BOL: Related items

You and your friend have similar DNA !!!

Jit — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:44:05 -0500

New research out of Massachusetts claims that people often choose friends that are similar to them in genetics and they are more accurate than you might suppose. A study published on PNAS http://www.pnas.org/content/111/Supplement_3/10796.full found that people are apt to pick friends who are genetically similar to themselves - so much so that friends tend to be as alike at the genetic level as a person's fourth cousin.

Scientists with a long-running Framingham Heart Study looked at 1,932 people (examination of about 1.5 million markers of genetic variations), comparing unrelated friends to unrelated strangers. They found that friends shared about 1% of their genes — a percentage much higher than those shared with strangers.This new findings made it clear that people have more DNA in common with those who are selected as friends than with strangers in the same population.

The genes that lined up the most were olfactory genes, which deal with smell. The ones that lined up the least were immune system genes. The researchers weren't sure why that happened :/. Olfactory genes might be a straightforward explanation: People who like the same smells tend to be drawn to similar environments, where they meet others with the same tendencies.

Reference:

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/Supplement_3/10796.full

Image : http://i.kinja-img.com

CLUSTER INNOVATION CENTER @ UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 10:39:49 -0500

Applications for Pre-selection of candidates under ‘Institutions Mode’ for DST-ISPIRE Faculty in Computational Biology/ Systems Biology/ Bioinformatics

Applications are invited for pre-selection of candidates for Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology INSPIRE Faculty Scheme: a component of “Assured Opportunity for Research Career (AORC)” under INSPIRE in the area of computational Biology/Systems Biology/Bioinformatics.

Candidates having done their B.Tech/B.E. and or M.Sc./M.Tech in Computer Science or Biotechnology and Ph.D. in Systems/ Computational Biology or Bioinformatics may apply in the following format prescribed by DST to the Director, Cluster Innovation Center, University Stadium, GC Narang Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi -11107. Detials of other qualification, age limits etc., please visit www.inspire-dst.gov.in.

Application on the prescribed format may be submitted by email to director@cic.du.ac.in before October 25, 2014. Selected candidates shall be called for an interview. The date, time and venue of the interview shall be informed by email/telephone. For more information about Cluster Innovation Center, please visit https://ducic.ac.in.

Computer simulation of genetic mechanism !!

Jit — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 09:29:56 -0500

Computer simulation is the discipline of designing a model of an actual or theoretical physical/biological system, executing the model on a digital computer, and analyzing the execution output. Simulation embodies the principle of ``learning by doing'' --- to learn about the system we must first build a model of some sort and then operate the model. The use of simulation is an activity that is as natural as a child who role plays. Children understand the world around them by simulating (with toys and figurines) most of their interactions with other people, animals and objects. As adults, we lose some of this childlike behavior but recapture it later on through computer simulation. To understand reality and all of its complexity, we must build artificial objects and dynamically act out roles with them. Computer simulation is the electronic equivalent of this type of role playing and it serves to drive synthetic environments and virtual worlds. Within the overall task of simulation, there are three primary sub-fields: model design, model execution and model analysis

Simulation models have become important tools in Bioinformatics studies. There are many reasons for this, but we emphasize three of the more important:

(1) they enable exploration of hypotheses, and as such, have become invaluable means to guide research;

(2) they are unique approaches to integrate (in the literal term of the word) biological knowledge, in the form of experimental results; and

(3) they enable connecting biology with other fields of study ranging from physiology to genomics;

This blog, and this software list, is intended to guide the potential user of simulation models.
It is not, in any way, meant to be comprehensive on the very diverse simulation tools that already exist, but focuses on mechanistic, dynamic models. Similarly, it is not meant to provide any coverage of the breadth of applications; however, for interested readers, we provide references to use as a possible starting point.

Simulation models are meant to answer questions which scientists have in a dynamic, quantitative, and often, a pictorial way. Much of the bioinformatics research and its applications, in particular, involve a large number of components, actors, and factors. Assembling these in a coherent framework may seem a daunting task, especially for beginners, and can lead to confusion, even for experienced scientists, especially if the objectives of such an exercise are not well defined. Followings are the list of tools bioinformatician may use to analyze and provide answers to complex biological mechanisms and related problems.

