BOL: Related items

Bioinformatics group at Boku University

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:53:10 -0600

The Bioinformatics group at Boku University has two main areas of interest, underpinning a common goal, the study of complex systems in living organisms. To overcome the engineered redundancies and combinatorial effects prevalent in higher eukaryotes, novel views augmenting the classical gene by gene approaches are required. We combine

1. Work to establish improved quantitative experimental assays (such as microarrays or differential in-gel electrophoresis) and
2. Development of modern computational methods (such as hierarchical probabilistic models or integration of heterogeneous data sources)

Lab page @ http://bioinf.boku.ac.at/

Genetic basis of tail-loss evolution

LEGE — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:12:36 -0600

The paper "On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07095-8)", published in Nature, investigates the genetic mechanisms that led to the loss of tails in humans and apes. The study suggests that a specific genetic mutation, involving the insertion of an Alu element (a type of transposable DNA sequence), played a critical role in the evolutionary transition from tailed primates to tailless hominoids.

Key Findings of the Study:

Alu Insertion and Tail Loss:
The researchers discovered an Alu-mediated genetic change in a common ancestor of modern apes and humans. This change disrupted the normal function of a gene involved in tail development, leading to the suppression of tail formation.
Gene Disruption Mechanism:
The Alu insertion was found within a regulatory region of the TBXT gene (also known as T or Brachyury), which is crucial for tail development in vertebrates. This insertion likely altered the gene's expression patterns, leading to tail reduction over evolutionary time.
Functional Evidence from Model Organisms:
To test their hypothesis, the researchers introduced similar genetic modifications in mice. The modified mice exhibited shortened or absent tails, supporting the idea that the identified mutation played a role in tail loss in hominoids.
Evolutionary Implications:
The findings suggest that small, random genomic changes—such as transposable element insertions—can have profound effects on body morphology. This study provides evidence that mobile DNA elements (like Alu) can drive major evolutionary transitions.
Relevance to Human Evolution:
Understanding the genetic basis of tail loss helps in reconstructing the evolutionary history of hominins (the lineage that includes humans and our extinct relatives). It also sheds light on how genetic variations contribute to anatomical diversity among primates.

Significance of the Study:

This research highlights the role of transposable elements in shaping evolutionary traits and provides a concrete genetic explanation for a defining characteristic of humans and great apes. It also demonstrates how mutations in regulatory regions of developmental genes can lead to significant anatomical changes.

Free math books

Manisha Mishra — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 19:38:34 -0600

Bioinformatics require some match skills, therefore I decided to provide this wonderful math eBooks links to the BOL community.

Please add ur links/bookmarks in comment section.

Address of the bookmark: http://physicsdatabase.com/free-math-books/

The Centre for Bioinformatics (MCB) Lab

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 12:41:20 -0500

The Centre for Bioinformatics (MCB) is a diverse collection of professors, postdoctoral fellows, and students, who share a common interest in Bioinformatics.

Research Area

We are interested in the development of the statistics and computational methods for the analysis of this data in breast cancer.
We have worked on probabilistic models for subcellular localization, protein-protein interactions, and problems related to chemical genomics.
We are interested in the development of bioinformatics/biostatistical methodology in the analysis of epigenetic/epigenomic data.
We are interested in integrative bioinformatics approaches to learn the gene, gene products, interactions, and regulatory mechanisms involved in mental retardation.

Link @ http://www.mcgill.ca/mcb/

Bioinformatics software for biologists in the genomics era

Poonam Mahapatra — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:31:05 -0600

The genome sequencing revolution is approaching a landmark figure of 1000 completely sequenced genomes. Coupled with fast-declining, per-base sequencing costs, this influx of DNA sequence data has encouraged laboratory scientists to engage large datasets in comparative sequence analyses for making evolutionary, functional and translational inferences. However, the majority of the scientists at the forefront of experimental research are not bioinformaticians, so a gap exists between the user-friendly software needed and the scripting/programming infrastructure often employed for the analysis of large numbers of genes, long genomic segments and groups of sequences. We see an urgent need for the expansion of the fundamental paradigms under which biologist-friendly software tools are designed and developed to fulfill the needs of biologists to analyze large datasets by using sophisticated computational methods. We argue that the design principles need to be sensitive to the reality that comparatively small teams of biologists have historically developed some of the most popular biological software packages in molecular evolutionary analysis. Furthermore, biological intuitiveness and investigator empowerment need to take precedence over the current supposition that biologists should re-tool and become programmers when analyzing genome scale datasets.

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/14/1713.full

BioProgramming

Jitendra Narayan — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 16:29:53 -0500

The completion of the first human genome drafts was just a start of the modern DNA sequencing era which resulted in further invention, improved development toward new advanced strategies of high-throughput DNA sequencing, so called the “high-throughput next generation sequencing” (HT-NGS). The decreasing genome sequencing cost and desire to explore and understand biological machanism at genomic level, speed up the genomic sequencing projects. In the fast growing HT-NGS technologies, the main challenge is to cope with the analysis of vast production of sequencing database through advanced bioinformatics tools. In oder to develope sotware/tools bioinformatician/ biological programmers need to expertise in any one one the programming language. However, sometime one language are not enough to handle all sort of biological needs, which compel us to learn new biologically suitable language to handle ever growing genome or protein sequences.

