MEME Suite software development; gene expression; mathematical modelling; gene regulation and transcription

Specialization:
Pattern recognition and modelling in computational biology

Link @ http://www.imb.uq.edu.au/tim-bailey

https://www.mbl.edu/research/research-organisms/rotifer
https://gribblebiolab.org/

Link @ http://www.newcastle.edu.au/research-and-innovation/centre/cibm/about-us

https://evirusbioinfc.notion.site/18e21bc49827484b8a2f84463cb40b8d?v=92e7eb6703be4720abf17a901bc9a947

Address of the bookmark: https://evirusbioinfc.notion.site/18e21bc49827484b8a2f84463cb40b8d?v=92e7eb6703be4720abf17a901bc9a947

Classes for
Multiple alignment (Bio::Alignment),
Gene Ontology(Bio::GO),
PDB (Bio::PDB),
FANTOM database(Bio::FANTOM),
GFF (Bio::GFF) and KEGG
Orthology (Bio::KEGG::KO).

They also added support for many applications such as PSORT, SOSUI, TargetP, TMHMM, GenScan, ClustalW, MAFFT, and KEGG API.

Wiki Links
http://bioruby.open-bio.org/wiki/BioRubyOnRails
http://dev.bioruby.org/en/

BioRuby in Anger
http://dev.bioruby.org/en/?BioRuby+in+Anger

BioRuby RDocs
http://bioruby.org/rdoc/

BioRuby Tutorial Website
http://dev.bioruby.org/en/?Tutorial.rd

Why BioRuby Hub for BioRuby
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5915

Social Coding Hub for BioRuby
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5915

Bioinformatics on Rails: BioRuby Tutorial
http://bioinforuby.blogspot.com/2008/02/bioruby-tutorial.html

RRA BioRuby
http://raa.ruby-lang.org/project/bioruby/

BioRuby Project Discussion Group
http://portal.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioruby

BioRuby related Projects: Project tree
http://rubyforge.org/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=252

Reference
http://www.jsbi.org/journal/GIW03/GIW03P191.pdf

The job description: "This research position focuses on the science
of bacterial evolution. It will consist of researching theoretical
principles, but could include translational applications. Phylogenomic
and bioinformatic analysis of bacterial populations in nature or
in laboratory experiments will be a key component of the work. Prior
experience is an asset though training will be possible at PMI.
Likewise, laboratory microbiological, molecular, and biochemical
skills are an asset though not essential. Communication and critical
thinking skills are essential for performing the work and for
communicating to the local and international scientific communities.
Participating in team or independent grant writing to obtain research
funding will be required. Student mentoring is a part of the NAU
mission and is a partial expectation."

https://hr.peoplesoft.nau.edu/psp/ph92prta/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_APP_SCHJOB.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=1&JobOpeningId=608024&PostingSeq=1

Northern Arizona University is located in Flagstaff, Arizona, a
beautiful mountain town with a surprisingly vibrant restaurant
scene. Located a little over an hour from the Grand Canyon and ~45
min from Sedona, Flagstaff is a hiker's paradise. In fact, the city
of Flagstaff operates more than 50 miles of unpaved trails and there
are, on average, 266 sunny days per year with which to enjoy them.
At 7000 ft in elevation, Flagstaff experiences all four seasons,
but thesummers are mild and, in the winter, you can be on the ski
slopes within 30 min! https://www.flagstaffarizona.org/

As mentioned, joint projects with Professor Sheppard at Oxford
University are possible, including travel to his laboratory in the
United Kingdom. https://www.biology.ox.ac.uk/people/samuel-sheppard

Contact Information:
Paul.Keim@nau.edu

Paul S. Keim, Ph.D.
Regents Professor, &
Cowden Endowed Chair of Microbiology
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4073

Paul S Keim

Job description
We are looking for a motivated, self-driven post-doctoral researcher to work with large-scale sequence data analysis. The position is for 24 months and located at Mathematical Statistics, Department of Mathematical Sciences in Erik Kristiansson’s research group. We are focused on methods development for and analysis of next generation DNA sequencing, in particular comparative metagenomics and gene expression analysis (RNA-seq). We have strong interdisciplinary profile and are actively collaborating with several experimental groups, especially within the environmental sciences, ecology, infectious diseases and cancer genomics. More information is available at http://bioinformatics.math.chalmers.se.

The Post-doctoral position is an appointment that offers an opportunity to qualify for further research positions within academia or industry. The majority of your working time is devoted to your own research, normally as a member of a research group. Included in your work is also to take part in supervision of Ph.D. students and M.Sc thesis students. Teaching of undergraduate students may also be included to a small extent.

The employment is limited to a maximum of 2 years (1+1).

Qualifications
The applicant should have Ph.D. degree preferably in bioinformatics, mathematics, statistics, computer science or equivalent by the start of the appointment. Experience from analysis of large-scale data, in particular from next generation DNA sequencing, is highly valued. The applicant should also be proficient in programming (e.g. Python/Java/C) and comfortable with Unix/Linux systems. Interaction with experimental biologists is central and good collaborative skills are therefore important. Fluency in written and spoken English is a strong requirement. As a post-doctoral researcher you are expected to work independently and to be able to supervise/co-supervise PhD and Master’s students.

