA project, CSER, and the Genomic Medicine Working Group of Council. And Sam Moore. Sam earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester, where he majored in molecular genetics. Sam's undergraduate research work included a study to define the gene expression profile for primary refractory acute myeloid leukemia. Sam works on the ENCODE project, the Genomics of Gene Regulation, or GGR project, and big data to knowledge. So I think that's everyone. I hope you walked or enjoyed that little walk down acronym lane here at NHGRI. It's probably good for me to actually spell out what all those projects are. But I want to take just a moment to acknowledge the fact that program analysts are very important to the many large research projects that NHGRI oversees and coordinates. We're very much dependent on their efforts. They're very often engaged and interesting and challenging work, but they also spend an awful lot of time just doing work. And it should be publicly acknowledged how important they are for the successful management of our programs here. Okay, minutes from the May Council meeting. Does anyone have any comments or suggested changes to the minutes? If not, can I have a motion to accept the May Council minutes? And a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstentions? You're opposed, Jeff? You're abstaining. Thank you. I was really curious to hear what you didn't like about the minutes. On the open session agenda, let me please draw your attention to the next six council meetings, the dates for the council meetings. Please apprise your administrative assistance of these dates. Make sure they get on your calendar. If you discover a schedule conflict, please let me know. And more importantly, contact Comfort Brown and let her know. And with that, I'm going to turn this over to Eric for the director's report.