The next step after reading genetic code is writing a script to analyse and explore the hidden information. This tutorial is aimed to introduce you new biological programming languages with their packages/libraries, and assist in your scripting work.

Navigate the sub-section of this page [ see right hand side of the page for it ]

JRF @ PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 16:48:56 -0600

PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

CENTRE FOR BIOINFORMATICS

PUDUCHERRY

Applications are invited for one Project Assistant to work in the UGC sponsored Research Award "Molecular Docking and Dynamics studies to understand the interacting mechanism of oncogenic 101 protein with its cellular proteins".

The duration for the fellowship is 12months only with consolidated pay ofRs. 5,000 per month.

Application on plain paper with following details: Name, Address, Data of Birth, Father's Name, Nationality, Educational Qualification (SSLC onwards-enclose attested copies of certificate) and Researcb Experience may be addressed to Dr. R. Krishna, Principle Investigator (PI), UGC Research Award, Centre for Bioinformatics, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry - 605 014.

Application should reach in January 261h , 2013.

Essential Qualification: M.Sc. in Bioinformatics/Biophysics with good academic record.

Qualification for Project Fellow:

M.Sc in Bioinformatics/Biophysics.

The person to be considered for appointment as Project Fellow must have second class master degree with a minimum of 55% marks in the subject concerned or a related subject.

The candidate to be appointed as Project Fellows should be below thc age of40 years at the time of appointment.

Desirable Qualification for this Project: Research Experience in Small/Macromolecule Crystallography and Structural Bioinformatics.

For more details, refer the web site: www.pondiuni.edu.in/sites/default/files/BIC-311213.pdf

EMBO Practical Course, Bioinformatics, large-scale data, at Shenzhen, China

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 09:50:56 -0500

This international advanced course will provide training on bioinformatics and statistics methods for genomic research. It will give insight into how biological knowledge can be generated from high-throughput sequencing (DNA-Seq, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq) experiments and will illustrate how to analyze such data. The course covers both the underlying statistical and algorithmic concepts, and the practice of how to automate and code such analyses using the scripting language R.

17 Nov 2013 -22 Nov 2013

More at http://events.embo.org/13-large-scale-data/

Online Registration: https://www.conference-service.com/pc13-47/welcome.cgi

FACULTY POSITIONS AT IIIT-ALLAHABAD

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 06:19:34 -0600

OPENINGS OF FACULTY POSITIONS AT IIIT-ALLAHABAD

(Under Tenure-Track Model)

Open Advt. No IIITA/DIC/16012014

IIIT-Allahabad has several Openings for the Faculty positions at the Assistant Professor level.

It is a regular tenure-track faculty positions for 3-5 years in teaching and research. A regular faculty is expected to engage heavily in research and teaching. The eligibility criteria for regular faculty positions are similar as in IITs. For an Assistant Professor position, a candidate must have a PhD (in IT/Computer Science &/or Engineering/Electrical, Electronics &/or Communication Engineering/etc; for interdisciplinary areas the PhD may be in an appropriate field), plus three years experience. However, for PhDs from a well known University/Institute (e.g. IITs/IISc/TIFR/ISI in India or well known research universities across the world), and a good research/academic record, the 3 years experience requirement may be waived.

The pay scale for faculty is same as in IITs. Other benefits include initiation research grant, travel support, book grant, professional society membership, etc., and personal benefits such as medical/LTC, on campus subsidized family housing with excellent modern infrastructural facilities.

Areas of Interest

IIIT-Allahabad aims to build strong research groups in important and emerging areas in CS/IT/ECE as well as in emerging interdisciplinary areas, and applications are invited in all these areas. Some of the areas of special interest, besides strengthening the existing research areas, are : Software Engineering, Theoretical Computer Science, Cyber Physical Systems, Robotics, Network science, Digital Media, Computational neuroscience, Machine learning, Healthcare informatics, Computational Biology, Communications networks (both at hardware and protocol levels), Circuits (including VLSI, analog, low power, etc), Energy systems and technologies, Biomedical electronics and systems, Computer Architecture, signal/image processing, Embedded and control systems.

Application Process

Interested candidates can apply by sending their detailed CV with list of publications clearly mentioning Journal names and citation index with three references through email entitled “Faculty positions at IIIT Allahabad” to faculty.applications@iiita.ac.in. Do not send your applications in any other email addresses. Applications will be considered regularly, hence there is no deadline for applying.

Important Clarifications on Eligibility

A PhD in CS/IT (or other disciplines, as announced) is the minimum expected requirement for an Assistant Professor.

Advertisement: http://iiita.ac.in/pub/Faculty-Position-IIITA1.pdf

Sharing a million genomes: Yves Moreau at TEDxbrussels

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 19:04:25 -0600

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)