The overall goal of Dr. Coxs research program is to develop methods of analysis for identifying genetic variation affecting complex traits. The methods development has been primarily in linkage mapping of complex disorders and most recently in the analytic component to the positional cloning of genes for complex disorders. Although the primary research focus is on the development of methods that can be used for analyses of any complex trait, most of the methodology development has been driven by research conducted on type 2 diabetes. Thus, all of the initial applications for new methods in estimation of linkage likelihoods, accurate calculation of multipoint allele-sharing linkage likelihoods, framework for identifying and characterizing gene x gene interaction, and approaches for discriminating causal variants in positional cloning studies were in studies of type 2 diabetes. In addition to the research on type 2 diabetes, Dr. Coxs research interests include other complex disorders such as type 1 diabetes, asthma, stuttering, and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Cox is scientific director of the University of Chicago Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Core facility.