Qualification: Highly motivated M.Sc. (Bioinformatics/ Biotechnology/ Life Sciences/ Botany/ Agriculture) students are encouraged to apply. Prior experience in Bioinformatics/Plant tissue culture work is preferable. Preferences would be given to DBT/ CSIR / UGC NET qualified students.

Application Procedure: A detailed CV indicating name, date of birth, address, contact number, e-mail address, educational qualifications, NET qualified or not, research experiences if any, should be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on or before 24th December 2014.

Important Note: Only short listed candidates will be called for interview at Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. No TA/DA will be paid for attending the interview. SAU Selection Committee reserves the rights to relax any of the qualifications in case the candidate is found otherwise well qualified. The above- mentioned post is temporary and will be initially offered for a period of one year, which can be extended to one more year.

Advertisement: www.sau.ac.in/recruitment/vacancy.html

What Are Chromosome Rearrangements?

Chromosome rearrangements are structural changes that alter the normal configuration of chromosomes. These changes can involve large segments of DNA — from thousands to millions of base pairs — and can occur spontaneously, be inherited, or result from exposure to mutagens (like radiation or chemicals).

Common Types of Rearrangements:

1. Deletions – Loss of a chromosome segment

2. Duplications – Repetition of a segment

3. Inversions – A segment breaks off, flips, and reattaches

4. Translocations – Segments exchange places between non-homologous chromosomes

5. Insertions – A segment is inserted into another part of the genome

These changes can disrupt genes directly or affect gene regulation, leading to disease.

How Do Chromosome Rearrangements Cause Disease?

The impact of a rearrangement depends on which genes are involved, how much DNA is affected, and when the rearrangement occurs (in development vs. adulthood). Here are some key mechanisms:

• Gene disruption: Breaking a gene can lead to loss of function or the creation of a non-functional protein.

• Gene fusion: Joining parts of two genes may form a novel hybrid gene with new functions (common in cancer).

• Dosage effects: Extra or missing gene copies can disturb the balance of gene expression.

• Position effects: Moving a gene to a new regulatory environment may silence or over-activate it.

Chromosome Rearrangements in Human Disease

1. Developmental Disorders

• Cri-du-chat syndrome: Caused by a deletion on chromosome 5p. Affected infants often have a high-pitched cry and intellectual disability.

• Williams syndrome: Results from a microdeletion on chromosome 7q, affecting genes related to cardiovascular and cognitive function.

2. Cancer

Cancer is perhaps the most striking example of disease caused by chromosome rearrangements.

• Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML): Caused by a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, forming the Philadelphia chromosome. This creates the BCR-ABL fusion gene, which drives uncontrolled cell growth.

• Burkitt lymphoma: Involves translocation of the MYC gene, leading to excessive cell division.

• Ewing sarcoma: A fusion of EWSR1 and FLI1 genes through translocation promotes tumor development.

3. Infertility and Miscarriages

Balanced rearrangements (like inversions or translocations) in carriers may not cause disease directly but can result in:

• Recurrent miscarriages

• Infertility

• Birth defects in offspring

Detecting Rearrangements

Thanks to modern genomics, chromosome rearrangements can now be detected with high precision using:

• Karyotyping – Classic method for detecting large rearrangements

• FISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) – Uses fluorescent probes to target specific DNA sequences

• Array CGH (Comparative Genomic Hybridization) – Detects copy number changes across the genome

• Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) – Identifies even small or complex rearrangements at base-pair resolution

Looking Forward: The Future of Chromosome Medicine

Understanding chromosome rearrangements is now central to:

• Personalized medicine

• Genetic counseling

• Targeted therapies, especially in cancer (e.g., tyrosine kinase inhibitors for BCR-ABL fusion)

With the rise of long-read sequencing and single-cell genomics, even previously “invisible” rearrangements are being uncovered, offering new insights into both rare diseases and common conditions.

Final Thoughts

Chromosome rearrangements remind us that genetics isn't just about which genes we have — but where they are, how they're arranged, and when they're active. As our tools grow sharper, so does our ability to diagnose, understand, and treat diseases rooted in genomic architecture.

In a way, the genome is like a book not just defined by its words, but also by how the chapters are ordered. Rearranging them can create a new story — sometimes harmful, sometimes insightful — and understanding these changes is key to writing a healthier future.

