We use algorithms every day. For example, a recipe for baking a cake is an algorithm. Most programs, with the exception of some artificial intelligence applications, consist of algorithms. Inventing elegant algorithms -- algorithms that are simple and require the fewest steps possible -- is one of the principal challenges in programming. An algorithm is a description of a procedure which terminates with a result. In other words an algorithm is a set of instructions, sometimes called a procedure or a function, that is used to perform a certain task. This can be a simple process, such as adding two numbers together, or a complex function, such as adding effects to an image. For example, in order to sharpen a digital photo, the algorithm would need to process each pixel in the image and determine which ones to change and how much to change them in order to make the image look sharper.

In mathematics, computer science, and related subjects, an algorithm is an effective method for solving a problem using a finite sequence of instructions. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and many other fields.
Each algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task. Starting from an initial state, the instructions describe a computation that proceeds through a well-defined series of successive states, eventually terminating in a final ending state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, incorporate randomness.

History

The origin of the term comes from the ancients. The concept becomes more precise with the use of variables in mathematics. Algorithm in the sense of what is now used by computers appeared as soon as first mechanical engines were invented.
The word algorithm comes from the name of the 9th century Persian Muslim mathematician Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi. The word algorism originally referred only to the rules of performing arithmetic using Hindu-Arabic numerals but evolved via European Latin translation of Al-Khwarizmi's name into algorithm by the 18th century. The use of the word evolved to include all definite procedures for solving problems or performing tasks.
The algorithm of Archimedes gives an approximation of the Pi number.
Eratosthenes has defined an algorithim for retrieving prime numbers.
Averroès (1126-1198) was using algorithmic methods for calculations.
Adelard de Bath (12 th) introduces the algorismus term, from Al-Khwarizmi.
During the 1800's up to the mid-1900's:

- George Boole (1847) has invented the binary algebra, the basis of computers. Actually he has unified logic and calculation in a common symbolism.

- Gottlob Frege (1879) formula language's, that is a lingua characterica, a language written with special symbols, "for pure thought", that is free from rhetorical embellishments... constructed from specific symbols that are manipulated according to definite rules.

- Giuseppe Peano (1888) It's The principles of arithmetic, presented by a new method was the first attempt at an axiomatization of mathematics in a symbolic language.

- Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell in their Principia Mathematica (1910-1913) has further simplified and amplified the work of Frege.

- Kurt Goëdel (1931) cites the paradox of the liar that completely reduces rules of recursion to numbers.

The concept of algorithm was formalized in 1936 through Alan Turing's Turing machines and Alonzo Church's lambda calculus, which in turn formed the foundation of computer science.
Stephen C. Kleene (1943) defined his now-famous thesis known as the "Church-Turing Thesis". In this context:

" Algorithmic theories... In setting up a complete algorithmic theory, what we do is to describe a procedure, performable for each set of values of the independent variables, which procedure necessarily terminates and in such manner that from the outcome we can read a definite answer, "yes" or "no," to the question, "is the predicate value true?"

Classification

Classification by purpose

Each algorithm has a goal, for example, the purpose of the Quick Sort algorithm is to sort data in ascending or descending order. But the number of goals is infinite, and we have to group them by kind of purposes:

Classification by implementation

An algorithm may be implemeted according to different basical principles.

• Recursive or iterative

A recursive algorithm is one that calls itself repeatedly until a certain condition matches. It is a method common to functional programming. 
Iterative algorithms use repetitive constructs like loops.
Some problems are better suited for one implementation or the other. For example, the towers of hanoi problem is well understood in recursive implementation. Every recursive version has an iterative equivalent iterative, and vice versa.

• Logical or procedural

An algorithm may be viewed as controlled logical deduction. 
A logic component expresses the axioms which may be used in the computation and a control component determines the way in which deduction is applied to the axioms. 
This is the basis of the logic programming. In pure logic programming languages the control component is fixed and algorithms are specified by supplying only the logic component.

• Serial or parallel

Algorithms are usually discussed with the assumption that computers execute one instruction of an algorithm at a time. This is a serial algorithm, as opposed to parallel algorithms, which take advantage of computer architectures to process several instructions at once. They divide the problem into sub-problems and pass them to several processors. Iterative algorithms are generally parallelizable. Sorting algorithms can be parallelized efficiently.

• Deterministic or non-deterministic

Deterministic algorithms solve the problem with a predefined process whereas non-deterministic algorithm must perform guesses of best solution at each step through the use of heuristics.