Software Resource	Brief Description and Homepage
Aladyn	Tools to investigate how demographic parameters, populations genetics and abiotic conditions affect the rate of adaptation http://www.katja-schiffers.eu/research.html
ALF	A Simulation Framework for Genome Evolution http://www.cbrg.ethz.ch/alf
ART	ART is a set of simulation tools to generate synthetic next-generation sequencing data by mimicking real sequencing process with empirical error models or quality profiles. http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/software/biostatistics/art/
BAMSurgeon	Methods for realistic simulation of mutations in real data. https://github.com/adamewing/bamsurgeon
Bayesian Serial SimCoal	Bayesian Serial SimCoal, (BayeSSC) is a modification of SIMCOAL 1.0, a program written by Laurent Excoffier, John Novembre, and Stefan Schneider. http://www.stanford.edu/group/hadlylab/ssc/index.html
BaySICS	An integral platform with a graphical interface for statistical inference based on approximate Bayesian computation. https://sites.google.com/site/baysicsabc/
BEERS	BEERS was designed to benchmark RNA-Seq alignment algorithms and also algorithms that aim to reconstruct different isoforms and alternate splicing from RNA-Seq data http://cbil.upenn.edu/beers/
BOTTLENECK	Bottleneck is a program for detecting recent effective population size reductions from allele data frequencies http://www.ensam.inra.fr/urlb/bottleneck/bottleneck.html
BottleSim	BottleSim is a computer simulation program for simulating the process of population bottlenecks http://chkuo.name/software/bottlesim.html
CASS	Protein Sequence Simulation https://liberles.cst.temple.edu/software/cass/index.html
CDPOP	CDPOP is a landscape genetics tool for simulating the emergence of spatial genetic structure in populations resulting from specified landscape processes governing organism movement behavior. http://cel.dbs.umt.edu/cdpop
Classical Genetics Simulator	Web-based simulation software http://www.cgslab.com/
CoaSim	CoaSim is a tool for simulating the coalescent process with recombination and geneconversion under various demographic models. http://users-birc.au.dk/mailund/coasim/index.html
cosi	The cosi package is written in C and is available as a tar file. http://www.broadinstitute.org/~sfs/cosi/
CS-PSeq-Gen	A program to simulate the evolution of protein sequences under the constraints of the information of a particular reconstructed phylogeny http://bioserv.rpbs.univ-paris-diderot.fr/software/cs-pseq-gen/
DAWG	An application designed to simulate the evolution of recombinant DNA sequences in continuous time http://scit.us/projects/dawg
Easypop	EASYPOP is an individual based model intended to simulate datasets under a very broad range of conditions http://www.unil.ch/dee/en/home/menuinst/softwares--dataset/softwares/easypop.html
EggLib	EggLib is a C++/Python library and program package for evolutionary genetics and genomics. http://egglib.sourceforge.net/
EpiSIM	EpiSIM: simulation of multiple epistasis, linkage disequilibrium patterns and haplotype blocks for genome-wide interaction analysis https://sourceforge.net/projects/episimsimulator/files/
EvolSimulator	A simulation test bed for hypotheses of genome evolution http://acb.qfab.org/acb/evolsim/
EvolveAGene	A realistic coding sequence simulation program that separates mutation from selection and allows the user to set selection conditions http://bellinghamresearchinstitute.com/software/index.html
fastsimcoal	A continuous-‐time coalescent simulator of genomic diversity under arbitrarily complex evolutionary scenarios http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/fastsimcoal/
FastSLINK	Simulation of Marker and Phenotype Data in Pedigrees https://watson.hgen.pitt.edu/
FFPopSim	C++/Python library for population genetics. http://webdav.tuebingen.mpg.de/ffpopsim/
FLUX SIMULATOR	The Flux Simulator aims at providing a deterministic in silico reproduction of the experimental pipelines for RNA-Seq, employing a minimal set of parameters. http://sammeth.net/confluence/display/sim/home
forqs	Forward-in-time simulation of Recombination, Quantitative Traits, and Selection https://bitbucket.org/dkessner/forqs
ForSim	ForSim: A Forward Evolutionary Computer Simulation http://anth.la.psu.edu/research/weiss-lab/research/research
ForwSim	The program given below is based on the algorithm described in Padhukasahasram et al. 2008 to simulate genetic drift in a standard Wright-Fisher process. http://badri-populationgeneticsimulators.blogspot.com/
FPG	Forward Population Genetic simulation https://bio.cst.temple.edu/~hey/software/software.htm#fpg
FREGENE	FREGENE is a C++ program that simulates sequence-like data over large genomic regions in large diploid populations. http://www.ebi.ac.uk/projects/bargen
FIGG	FIGG is a genome simulation tool that uses known or theorized variation frequency, per a given fragment size and grouped by GC content across a genome to model new genomes in FASTA format while tracking applied mutations for use in analysis http://insilicogenome.sourceforge.net/
fwdpp	A C++ template library for implementing efficient forward simulations. http://molpopgen.github.io/fwdpp/
GAMETES	Genetic Architecture Model Emulator for Testing and Evaluating Software: Simulates complex SNP models with pure, strict epistatic interactions with n-loci. http://sourceforge.net/projects/gametes/?source=navbar
GASP	Genometric Analysis Simulation Program. A software tool for testing and investigating methods in statistical genetics by generating samples of family data based on user specified models. http://research.nhgri.nih.gov/gasp/