Walk in interview for Research Associate, Studentship and Traineeship at BIF

Applications are invited for the Post of Research Associate, Traineeship and Studentship in the DBT sponsored Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF) at the Bioinformatics Centre, Department of RDAP, North-Eastern Hil University, Tura Campus, Tura-79402, Meghalaya. The Posts are purely temporary and terminable at any time without prior notice or assigning any reason thereof. The person engaged, shall not be entailed for any claim implicit or explicit for permanent absorption in the University.

Research Associate- 01

Essential Qualification: M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/Biotechnology from a recognized University/ institute.

Desirable: PhD or Pursuing PhD in the relevant subject(s) or equivalent published work in reputed peer reviewed journals or Advance PG diploma in Bioinformatics courses.

Duties: Creation of database, web designing, maintenance of internet, training of students in Bioinformatics, handling and knowledge of Bioinformatics software tools and technique, conducting Bioinformatics based research and other day to day laboratory work, writing report and scientific papers.

Pay:Rs. 2,00/- + Admissible 10% HRA per month

Age: Below 35 years

Traineeship- 02

Students who have completed Masters Degree in Bioinformatics/Biotechnology or any branch of Life Sciences/Agricultural Sciences/Computer Science to cary out a project work in Bioinformatics.

Desirable: Prior Knowledge of programming languages such as C, JAVA, MySQL is preferable.

Stipend: Rs. 800/- p.m. fixed. Purely temporary for a period of six months.

Studentship: 02

Students pursuing postgraduate degree in Bioinformatics/biotechnology/Agricultural Sciences or any branch of Life Science

Desirable: Prior knowledge of bioinformatics/ programming language is preferable.

Stipend: 800/- p.m. fixed. Purely temporary for a period of six months.

Candidates must send the detailed Biodata via mail/post and bring al the relevant documents in original and one set of attested photocopies of the same at the time of interview. No TA/DA will be paid for attending the interview and candidates have to make their own arrangements.

Last date for receiving application by mail or by post: 16.02.2014

Contact Information:
Dr.B.K. Mishra
Cordinator BIF,
RDAP Department, NEHU, Tura Campus
Phone: 91-03651-23107
Fax: 91-03651-23953
E-mail: drbkm1972@yaho.co.in, birendramishra14@gmail.com

Advertisement: http://www.nehu.ac.in/Advertisements/BIF_TuraAdtvPV_171214.pdf

To address the challenges of describing and estimating virodiversity, a team of investigators from Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) and EcoHealth Alliance began in jungles of Bangladesh - home to the flying fox.

Reference:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/mammals-harbour-at-least-320000-new-viruses/articleshow/22253268.cms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23932400

Ref. No. GU/Estt/T/308(VI)/2014/6451-61

Applications are invited from the Indian citizens for five (5) teaching posts of Assistant Professor (Contractual) under various departments of Gauhati University. Details of the advertisement, other terms and conditions and the application forms are available in the University website www.gauhati.ac.in

Asstt. Professor (Contractual)

2. M.Sc. Microbiology Course in Botany

3 1.M.Sc. Microbiology/M.Sc. Botany (Specialization in Microbiology)/M.Sc. Biochemistry (1 post). (Preference will be given to candidates having experience in Biochemistry).

2.M.Sc. Microbiology/M.Sc. Botany (Specialization in Microbiology)/M.Sc. Biotechnology(1 post). (Preference will be given to candidates having experience in Bioinformatics).

3.M.Sc. Microbiology/M.Sc. Botany (Specialization in Microbiology)/M.Sc. Biotechnology(1 post). (Preference will be given to candidates having experience in Microbial Genetics).

As per UGC norms

Pay Band & Academic Grade Pay : (Consolidated pay) : Rs. 21,600/- per month

Application Form : Prescribe application form may download from the G.U. website www.gauhati.ac.in

Last date of receipt of filled-in application is 08.01.2015.

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Now a day, geneticists have developed a language of their own. They are pouring lots of money and energy to read the entire genomic text and understand the gods own code ATGC. It is somewhat fascinating, not only for geneticist but also for non-biologist to know that there are several conserved blocks in genome which remain conserved over hundreds of millions of years. There have been several researches on conserved blocks and non-conserved regions to understand the mechanism and importance of all these regions (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2675965/). The finding indicates conservation and rearrangements of certain evolutionary important genes play an important role in evolution/adaptive changes (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v491/n7424/abs/nature11622.html https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/8/8/2442/2198198/Novel-Insights-into-Chromosome-Evolution-in-Birds , http://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6215/1311).