Application procedure
The application should be marked with Ref 20130126 and written in English. The application should be sent electronically via Chalmers webpage.

Application deadline: September 8, 2013.

For questions, please contact:
Ass prof. Erik Kristiansson, Matematiska Vetenskaper, erik.kristiansson@chalmers.se, +46 31-772 3521, +46 70-5259751.

Chalmers continuously strive to be an attractive employer. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.

What is Bacterial Comparative Genomics?

Comparative genomics involves the systematic comparison of genomes across different bacterial species or strains. This approach allows scientists to:

• Identify conserved and unique genes.

• Explore genetic determinants of pathogenicity.

• Understand bacterial evolution and phylogenetics.

• Investigate horizontal gene transfer and its role in antibiotic resistance.

Bioinformatics is central to these analyses, enabling the processing and interpretation of large-scale genomic data.

Key Steps in Bacterial Comparative Genomics

1. Genome Sequencing and Assembly: The process begins with obtaining high-quality bacterial genome sequences. Advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have made it faster and more affordable to sequence bacterial genomes. Tools such as SPAdes and Velvet are commonly used for genome assembly.

2. Genome Annotation: Annotating a genome involves identifying genes, regulatory elements, and other genomic features. Automated tools like Prokka and RAST provide functional annotations, allowing researchers to predict the roles of genes and proteins.

3. Genome Alignment: Aligning genomes is crucial for identifying conserved regions, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and structural variations. Tools like Mauve and progressiveMauve are commonly employed for whole-genome alignments.

4. Comparative Analyses:

   • Core and Pan-genome Analysis: The core genome consists of genes shared across all strains of a species, while the pan-genome includes all genes found in any strain. Software like Roary and BPGA can perform core and pan-genome analyses.

   • Phylogenetic Analysis: Comparative genomics often involves reconstructing evolutionary relationships. Tools such as MEGA and IQ-TREE facilitate phylogenetic tree construction based on genomic data.

   • Functional Enrichment Analysis: To understand the biological significance of unique or shared genes, functional enrichment analysis using databases like GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG is essential.

Here are some additional bioinformatics tools that can aid bacterial comparative genomics:

• OrthoFinder: For accurate ortholog identification across multiple genomes.

• PanOCT: Specifically designed for pan-genome clustering and annotation.

• FASTANI: A tool for calculating Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) for microbial genome comparisons.

• CIRCOS: For visually comparing genomic data through circular genome plots.

• Galaxy Platform: A user-friendly web-based platform offering numerous genomic analysis tools.

• BLAST: Essential for sequence alignment and similarity searches.

• PhyloSift: Focused on phylogenetic analysis of microbial genomes using marker genes.

These tools, in combination with the methods discussed, provide a robust framework for conducting comprehensive comparative genomic studies.

Applications of Bacterial Comparative Genomics

1. Understanding Pathogenicity: Comparative genomics helps identify virulence factors that distinguish pathogenic strains from non-pathogenic relatives. For instance, comparing genomes of Escherichia coli strains has revealed key genetic determinants of pathogenicity in enterohemorrhagic strains.

2. Antibiotic Resistance Research: The spread of antibiotic resistance genes through horizontal gene transfer is a major global concern. Comparative analyses can trace the origins and dissemination of resistance genes, aiding in the development of countermeasures.

3. Microbial Ecology and Evolution: By studying genomic variations, researchers can understand how bacteria adapt to different environments. This is particularly relevant for extremophiles and symbiotic bacteria.

4. Vaccine Development: Identifying conserved antigens across pathogenic strains is critical for vaccine design. Comparative genomics has been instrumental in developing vaccines against pathogens like Neisseria meningitidis.

5. Biotechnology Applications: Comparative studies can uncover unique metabolic pathways in bacteria, paving the way for applications in bioremediation, synthetic biology, and industrial microbiology.

Challenges in Bacterial Comparative Genomics

While the field has made significant strides, several challenges remain:

• Data Overload: The rapid growth of sequencing data requires robust computational infrastructure and efficient algorithms.

• Genome Plasticity: High rates of horizontal gene transfer and genome rearrangements in bacteria complicate comparative analyses.

• Annotation Accuracy: Automated annotation tools are not infallible, and manual curation is often needed for high-confidence results.

• Interpreting Non-Coding Regions: Understanding the functional significance of non-coding genomic regions remains a challenge.

Future Directions

The integration of bacterial comparative genomics with other ‘omics’ approaches—such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics—promises a more comprehensive understanding of bacterial biology. Additionally, advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence are likely to further enhance bioinformatics analyses, enabling the prediction of complex phenotypes from genomic data.

Conclusion

Bacterial comparative genomics, driven by bioinformatics, continues to unravel the complexities of bacterial life. From combating antibiotic resistance to uncovering the secrets of microbial evolution, this interdisciplinary field holds immense potential for addressing pressing challenges in microbiology and beyond. As technology advances, so too will our ability to harness the power of comparative genomics for scientific and societal benefit.