GCTA	Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis http://www.complextraitgenomics.com/software/gcta/download.html
GemSIM	Next generation sequencing read simulator http://sourceforge.net/projects/gemsim/
GeneArtisan	Simulation of Markers in Case-Control Study Designs http://www.rannala.org/?page_id=241
GENOME	A rapid coalescent-based whole genome simulator http://www.sph.umich.edu/csg/liang/genome/
GenomePop2	GenomePop2 is a specialization of the program GenomePop just to manage SNPs under more flexible and useful settings. If you need models with more than 2 alleles please use the GenomePop program version. https://ritchielab.psu.edu/research/research-areas/statistical-genetics-and-gen-epi/methods/genomesimla
GenomeSimla	GenomeSIMLA is currently under development- however, we have a beta release that we are asking to be tested http://chgr.mc.vanderbilt.edu/genomesimla/
GENS2	Simulates interactions among two genetic and one environmental factor and also allows for epistatic interactions. https://sourceforge.net/projects/gensim/
GWAsimulator	A rapid whole genome simulation program http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/main/gwasimulator
HAP-SAMPLE	An association simulator for candidate regions or genome scans http://www.hapsample.org/
HAPGEN	A simulator for the simulation of case control datasets at SNP markers https://mathgen.stats.ox.ac.uk/genetics_software/hapgen/hapgen2.html
HapSim	A simulation tool for generating haplotype data with pre-specified allele frequencies and LD coefficients http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/hapsim/index.html
HAPSIMU	A program that simulates heterogeneous populations with various known and controllable structures under the continuous migration model or the discrete model http://l.web.umkc.edu/liujian/
IBDsim	IBDSim is a computer package for the simulation of genotypic data under general isolation by distance models. http://raphael.leblois.free.fr/
indel-Seq-Gen	A biological sequence simulation program that simulates highly divergent DNA sequences and protein superfamilies http://bioinfolab.unl.edu/~cstrope/isg/
Indelible	A powerful and flexible simulator of biological evolution http://abacus.gene.ucl.ac.uk/software/indelible/
invertFREGENE	InvertFREGENE is a forward-in-time simulator of inversions in population genetic data http://www.ebi.ac.uk/projects/bargen/
kernalPop	A spatially explicit population genetic simulation engine http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/archive/kernelpop/
MaCS	Markovian Coalescent Simulator http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~garykche/
Marlin	Marlin provides a user-friendly interface for performing forward-in-time population genetic simulations. http://www.patrickmeirmans.com/software/marlin.html
Mason	A package for the simulation of nucleotide data. http://www.seqan.de/projects/mason/
mbs	modifying Hudson's ms software to generate samples of DNA sequences with a biallelic site under selection http://www.sendou.soken.ac.jp/esb/innan/innanlab/software.html
Mendel's Accountant	Mendel's Accountant (MENDEL) is an advanced numerical simulation program for modeling genetic change over time and was developed collaboratively by Sanford, Baumgardner, Brewer, Gibson and ReMine http://mendelsaccount.sourceforge.net/
MetaPopGen	Simulates genetics in large size metapopulations https://sites.google.com/site/marcoandrello/metapopgen
MetaSim	A tool to generate collections of synthetic reads that reflect the diverse taxonomical composition of typical metagenome data sets http://ab.inf.uni-tuebingen.de/software/metasim/
mlcoalsim	Multilocus Coalescent Simulations http://code.google.com/p/mlcoalsim-v1/
ms	The purpose of this program is to allow one to investigate the statistical properties of such samples, to evaluate estimators or statistical tests, and generally to aid in the interpretation of polymorphism data sets. http://home.uchicago.edu/~rhudson1/source/mksamples.html
msHOT	The purpose of this program is to allow one to investigate the statistical properties of such samples, to evaluate estimators or statistical tests, and generally to aid in the interpretation of polymorphism data sets. http://home.uchicago.edu/~rhudson1/
msms	A coalescent Simlation tool with selection. http://www.mabs.at/ewing/msms/index.shtml
MySSP	A program for the simulation of DNA sequence evolution across a phylogenetic tree http://www.rosenberglab.net/software.html
Nemo	A forward-time, individual-based, genetically explicit, and stochastic simulation program designed to study the evolution of genetic markers, life history traits, and phenotypic traits in a flexible (meta-)population framework. http://nemo2.sourceforge.net/
NetRecodon	Coalescent simulation of coding DNA sequences with recombination (inter and intracodon), migration and demography http://code.google.com/p/netrecodon/
OncoSimulR	BioConductor package for Forward Genetic Simulation of Cancer Progresion with Epistasis https://github.com/rdiaz02/oncosimul
PEDAGOG	Software for simulating eco-evolutionary population dynamics https://bcrc.bio.umass.edu/pedigreesoftware/node/5
phenosim	A tool to add phenotypes to simulated genotypes http://evoplant.uni-hohenheim.de/doku.php?id=software:software
PhyloSim	An R package for the Monte Carlo simulation of sequence evolution http://www.ebi.ac.uk/goldman-srv/phylosim/
pIRS	Profile-based Illumina pair-end reads simulator https://code.google.com/p/pirs/