But the puzzle remains open, how to correctly define the synteny (presence of two or more genes on the same chromosome) and conserved synteny (presence of two or more genes on chromosome of each of the two species) on several genomes.

Figure: Image generated with Evolution Highway (EH) tool http://eh-demo.ncsa.illinois.edu/ 

Keeping the new approach to define conserved synteny in mind there have been various algorithms developed to identify the conserved homologous synteny blocks (HSB) amongst species. Some of them which were commonly used for synteny detections are:

SyntenyTracker ( http://www-app.igb.uiuc.edu/labs/lewin/donthu/Synteny_assign/html/),

SyntenyTracker was shown to be an efficient and accurate automated tool for defining HSBs using datasets that may contain minor errors resulting from limitations in map construction methodologies.

CoGe (http://genomevolution.org/CoGe/SynFind.pl )

Satsuma (http://evomics.org/learning/genomics/satsuma/)

Cinteny (http://cinteny.cchmc.org/) ,

Cinteny server can be used for finding regions syntenic across multiple genomes and measuring the extent of genome rearrangement using reversal distance as a measure.

OrthoCluster (http://krono.act.uji.es/noticias/orthocluster-a-new-tool-for-mining-syntenic-blocks)

A new tool for mining syntenic blocks in comparative genomics

SynMap (http://genomevolution.org/wiki/index.php/SynMap),

SyMAP (http://www.symapdb.org/)

SyMAP (Synteny Mapping and Analysis Program) v4.0 is an automated system for identifying and displaying genome synteny alignments. The genomes may be represented by sequenced chromosomes (pseudomolecules), by draft sequence contigs, or by FPC physical maps (with BAC-end or marker sequence).

http://genomevolution.org/CoGe/SynMap.pl

RegionMiner (http://www.genomatix.de/online_help/help_regionminer/orthologous.html)

SyntenyMiner is being developed as an application to visualize and interrogate comparisons among multiple complete genome sequences. http://syntenyminer.sourceforge.net/

AutoGRAPH ( http://autograph.genouest.org/),

AutoGRAPH is an integrated web server for multi-species comparative genomic analysis. It is designed for constructing and visualizing synteny maps between two or three species, determination and display of macrosynteny and microsynteny relationships among species, and for highlighting evolutionary breakpoints.

SynChro(http://www.lgm.upmc.fr/CHROnicle/SynChro.html)

SynChro is a tool designed to define conserved synteny blocks. It reconstructs synteny blocks between pairwise comparison of multiple genomes. The reconstructed synteny blocks may overlap each other, be included in one another or duplicated due to micro-rearrangements.

SyntenyView ( http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/dtucourse/cookbooks/nikob/exercises/gf1_output_5.html),

Ensembl 'SyntenyView' shows conservation of large-scale gene order between species pairs. A brief summary of the calculation method appears at the bottom of this help page.  The left of a 'SyntenyView' page displays a diagram of chromosomes with blocks of conserved synteny. The right of a page shows homology matches between individual genes within syntenic blocks.

SynBrowse ( http://www.synbrowse.org/),

SynBrowse (Synteny Browser) is a generic sequence comparison tool for visualizing genome alignments both within and between species. It is intended to help scientists study and analyze synteny, homologous genes and other conserved elements between sequences. This software is useful in studying genome duplication and evolution. It can also aid in identifying uncharacterized genes, putative regulatory elements and novel structural features of study species by comparing to a well annotated reference sequence, thus enabling genome curators to refine and edit annotations of species that have incomplete genome annotations.

Sibelia (http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.7941).

A comparative genomic tool: It assists biologists in analysing the genomic variations that correlate with pathogens, or the genomic changes that help microorganisms adapt in different environments. Sibelia will also be helpful for the evolutionary and genome rearrangement studies for multiple strains of microorganisms.

GSV (http://cas-bioinfo.cas.unt.edu/gsv/homepage.php)

Genome Synteny Viewer allows users to upload files which contain synteny regions between two or more genomes and interactively visualize the synteny between them. GSV also allows users to upload annotation files to visualize annotated regions in addition to synteny regions.