Applications are invited for the STUDENTSHIP and TRAINEESHIP vacancies to carry out project/research work in the DBT - Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility with consolidated stipend of Rs.5,000/- per month.

Essential Qualification

Student Trainee: Those who have completed M.Sc., Bioinformatics/Biophysics/Life sciences or Pursuing M.Tech., Bioinformatics/Biotechnology

Duration : 3-4 Months

Student Trainee: Those who are pursuing M.Sc Bioinformatics/Biophysics/ Life sciences/others

Duration : 2-3 Months

Mail your CV on or before 25th November 2013 to shirai2011@gmail.com and hard copy to "Dr. D. Velmurugan, Professor & Head, CAS in Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600 025". Also, the applicants are requested to attend the interview on 29th November, 2013 at 11 A.M.

Advertisement:

www.unom.ac.in/uploads/announcements/bifadvertisement_20131114080003_23240.pdf

Data mining commonly involves four classes of tasks:

• Classification - Arranges the data into predefined groups. For example, an email program might attempt to classify an email as legitimate or spam. Common algorithms include decision tree learning, nearest neighbor, naive Bayesian classification and neural networks.
• Clustering - Is like classification but the groups are not predefined, so the algorithm will try to group similar items together.
• Regression - Attempts to find a function which models the data with the least error.
• Association rule learning - Searches for relationships between variables. For example a supermarket might gather data on customer purchasing habits. Using association rule learning, the supermarket can determine which products are frequently bought together and use this information for marketing purposes. This is sometimes referred to as market basket analysis.
• From experience, I can say that is one of the most frustrating positions to be in. Data mining is a huge field and can easily be bewildering for a beginner. However, high through-put techniques in molecular biology require, more and more, that bioinformatics is required to interpret the data. Furthermore, people working in bioinformatics generally come from computer science, or biology backgrounds. Data mining, however, involves statistics to one degree or another, which means entering a field that is may not be your strong point.
• Excel is fine for creating graphs. If you’re serious about data mining though, you’ll need something more heavy weight. I use R, free, and with good data mining packages such as vegan and labdsv. For beginners R can be impenetrable, I recommend this book an introduction to R as well as the underlying statistics.
• Any of us can rush head on into a land of support vector machines, hidden markov models and neural networks. But coming back to the first point, what are you trying to prove? Always question what are you doing, how does it fit in to the wider picture? Try to regularly review, and keep track of where you are going? This will prevent you from falling into data mining despair.

Data Mining Resources on the net:

A laboratory of data mining and bioinformatics is headed by Prof. Ambuj Singh. There are currently seven graduate students in the research group. Our research focuses on image informatics and scalable querying and mining of graphs.For more detail visit: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~dbl/

Here are the materials (Lecture notes) from several past courses on data mining and/or Web mining by Stanford: For detail visit: http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/mining/mining.html
Statistical Data Mining Tutorial Slides by Andrew Moore The following links point to a set of tutorials on many aspects of statistical data mining, including the foundations of probability, the foundations of statistical data analysis, and most of the classic machine learning and data mining algorithms. For detail visit: http://www.autonlab.org/tutorials/

A tutorial on Introduction to Data Mining for Discovering hidden value in your data warehouse:http://www.thearling.com/text/dmwhite/dmwhite.htm 
Wiki Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining
Bioinformatics with Clementine http://www.spss.ch/upload/1051192224_inseratClemBio.pdf 
Causal Data Mining in Bioinformatics by Ioannis Tsamardinos: http://www.forth.gr/ics/bmi/In_the_News/2007/EN69-4.pdf

Report on ACM Text Mining in Bioinformatics (TMBIO 006) http://www.sigir.org/forum/2007J/2007j_sigirforum_song.pdf 
BIOKDD 2002: Recent Advances in Data Mining for 
Bioinformatics: http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigkdd/explorations/issue4-2/zaki.pdf

Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics: 

Tools for Mining and Applying Genetic Information in Patient Care:http://www.biomedtechalliance.org/pdfs/03_03_05/03_03_05.pdf

DATA MINING OF MICROARRAY DATABASES FOR HUMAN LUNG CANCER: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.106.385&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Towards knowledge-based gene expression data mining: http://www.ailab.si/blaz/papers/2007-JBI-BellazziZupan.pdf

DRAFT Accepted for publication in 'Data Mining in Bioinformatics'
Jason Wang, Mohammed Zaki, Hannu Toivonen, and Dennis Shasha (Eds.), Springer:http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/htoivone/pubs/gene_mapping_by_pattern_discovery.pdf

Data Mining and Text Mining for Bioinformatics: Proceedings of the European Workshop: http://www.rok.informatik.hu-berlin.de/wbi/research/publications/2003/proceedings_ws_mining.pdf

Biological Network Analysis:

Graph Mining in Bioinformatics: http://agbs.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/wikis/bg/BNA-5.pdf.

Text mining in bioinformatics: http://agbs.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/wikis/bg/4.pdf

Some datamining books that are available on google books:

Data mining and bioinformatics: first international workshop, VDMB 2006 By Mehmet M. Dalkilic

Data mining: concepts and techniques By Jiawei Han, Micheline Kamber