Classification by design paradigm

A design paradigm is a domain in research or class of problems that requires a dedicated kind of algorithm:

• Divide and conquer

A divide and conquer algorithm repeatedly reduces an instance of a problem to one or more smaller instances of the same problem (usually recursively), until the instances are small enough to solve easily. One such example of divide and conquer is merge sorting. Sorting can be done on each segment of data after dividing data into segments and sorting of entire data can be obtained in conquer phase by merging them.
The binary search algorithm is an example of a variant of divide and conquer called decrease and conquer algorithm, that solves an identical subproblem and uses the solution of this subproblem to solve the bigger problem.

• Dynamic programming

The shortest path in a weighted graph can be found by using the shortest path to the goal from all adjacent vertices. 
When the optimal solution to a problem can be constructed from optimal solutions to subproblems, using dynamic programming avoids recomputing solutions that have already been computed. 
- The main difference with the "divide and conquer" approach is, subproblems are independent in divide and conquer, where as the overlap of subproblems occur in dynamic programming. 
- Dynamic programming and memoization go together. The difference with straightforward recursion is in caching or memoization of recursive calls. Where subproblems are independent, this is useless. By using memoization or maintaining a table of subproblems already solved, dynamic programming reduces the exponential nature of many problems to polynomial complexity.

• The greedy method

A greedy algorithm is similar to a dynamic programming algorithm, but the difference is that solutions to the subproblems do not have to be known at each stage. Instead a "greedy" choice can be made of what looks the best solution for the moment. 
The most popular greedy algorithm is finding the minimal spanning tree as given by Kruskal.

• Linear programming

The problem is expressed as a set of linear inequalities and then an attempt is made to maximize or minimize the inputs. This can solve many problems such as the maximum flow for directed graphs, notably by using the simplex algorithm. 
A complex variant of linear programming is called integer programming, where the solution space is restricted to all integers.

• Reduction also called transform and conquer

Solve a problem by transforming it into another problem. A simple example: finding the median in an unsorted list is first translating this problem into sorting problem and finding the middle element in sorted list. The main goal of reduction is finding the simplest transformation possible.

• Using graphs

Many problems, such as playing chess, can be modeled as problems on graphs. A graph exploration algorithms are used. 
This category also includes the search algorithms and backtracking.

The probabilistic and heuristic paradigm

• Probabilistic

Those that make some choices randomly.

• Genetic

Attempt to find solutions to problems by mimicking biological evolutionary processes, with a cycle of random mutations yielding successive generations of "solutions". Thus, they emulate reproduction and "survival of the fittest".

• Heuristic

Whose general purpose is not to find an optimal solution, but an approximate solution where the time or resources to find a perfect solution are not practical.

Classification by complexity

Some algorithms complete in linear time, and some complete in exponential amount of time, and some never complete.

Algorithms resources on net.

Graph Algorithms in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics Algorithms Description

Bioinformatics Algorithms Course Page

Bioinformatics Algorithm Demonstrations

Introduction to Bioinformatics Algorithms Lectures 1-2 by Dr. Max Alekseyev USC, 2009

Online Lectures on Bioinformatics

Sequence Alignment Algorithms

Algorithm for sequence alignment: dynamic programming

Network Protocol Analysis using Bioinformatics Algorithms

Bioinformatics Algorithms Links

Dynamic Programming

Particularly good sites...