ProteinEvolver	Simulation of protein evolution along phylogenies under structure-based substitution models http://code.google.com/p/proteinevolver/
QMSim	QTL and Marker Simulator http://www.aps.uoguelph.ca/~msargol/qmsim/
quantiNEMO	An individual-based program for the analysis of quantitative traits with explicit genetic architecture potentially under selection in a structured population http://www2.unil.ch/popgen/softwares/quantinemo/
RECOAL	Simulates new haplotype data from a reference population of haplotypes. ftp://popgen.usc.edu/
Recodon	Coalescent simulation of coding DNA sequences with recombination, migration and demography http://code.google.com/p/recodon/
rlsim	A package for simulating RNA-seq library preparation with parameter estimation http://bit.ly/rlsim-git
Rmetasim	Rmetasim is a front-end for the metasim engine that is implemented as a package that runs in the statistical computing environment R http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rmetasim/index.html
RNA Seq Simulator	RSS takes SAM alignment files from RNA-Seq data and simulates over dispersed, multiple replica, differential, non-stranded RNA-Seq datasets. http://useq.sourceforge.net/cmdlnmenus.html#rnaseqsimulator
Rose	Random model of sequence evolution http://bibiserv.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/rose/
scrm	A coalescent simulator optimized for long sequences and large samples. https://scrm.github.io/
SelSim	SelSim is a program for Monte Carlo simulation of DNA polymorphism data for a recom- bining region within which a single bi-allelic site has experienced natural selection http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/~spencer/selsim/
Seq-Gen	An application for the Monte Carlo simulation of molecular sequence evolution along phylogenetic trees. http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/seqgen/
SEQPower	Statistical power analysis for sequence-based association studies http://bioinformatics.org/spower/
SeqSIMLA	SeqSIMLA can simulate sequence data with user-specified disease and quantitative trait models. Family or unrelated case-control data can be simulated. http://seqsimla.sourceforge.net/
Serial NetEvolve	A flexible utility for generating serially-sampled sequences along a tree or recombinant network http://biorg.cis.fiu.edu/sne/
SFS_CODE	SFS_CODE can perform forward population genetic simulations under a general Wright-Fisher model with arbitrary migration, demographic, selective, and mutational effects. http://sfscode.sourceforge.net/sfs_code/index/index.html
SIBSIM	Quantitative phenotype simulation in extended pedigrees http://sourceforge.net/projects/sibsim/
SimAdapt	A spatially explicit, individual-based, forward-time, landscape-genetic simulation model combined with a landscape cellular automaton. https://www.openabm.org/model/3137
SIMCOAL2	A coalescent program for the simulation of complex recombination patterns over large genomic regions under various demographic models http://cmpg.unibe.ch/software/simcoal2/
SimCopy	An R package simulating the evolution of copy number profiles along a tree. http://bit.ly/simcopy
SIMLA	SIMLA is a SIMuLAtion program that generates data sets of families for use in Linkage and Association studies. http://dmpi.duke.edu/simla-simulation-software-version-32
SimPed	A Simulation Program to Generate Haplotype and Genotype Data for Pedigree Structures http://bioinformatics.org/simped/
Simprot	A program to simulate protein evolution by substitution, insertion and deletion http://www.uhnresearch.ca/labs/tillier/software.htm#3
SimRare	Rare variant simulation and analysis tool http://code.google.com/p/simrare/
simuGWAS	A forward-time simulator that simulates realistic samples for genome-wide association studies. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/cookbook/simugwas
simuPOP	simuPOP is a general-purpose individual-based forward-time population genetics simulation environment. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/
SISSI	A software tool to generate data of related sequences along a given phylogeny, taking into account user defined system of neighbourhoods and instantaneous rate matrices. http://www.cibiv.at/software/sissi/
SMARTPOP	Simulating Mating Alliance as a Reproductive Tactic for Populations http://smartpop.sourceforge.net/
SNPsim	Coalescent simulation of hotspot recombination http://code.google.com/p/phylosoftware/
SPIP	SPIP simulates the transmission of genes from parents to offspring in a population having demographic structure defined by the user http://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?division=fed&id=3434
Splatche	Spatial and Temporal Coalescences in Heterogeneous Environment http://www.splatche.com/
srv	Simulator of Rare Varaints (srv) is a simulator for the simulation of the introduction and evolution of (rare) genetic variants. http://simupop.sourceforge.net/cookbook/simurarevariants
SUP	SLINK/FastSLINK utility program http://mlemire.freeshell.org/software.html
TreesimJ	A flexible, forward-time population genetic simulator http://code.google.com/p/treesimj/
Variant Simulation Tools	A simulation tool for post-GWAS genetic epidemiological studies using whole-genome or whole-exome next-gen sequencing data, with an emphasis on user-friendliness and reproducibility. http://varianttools.sourceforge.net/simulation/homepage
Vortex	VORTEX is an individual-based simulation model for population viability analysis (PVA). http://www.vortex9.org/vortex.html
Wessim	Whole Exome Sequencing SIMulator http://sak042.github.io/wessim/

Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations

Rahul Agarwal — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 12:43:51 -0500

Analysis of the genomes of >350,000 individuals revealed the existence of a small though measureable association between genome-wide homozygosity and some vital complex traits...

Directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14618.html

Address of the bookmark: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14618.html

World promising health companies !

Rahul Nayak — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:10:13 -0600

The health care industry is expected to sustain stable growth over the next decade for a variety of reasons. Advances in medicine have prolonged the average lifespans of most people, requiring more health care treatments over longer terms. In years past, once people turned 65 and enrolled in Medicare, they were expected to live another 10 to 20 years.

Biohub is a joint collaborative effort by Berkeley, UCSF and Stanford for a medical science research center funded by a $600 million commitment from Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. It is trademarked as well as CZ Biohub. It is currently co-led by Stephen Quake and Joseph DeRisi.

More at https://www.czbiohub.org/

Calico LLC is an American research and development biotech company founded on September 18, 2013 by Bill Maris and backed by Google with the goal of combating aging and associated diseases. In Google's 2013 Founders' Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity".

More at https://www.calicolabs.com/

UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (UNH) is the largest health care services company in the world, serving over 50 million individuals in the United States as of late 2018 and 5 million in Brazil. The company provides a wide range of health care products and services, such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs), point of service plans (POS), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and managed fee-for-service programs.

More at https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/

TEDxCopenhagen - Morten Sommer - What Bacteria Means for the Good Life

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 05:07:19 -0500

Scientist and entrepreneur Morten Sommer will talk about how bacteria and microbes form an integral part of the human body and play a significant role in controlling human health and well About TEDx, x = independently organized event: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

India and Germany to begin joint research in the area of 'Bioinformatics in Health Research'

Rahul Nayak — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 14:10:36 -0600

To facilitate bilateral cooperation in biotechnology between the scientific communities of India and Germany, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will soon begin collaborative research in the identified priority area of 'Bioinformatics in Health Research' under the programme of Indo-German Cooperation in Health Research.