MicroSyn (http://www.lgm.upmc.fr/CHROnicle/SynChro.html)

MicroSyn software as a means of detecting microsynteny in adjacent genomic regions surrounding genes in gene families. MicroSyn searches for conserved, flanking colinear homologous gene pairs between two genomic fragments to determine the relationship between two members in a gene family.

SynOrth (http://synorth.genereg.net/)

Synorth [s n ôrth], named in combination of "synteny" and "ortholog", is designed for the study of evolutionary changes of genomic regulatory blocks (GRBs) in vertebrate genomes, and especially the changes following the whole-genome duplication in teleost fish, by tracing the ortholog genes gain and loss in ancient synteny blocks.

SyDiG (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21441096)

Uncovering Synteny in Distant Genomes.

MapSynteny  (http://www.automatizacionysistemas.com/download.html)

MapSynteny is a macro in MS Excel® able to create images to show the relationship between genetic maps and large sequences (scaffolds, chromosomes, BACs, etc.). Based on tab – delimited BLAST results and some formulas, a suitable image of syntenic relationships or physical mapping can be obtained. http://www.automatizacionysistemas.com/Poster_MapSynteny.pdf

One of the best synteny tutorial for beginer @ http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/synteny-inferring-ancestral-genomes-44022

Reference:

http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/synteny-inferring-ancestral-genomes-44022

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v491/n7424/full/nature11622.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synteny

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2675965/

Study Subject(s): PhD position is award in the field of Bioinformatics/Computer Science.
Course Level: Position is available for pursuing PhD degree level at the University of Macau.
Scholarship Provider: University of Macau
Scholarship can be taken at: China

Eligibility: The ideal candidate would be a master degree holder in Bioinformatics or related disciplines with knowledge in Medical sciences or Life sciences (with GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4-point scale or equivalent) . Knowledge in programming (C and C++) and Linux scripting are necessary; experience in molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations or molecular modeling is an advantage. The candidate should be fluent in spoken and written English; preference will be given to applicants with good publication records in relevant areas.

Scholarship Open for International Students: Researchers from China can apply for this PhD position.

Scholarship Description:

The Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Group at the University of Macau is looking for a motivated PhD student in Bioinformatics or Computer Science to work on a research project focusing on the flexible receptor protein-ligand docking algorithms for computer-aided drug design. The candidate will be working as part of a team in developing novel metaheuristic algorithms and scoring functions for large-scale, highly flexible protein-ligand docking problems.

Number of award(s): There is only one PhD position available.

Duration of award(s): The duration of this PhD position is 2-3 years.

What does it cover? Remuneration paid to candidate is MOP 11000-14000/month (~USD 1375-1750/month).

Selection Criteria: Not Known

Notification: Not Known

How to Apply: Send your current CV, your academic transcripts, a letter of motivation and research interests, two letters of recommendations from academic faculty to Dr. Shirley Siu at shirleysiu[at]umac.mo before March 2015.

Scholarship Application Deadline: The applications should be submitted before March 2015.

Recruitment for Project

Applications were invited from the citizens of India for filling up the following temporary position for the CSIR sponsored Fellowship in the School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067. This position is temporary for a period of two and half years or tenable only for the duration of the project. The requisite qualifications & experience are given below.

Project Title : "Understanding Complex dynamics and Information processing in Brain Networks"
Funding Agency : CSIR

Principal Investigator : Dr. R.K. Brojen Singh

Position : Junior Research Fellow(One post)

Salary : As per CSIR rules and guidelines for JRF.

Qualifications & Experience : M.Sc. in Physics/Mathematics/Biology/B.Tech. In Eng. Physics/Comp. Sc. and desirable CSIR-UGC NET Qualified. Candidates should also have at least one years research experience after M. Sc./B.Tech. in works related to Neuroscience/Mathematical modeling.

Candidates possessing requisite qualifications may apply either on plain paper stating the project title along with CV and send to the following address or send as email attachment (pdf or word format) so as to reach on or before 8 January, 2014.

Dr. R.K. Brojen Singh
School of Computational and Integrative Sciences
Jawharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
Email: brojen@jnu.ac.in, brojen@mail.jnu.ac.in

Please report new whole genome alignment tools under comment sections.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~brudno/721.full.pdf