•http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~sahuguet/MSA/
•http://www.blc.arizona.edu/courses/bioinformatics/align.html
•http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tildeStrings/Notes/DPA.html
•http://www.cs.orst.edu/~schut/cs325/dynamic.htm
•http://www.catalase.com/dprog.htm
•http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~bioph490/BIOPH2.html#SEQUENCE_COMP
•http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/home/cisc365/javascript/dp1/index.html
Other sites...
•http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~bioph490/dynamic_programming_demo.html
•http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/home/cisc365/365overheads.html
•http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/home/cisc365/dp/dp.p01.html
•http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/csc270/tut_dp.html
•http://queue.ieor.berkeley.edu/~jshu/knapsack/DP/dp.html
•http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/classes/dynamic/dynamic.html
•http://www.cs.sandia.gov/~scistra/class_3
•http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/Econ101/dynamic.htm
•http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/classes/stoch_dynamic/stoch_dynamic.html
•http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/classes/dynamic/node8.html
•http://www.maths.mu.oz.au/~moshe/dp/bibl/bibliography.html
•http://cartan.gmd.de/PAPER/ismb95/ismb_html.html
•http://screwdriver.bu.edu/bibliography/dynamic_programming.htm
•http://www.norvig.com/design-patterns/
•http://tome.cbs.univ-montp1.fr/htmltxt/Doc/manual/node137.html
•http://poem.princeton.edu/~verdu/dynamic.html
•http://www.orca1.com/opushelpweb/opusDynamic_Programming.html
•http://screwdriver.bu.edu/cn760-lectures/l7/index.htm
•http://www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~moshe/dp/dp.html
•http://mat.gsia.cmu.edu/ORCS/0255.html
•http://aae.wisc.edu/e703/notes/a13dynpr.htm
•http://bioweb.pasteur.fr/docs/modeller/node137.html
•http://www2.uwindsor.ca/~lama/my470/ddynamic.htm
•http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~papagel/project/ex5_6_1.htm
•http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~algorith/lectures-good/node12.html
•http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~algorith/lectures-good/node12.html
•http://www.utdallas.edu/~scniu/documents/7315.htm
•http://www.ii.uib.no/~pinar/seminar/larry.html
•http://www.deakin.edu.au/~gecole/books.html
•http://www.cseg.engr.uark.edu/~wessels/algs/notes/dynamic.html
•http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~ped/teachadmin/algor/dyprog.html
•http://www.eli.sdsu.edu/courses/fall96/cs660/notes/dynamicProg/dynamicProg.html
•http://www.cs.indiana.edu/l/www/ftp/techreports/TR514.html
•http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~mairson/poems/node3.html
•http://www.cis.tu-graz.ac.at/igi/oaich/animations/Dynamic2.html
•http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~workshop/

Smith Waterman
•http://genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/help/sw_alignment.html
•http://genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/help/sw_details.html
•http://www.stanford.edu/~sntaylor/bioc218/final.htm
•http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~lily/pres2/sld009.htm
•http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~workshop/Lab_3/Smith-Waterman.htm
•http://www.tigem.it/LOCAL/SW/threshold.html
•http://sgbcd.weizmann.ac.il/genweb/help/smith-waterman.html
•http://cbrg.ethz.ch/ServerBooklet/section2_3_5.html
Needleman & Wunsch
•http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~lily/pres2/sld003.htm
•http://acer.gen.tcd.ie/~amclysag/nwswat.html
•http://www.nada.kth.se/~erikw/thesis/chapter2_3.html
•http://www.irbm.it/irbm-course95/gb/docs/amps/subsection3_6_1.html
•http://www.ibc.wustl.edu/~zuker/Bio-5495/align-html/node3.html

General (NW vs. SW vs. HMM, etc.)

•http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~lily/pres2/
•http://acer.gen.tcd.ie/~amclysag/nwswat.html
•http://laguerre.psc.edu/biomed/TUTORIALS/SEQUENCE/MULTIPLE/tutorial.html
•http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/compbio/

Hmms

•http://www.medmicro.mds.qmw.ac.uk/HMMER/main.html
•http://alfredo.wustl.edu/ismb96/abs/p02.html
•http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/compbio/html_format_papers/hughkrogh96/cabios.html
•http://wwwsyseng.anu.edu.au/~jason/hmmlinks.html
•http://www.breadfan.com/markov.html
•http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/HLTsurvey/ch1node34.html
•http://www.ibc.wustl.edu/service/hmmalign/glocal.html
•http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/compbio/html_format_papers/ismb94/node5.html
•http://www.iscs.nus.edu.sg/~luakt/ic3222/lecture/nlp18new/index.htm
•http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/research/compbio/sam.html SAM Software for HMMs

Genetic Algorithms

•http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~carroll/ga.html
•http://kal-el.ugr.es/gags.html
•http://kal-el.ugr.es/~jmerelo/GAJS.html
•http://www.genetic-programming.org/
•http://www.iitk.ac.in/kangal/deb_tut.shtml

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ABACAS, that is able to contiguate contigs from a de novo assembly against a closely related reference.

IMAGE, an iterative approach for closing gaps in assembled genomes using mate pair information. It is able to close gaps left open by the assembler in a draft genome, even when using the same data sets as used by the original assembler.

iCORN, that enables errors in the consensus sequence to be corrected by iteratively mapping reads to the current assembly. An improved version, especially correction Pacfic Bioscience assemblies (PacBio) can be found here.

RATT, a tool to transfer the annotation from a reference genome, or an earlier assembly, onto the latest assembly.

