 Okay. Why don't we go ahead and get started? I'd like to start the open session of what is the 70th meeting of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. I would note this is actually my 13th council since I became director, so this must be an unlucky one. On the other hand, on the other hand, the very first one was snowed out, although we did it by phone. So maybe this is the 12th that even does an in-person one. So maybe it's the next one that'll be the unlucky one. I don't know. I'll tell you the other thing I was thinking about this council meeting. This was what I called the What If Council meeting. Because it seemed we went through two rounds of What Ifs. As council members know, back in December, we started getting nervous. We'd dare face another government shutdown and would not have a rippling effect. That would influence our ability to have a council meeting in February. So we had a What If, and we had a scenario built in that if we did have another shutdown early this year, what we would do to deal with that consequence with respect to this council meeting. Then about a week ago, we heard there might be a bad snowstorm, which reminded me of my first council meeting, brought back memories of that. So we had a What If scenario. What would we do if there was a bad snowstorm? People couldn't get here. But neither of those circumstances came to be. So here we are, 70th meeting. So turn this over to Rudy. Eric, I'd like to suggest we call this one the 12th and call the next one the 14th. There are. God, it's done. We're scientists. We're scientists. We don't believe in that. That's probably not legal, but we'll go for it anyway. Okay, well, this is the inaugural meeting for an incoming group of council members, and so we're going to do introductions to our four new members. Let's start with Eric Boerwinkel. He is professor and holds the title of the Kosmetzky Family Chair in Human Genetics. He is the director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine's Center for Human Genetics and the director of the Division of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. And I think he wears all of those hats at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He is also the associate director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at the Baylor College of Medicine. Eric has served on multiple national advisory boards, including service to the Institute of Medicine, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NHGRI, and the University of Nancy in France, if I remember my high school French correctly, and multiple peer review panels for NIH. Eric was trained in statistics and genetic epidemiology, and he has a longstanding interest in the genetic analysis of common diseases such as hypertension, lipid metabolism, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, and more recently Alzheimer's disease. Eric, welcome to the council. Dr. Shanita Hughes-Halbert is professor and she holds the AT&T Distinguished Endowed Chair in Cancer Equity. She is program leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Shanita is a member of the Minorities and Cancer Research Council of the American Association of Cancer Research, and she has served on an impressive list a number of national advisory or review panels, including Board of Scientific Advisors for the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense Panels on Breast and Ovarian Cancer, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Breast Cancer and the Environment, and multiple panels for NHGRI and NCI, including chairing the LC study section for a number of years, which is the good old days to me and Shanita. Shanita was trained in psychology and her research interests have focused on psychosocial issues and genetic testing with a particular interest in BRCA 1 and 2 testing. She has explored perception and attitude differences among racial and ethnic groups, and more recently she has worked on health disparities research by developing interventions to improve health outcomes in prostate and breast cancer patients and underserved populations of South Carolina. Welcome, Shanita. Dr. Marty Kreitman is professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. Marty is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Presidential Investigator Award, as well as a MacArthur Fellowship, and he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served as associate editor or editor-in-chief for multiple prominent scientific journals, and he has an impressive record of peer review service for NIH. Marty's research has involved the use of Drosophila and Arabidopsis as model organisms to do studies in population genetics. His current research examines plant resistance to bacterial disease to probe the molecular adaptation process, and using genomic sequence information from a dozen strains of Drosophila to study the evolution of transcription factor binding sites. Welcome, Marty. Dr. David Page is professor of biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and director of the Whitehead Institute. David is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, and he's a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Institute of Medicine. David has an impressive service record, particularly to NIH. He is a former member of this council. He chaired the Blue Ribbon Review Panel of the NHGRI Intramural Research Program two years ago, and he has chaired multiple major review panels for NHGRI, including a multi-year stint as the chair of the Genome Research Review Committee. More good old days for me and David. David has been a world leader in defining the structure of the Y chromosome, including its DNA sequence, mapping and identifying the function of genes on the Y chromosome, including those associated with human diseases, and defining the evolutionary history of the Y chromosome. Welcome back, David. We need to welcome our council liaisons, Ellen Giarelli from the International Society of Nurses and Genetics, Joe McInerney from the American Society of Human Genetics, James O'Leary from the Genetic Alliance, Rhonda Schaunberg from the National Society of Genetic Counselors, and Mike Watson from the American College of Medical Genetics. And thank you, Bob. We have some new employees at NHGRI and our practice is to introduce them to the council members so you can associate a name with a face. So when I call your name, would you please stand in the back? Dr. Larry Brody? Larry is not new to the institute, new to the extramural research program. Larry is the new director of the Division of Genomes and Society. Until recently, Larry was the chief of the Genome Technology Branch at NHGRI Intramural Research Program, but he has resigned that position to make room for new challenges as the director of genomes and society. Larry retains his title as senior investigator in the Intramural Research Program, and he will continue his research to map genetic variants associated with birth defects, including neural tube defects. Dr. Carolyn Hutter? Carolyn is a program director in the Division of Genomic Medicine. Carolyn is working on the Cancer Genome Atlas and the Clinical Exploratory Sequencing Research or CSER program. In her life before NHGRI, Carolyn was a program director at the National Cancer Institute, and her background is in epidemiology and biostatistics. Dr. Jennifer Troyer? Jennifer is a program director in the Division of Genome Sciences and is working on the H3Africa Initiative. Prior to coming to NHGRI, she was a senior scientist at the Science Applications International Corporation, SAIC in Frederick, where she worked on genomic technology development, including next-gen sequencing methods and bioinformatics. Steven Weiss? Steven is our new administrative officer. He comes to us from NCI, where he worked for several years, and his primary efforts will be to work with the good people in the Division of Extramural Operations. And Sabrina Williams? Sabrina is our new program, our new administrative assistant. She works at the front desk and generates lots of internal reports that are important for NHGRI staff to track grant applications. We have a couple of, thank you, Sabrina. We have a couple of guests. Guests, Tabitha Hendershott is from RTI International. Welcome, Tabitha. And Joanne, good night from the Jackson Labs. Thank you, Joanne. Okay, so that's it for introductions. I'd like to now ask the Council if they have any comments or corrections to be made to the minutes from the September 2013 meeting. Riveting reading, I'm sure. Okay, so can we have a motion to accept the minutes? And a second? All in favor? Anybody opposed? 100% on the on the minutes. I want to draw your attention on the open session agenda to the future Council meeting dates. We're still waiting to hear about February 2016. But please share these dates with your assistants and make sure they get on to your calendars. If you develop or notice a schedule conflict, please contact both me and Comfort Brown. And I think with that I'm ready to turn it over to Eric, Director.