The purpose of the programme is to stimulate new collaborations, e.g. the preparation of joint projects under national funding programmes. The programme facilitates bilateral cooperation in biotechnology between the scientific communities of India and Germany by way of joint research projects which will encompass bilateral workshops/seminar and exchange visits of scientists.

The programme is being implemented within the agreement of Indo-German cooperation in S&T of 1974, under which the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Forschungszentrum Julich BMBH (FZJ), Federal Republic of Germany, have agreed for cooperative programme in biotechnology.

DBT of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and the Project Management Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR-PT, European and International Cooperation), Bonn are the nodal implementing agencies from the Indian and German side respectively.

Through this programme, it is expected that the funded cooperation enables the partners to develop applicable scientific results which can be published and/ or could be commercialised and may lead to formation of joint ventures. All publications, patents coming out of these projects, need to be jointly authored by both Indian and German scientists. All necessary approvals like ethical clearance, HMSC approval from Indian point of view as well as EU, if applicable, from German point of view, e.g. before conducting animal experimentation if any needs to be obtained by PIs before undertaking the project.

Now, both the nodal agencies have invited research proposals in identified priority area of 'Bioinformatics in Health Research' from eligible scientists. Joint research projects are required to be submitted to both the nodal agencies by 15 January 2018. Scientists/faculty members working in regular capacity in universities, national R&D laboratories/institutes and private R&D institutes can be part of this joint research programme. For the private sector, partners from all kind of private sectors are eligible, but financing is limited. For Indian scientists from the private sector, only local hospitality in Germany as part of the exchange visit is available from the German side. For German scientists from the private sector, only travel costs are available for small and medium size enterprises (for definition of SME ref. to 2003/361/EC) as well as local hospitality in India will be borne by themselves.

bacLIFE: an automated genome mining tool for identification of lifestyle associated genes

BioStar — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 04:59:14 -0500

bacLIFE is a streamlined computational workflow that annotates bacterial genomes and performs large-scale comparative genomics to predict bacterial lifestyles and to pinpoint candidate genes, denominated lifestyle-associated genes (LAGs), and biosynthetic gene clusters associated with each lifestyle detected. This whole process is divided into different modules:

Clustering module Predicts, clusters and annotates the genes of every input genome
Lifestyle prediction Employs a machine learning model to forecast bacterial lifestyle or other specified metadata
Analitical module (Shiny app) Results from the previous modules are embedded in a user-friendly interface for comprehensive and interactive comparative genomics.

You can find the complete wiki here [https://github.com/Carrion-lab/bacLIFE/wiki/bacLIFE-wiki]

Address of the bookmark: https://github.com/Carrion-lab/bacLIFE

Barber pole worm , sheep pathogen sequenced !!!

Rahul Agarwal — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 16:32:18 -0500

Haemonchus contortus is a highly pathogenic parasitic nematode of that can infect a large number of wild and domesticated ruminant species and is the most economically important parasite of sheep and goats worldwide. Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have sequenced the genome of the barber's pole worm (Haemonchus contortus), which will help to explore the this tropical parasite which been disseminated around the world by livestock movement.

H. contortus is a member of the superfamily trichostrongyloidea (Strongylida) which contains most of the economically important parasitic nematodes of grazing livestock. These parasites cost the global livestock industry billions of dollars per annum in lost production and drug costs. A common type of clover may be a preventative or palliative for the disease. However, some particular breeds of sheep, such as the Gulf Coast Native from the Southern United States, have been shown to have developed special resistance to H. contortus.

Getting the full genome can help to tackle the problem and understand the resistance mechanism with an ease. Moreover, the genome could now provide a comprehensive understanding of how treatments against parasitic worms work and point to further new treatments and vaccines. By comparing the genome of the barber's pole worm with those of worms that have acquired drug resistance, researchers expect to reveal information about how and why resistance has occurred. Till now, researchers have uncovered essential information in the fight against drug resistance in worms.

Reference:

http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/28/08/2013/140758/researchers-close-in-on-worm-resistance-in-sheep.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130828103351.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals+(ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News)

Image source: Wikipedia

DNA tale of 3 to 4 years old Serbia boy

Rahul Agarwal — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:34:00 -0600

The genome of a young boy found underground at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal of eastern Siberia around 24,000 years ago came out as close relative of Europeans and Native Indians.

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/two-surprises-in-dna-of-boy-found-buried-in-siberia.html?_r=0

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12736.html