PAGIT bundles these software and makes them more accessible for users.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/science/tools/pagit

A walk-in Interview for the following position tenable at the Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF), Department of Biotechnology, Alagappa University will be held at the Department of Biotechnology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi 630 004 on 03.08.2013 (Saturday) at 12:30 PM. This national facility is funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi. The main objectives of the Centre involve teaching and research activities in bioinformatics/biotechnology.

1. Studentship (One Post):

Stipend : Rs. 5000 p.m. (consolidated)

Qualification: M.Sc., in Bioinformatics/Biotechnology/Biophysics/Biochemistry/
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Interested candidates are encouraged to send their Curriculum Vitae by email to alagappauniv.btisnet@nic.in in advance. On the day of interview, the candidates must produce original certificates in proof of their educational qualification and experience and a recommendation letter from the Head of the Department/Institution where last studied/worked. Candidates who have already passed the required Degree alone are eligible to appear for interview. No TA&DA will be given for attending the interview.

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For example, you can run a search in Assembly and use check boxes (see left side of screenshot below) to refine the set of genome assemblies of interest. Then, just open the “Download assemblies” menu, choose the source database (GenBank or RefSeq), choose the file type, and start the download. An archive file will be saved to your computer that can be expanded into a folder containing your selected genome data files.

More at https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2017/05/08/genome-data-download-made-easy/

We describe a new method for predicting the ancestral order and orientation of those intervals from their observed adjacencies in modern species. We combine the results from this method with data from chromosome painting experiments to produce a map of an early mammalian genome that accounts for 96.8% of the available human genome sequence data. The precision is further increased by mapping inversions as small as 31 bp. Analysis of the predicted evolutionary breakpoints in the human lineage confirms certain published observations but disagrees with others. Although only a few mammalian genomes are currently sequenced to high precision, our theoretical analyses and computer simulations indicate that our results are reasonably accurate and that they will become highly accurate in the foreseeable future. Our methods were developed as part of a project to reconstruct the genome sequence of the last ancestor of human, dogs, and most other placental mammals;

Address of the bookmark: http://www.bx.psu.edu/miller_lab/car/

1. Accelrys Software Solution Pvt Ltd.
12th Floor, Discover, ITPL, White Field, Bangalore-65.
www.accelrys.com

2. Apticraft Systems (P) Ltd.
142, Electronics Complex, Pardeshipura, Indore – 452010 (M.P.), India
www.apticraft.com

3. Aptuit Informatics
Plot No. 100-103, Export Promotion Industrial Park, White Field, Bangalore-560066
www.aptiuit.com

4. Bigtec
J. K. Towers, 8th Block, Sangam Circle,46th Cross, Bangalore-560082.
www.bigtec.org

5. Bijam Biosciences Private Limited
Nagarjuna Hills, Hyderabad 500 082, India
www.nagarjunagroup.com

6. Bio Base Databases India Pvt Ltd.
Crescent Towers, 4th Floor, No : 32/1, Crescent Road, Bnagalore – 560 001
www.biobase-international.com

7. BioImagene India Pvt. Ltd.
4th floor, C-Wing, Godrej Eternia, Shivajinagar, Pune-411005
www.bioimagene.com

8. BioInformatics Institute Of India – Noida
C-56 A/28, Sector -62, Noida – 201 301
www.bii.in

9. CLC bio India Pvt Ltd
#Plot No. 51, H.No. 8-3-214/51, Srinivasa Nagar (West) Ameerpet Hyderabad – 500 038
www.clcbio.com/india

10. CytoGenomics India (P) Ltd.
#3004, 12A Main HAL 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560008
www.silicocyte.com

11. Genotypic Technology
211, 6th Cross, 80ft Road, RMV II Stage, Bangalore 560094
www.genotypic.co.in

12. Genvea Biosciences
Dr. D. T. Singh, CSO, 53, Craig Rd. #04-01, Singapore-089691
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13. Helix Info Systems
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14. Jalaja Technologies Pvt. Ltd.,
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15. Jubilant Biosys Ltd
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Jubilant Organosys Ltd.
1A, Sector 16A, Noida – 201 301 (India)
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16. Kshema Technologies
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17. LabNetworx
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18. LabVantage Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Bengal Intelligent Park, Building C, 2nd Floor, Sector V, Salt Lake Electronics Complex, Kolkata – 700 091
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19. LeadInvent, 
2nd Floor, Biotech Centre, University of Delhi, South Campus, Benito Juarez Road, New Delhi 110021, India
Contact no: +91 11 24119241
Email: contact@leadinvent.com
www.leadinvent.com

20. Mascon Life Sciences
B – 8/ 10, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057, India
www.masconlifesciences.com

21. Molecular Connections P Ltd
Kandala Mansion, 2/2 Kariappa Road, Near Krishna Rao Park, Basavangudi, Bangalore – 4
www.molecularconnections.com

22.Novo Informatics Pvt. Ltd.
TBIU, 2nd Floor, Synergy Building, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-16.
Contact: 91-11-26581524, 91-11-26581766(Extension: 28)
Email: info@novoinformatics.com
www.novoinformatics.com

23. Ocimum Biosolutions (India) Ltd
6th Floor, Reliance Classic, Road No.1 Banjara Hills, Hyderabad 500 034, India.
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24. Scube Scientific Software Solutions
613, Hemkunt Chambers, 89, Nehru Place, New Delhi -110 019
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25. Siri Technologies Pvt Ltd.
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26. Strand Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd.
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27. SooryaKiran Bioinformatics (P) Ltd
TBIC-13, Tejaswini Building, Technopark, Thriruvananthapuram- 695 584, Keralam, India

Ph: +91 471 4060979,+91 9895404104
Email: reachus@sooryakiran.com
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28. Systat Software Asia Pacific
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29. ABC Genomics (India) Pvt. Ltd.
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30. en-GENE-ier's Core Technology Services,
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(Near Maharaja Agrasen Public School)
lucknow-226010, U.P., India.
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Best of luck for your job hunts :).

Dr Altan Kara is a Bioinformatics specialist at the faculty of Gene Engineering and Biotechnology Institute at TUBITAK MAM Research Center. His research interest revolves around the cancer informatics and computational aided-drug design. I applaud Dr Altan for clearly setting out both his expectations of people that join his lab/university in addition to listing his responsibilities to his research members at TUBITAK MAM Research Institüte. Hopefully, this interview will prove useful to others in the field, especially to those who are just starting their bioinformatics careers.

You can find out more about Dr Altan by visiting his (well documented) lab page (http://gmbe.mam.tubitak.gov.tr/en) and BOL page http://bioinformaticsonline.com/profile/altan . And now, on to the BOL:“Tryst with a Bioinformatician” interview series ...

• What push you to join Computational Biology/Bioinformatics?

According to me, bioinformatics is the center of modern biological research and if a researcher wants to discover new biological insights by evaluating the globally produced biological data to derivate unified solutions for specific biological problems, learning bioinformatics is the only way to achieve this goal.

• What fascinates you about Computational Biology/Bioinformatics?

It's flexibility. As well known, there are highly diverse and complex biological questions are waiting to be enlightened and it's impossible to bring solutions to this diversity by using similar approaches. Thus, the employed method has to be unique for the targeted biological problem and by using bioinformatics tools this can be easily achieved. 

• What is the one word you would use to describe yourself?

Bioinformatician. :)

• Can you please describe your research work in a nutshell for BOL users.

At my current Institute, I am working in the field of cancer bioinformatics. Briefly, the overall aim of the project which I am working for (AKMARK (Project CODE:5153403)) is, applying a bioinformatics-supported genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analysis to reveal the molecular profile of the disease through an integrated approach, and to develop an early diagnosis and scanning kit based on this profile. Alterations in the gene, transcript, protein, and metabolite profiles between normal tissue, normal tissue adjoined to the tumor (reactive stroma), tumor tissue, lymph node metastasis, and blood samples taken from the same patient and the reflection of these changes in some other selected body fluids will be revealed within the scope of the project. The molecular structures involved in the development and progression of NSCLC will be determined and relations with the clinical, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging and histology will be made. The development of a diagnostic kit for immediate clinical purposes and an electrochemical biosensor for quick on-site applications are targeted through the development of a number of antibody and aptamer formed against the most specific biomarker selected from the panel.

• Is there anything else we should know about you and your research?

Besides AKMARK, I am also in preparation of having a side project that aims for the development of a computational method to design inhibitors for prokaryotic two-component systems. In this project, I will be in collaboration with Prof. Maria Kontoyianni, SIUE: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, School of Pharmacy.

• What was your greatest scientific disappointment in life till now?

So far I do not experience any memorable scientific disappointment in my life. :)

• What major research challenges and problems did you face yet? How did you handle them?

The major challenge which I faced so far in my scientific career was predicting the interaction between the prokaryotic two-component proteins. To be able to accurately predict the interactions between these proteins, I create a meta-predictor by using a support vector machine. By using this technique I integrated six different protein-protein interaction methods in a way to cover disadvantage of one method with the advantage of another one. The meta-predictor which I developed during this work is accessible via http://metapred2cs.ibers.aber.ac.uk/ and for more detailed information about the system the articles with the PMID IDs; PMID: 27378293 and PMID: 26384938 can be read.

• What's your all-time favourite bioinformatics package, and why?

For me, the best bioinformatics package is R/Bioconductor. The reason why I like this package is, it provides lots of useful tools for comprehensive analysis and comparison of high-throughput experimental data in an integrated manner and besides lots of the packages it provides, it is open source and also open for development. As a result, it provides strong and flexible ways to do science.

• In bioinformatics, do you see yourself in which of the following roles-scientist, analyst, developer, engineer or pure academician?

Scientist / Developer.

• What will you like to accomplish in next five years / ten years?

For my current research, I would like to design a pipeline to automatically integrate and analyse omics data for cancer research which will be specifically aiming for biomarker and novel drug target discovery. In addition to this, I also like to develop another pipeline for prokaryotic TCS protein structure prediction and inhibitor design.

• When you will be retired, what would you tell next generation bioinformaticians?

Bioinformatics is not all about scripting and researchers who study in this field should never expect a tool to do their analyses for them. Besides computational skills, a bioinformatician must have a strong biological background in his/her research area which will allow them to understand if anything went wrong during their run by only looking at the results instead of just blindly trusting the output of the bioinformatics tools.

• What you always miss in bioinformatics when you will no longer working in this field?

Bioinformatics is open to doing multi-discipliner research with scientists all around the world. As a result, while I studying in this field I can interactively learn a lot from wide range research community. I think this is the one thing which I will miss the most.

• If there will be bioinformatics company owned by you in future, What are your company focus and aim?

With the increasing amount of data in databases, there is already a massive need for effective methods to eliminate the manipulated data and reach to clean/useful information. As days pass, the requirement of data mining will be the first step of any research project. For this reason, the major goal of my bioinformatics company will be developing effective tools to eliminate manipulated datasets and information that exist in the literature and provide trustworthy clean information/datasets for researchers.

• How much bioinformatics change in 2050, according to your wild imagination?

Bioinformatics is a field that constantly and dynamically changes. As the bioinformatics progress, new tools and methods become available and they provide a better application of existing methods or totally new methods that offer an alternative solution to various biological problems. A long with these updates, developers also provide easy to use GUIs for most of the tools. Considering this, if the field carries on developing like this, every single researcher with a strong biological background can be able to perform bioinformatics analyses by him/herself without needing a professional help. As a result, almost all of the bioinformaticians will be responsible just for development of new methods/tools.

• What would one piece of advice you give someone who's trying to reinvent themselves and enter into bioinformatics sector?

Bioinformatics is a wide field with a lot of career options. Thus, if a researcher likes to step into this field first he/she should be clear about the branch of the bioinformatics they like to study in. Following to this decision they should first learn at least one programing language and investigate the ways of how other researcher employed that language in their researches and WHY? A researcher, in this field, should never create and use copy paste scripts but always must understand WHY the other researcher worked in that way. Knowing the answer of this question is the only way to learn bioinformatics. Besides, a researcher in the field of bioinformatics (from any branch) must always be good about the environmental control. In other words, one should always easily control input output directories, modify files or directories, annotate and modify employed scripts during the research and should not allow any confusion during the different stages of the research. Finally, they should not blindly trust the output of a tool/software but do a benchmarking test for each of the tools which they decided to utilise in their research. In addition to this, even if the tools pass the benchmarking, researchers should have a good biological background in their field to tell if anything when wrong during the process by only looking the output(s) of the employed pipelines/packages/tools.  

The project involves identification and characterization of transcription factors (TFs) from the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem stem cell niche using genomic approaches and construction of a gene regulatory network for the identified TFs.

Positions: 1

Duration: 1 year but extendable up to three years based on performance and availability of funds.

Emoluments: As per DST rules.

Essential Qualifications: M.Sc. in any branch of life sciences with excellent academic record with CSIR-UGC NET or DBT-JRF. Candidate having previous work experience in the area of bioinformatics, molecular biology and genetics is preferred, but not required.

How to Apply: Applicants are requested to send a cover letter outlining previous research experiences and reasons for joining this position. Please send your complete bio-data including the cover letter as PDF attachment by email to Dr. Ram Yadav at ryadav@iisermohali.ac.in

Last date of submission is 17.00 IST, August 10, 2013.

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