BOL: Related items

The 5 reasons to mistakes at bioinformatics work !!!

Jit — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 02:51:41 -0500

When you're just starting out with biological programming, it's easy to run into complex problems that make you wonder how anyone has ever managed to write a program. There are some problems that trip up nearly every bioinformatician--everything from getting started understanding the biological problems to dealing with program design. Some random mistakes are so prominent that even experienced biological programmers do it. The 8 years in bioinformatics and my few random observations, most of them are snarky. These reasons will always take longer than expected and compel you to postpone your project deadline.

1.Stupid for biologist: Biology is so complex that it will make bioinformatician feel stupid. There are no any universal fixed rules; it can surprise you any time. So be nice to biologists who ask questions and resolve your biological puzzles. Sometime you will have no idea what the hell you were doing either.

2.Puzzling why: Do not hesitate to ask question. Especially. at the beginning of project you will have to ask a lot of questions. Instead of puzzling it out at end check out and clear your doubt even for a single error. It may can leads to wrong conclusion.

3.Running marathon: The most of the biological software’s documentation is always incomplete. In other word they are no more than 95 percent complete. Sometime a single problem can halt your entire project for months. Compilation and running the pipelines in tedious because almost all are interdependent and need proper configuration. I face the same kind of problem with Evolver :( …

4.Folders missing: The pipelines generate lots of data, and we keep them in several folders for future use. But sometime we delete them by mistake and move to recovery…

5.Digging deeper: Digging deeper is fruitful, but some time it can be catastrophic. You may get frustrated or direction less. So keep a biologist with you for rescue …. Sometime an expert computer programmer to handle your server. Remember, the server will always go down when you need it the most.

The most common frustrating common line: Why do we do this again?

Chromosome breakpoint - a breakup to remember

BioStar — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 13:31:54 -0600

Chromosome breakpoint refers to the physical location where a chromosome is broken and rearranged. Chromosome breakage can occur spontaneously or be induced by environmental factors such as radiation, chemicals, or viruses. The rearrangement of genetic material resulting from a chromosome breakpoint can have important consequences, including the development of genetic diseases, chromosomal abnormalities, or cancer.

Chromosome breakpoints can occur in two ways: interstitial or terminal. Interstitial breakpoints occur within the chromosome, while terminal breakpoints occur at the end of the chromosome. Terminal breakpoints can lead to the loss of genetic material, whereas interstitial breakpoints can result in the duplication or deletion of genetic material.

Chromosome breakpoints can be detected using a variety of techniques, including cytogenetic analysis, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS). These techniques can also help identify the exact location of the breakpoint and the nature of the rearrangement, such as translocations, inversions, deletions, or duplications.

Translocations are one of the most common types of chromosome rearrangements caused by breakpoints. In a translocation, genetic material is exchanged between two different chromosomes, resulting in a balanced or unbalanced distribution of genetic material. Unbalanced translocations can cause genetic diseases or developmental abnormalities, while balanced translocations can be inherited without any apparent phenotypic effects.

Inversions occur when a chromosome segment is inverted, resulting in a change in the order of genetic material. Inversions can be pericentric, involving the centromere, or paracentric, not involving the centromere. Inversions can cause genetic diseases or phenotypic effects if they disrupt the function of essential genes or regulatory elements.

Deletions and duplications are caused by interstitial breakpoints that result in the loss or gain of genetic material. Deletions can cause genetic diseases or developmental abnormalities if they involve essential genes or regulatory elements. Duplications can also have phenotypic effects, depending on the location and size of the duplicated segment.

Chromosome breakpoints can also be involved in the formation of complex chromosomal rearrangements, such as ring chromosomes or dicentric chromosomes. These complex rearrangements can have important clinical implications, as they can cause genetic diseases or cancer.

In conclusion, chromosome breakpoints are important genetic events that can lead to the rearrangement of genetic material and have important clinical implications. The detection and characterization of chromosome breakpoints using cytogenetic, molecular, and genomic methods are essential for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of genetic diseases and cancer. Further research is needed to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying chromosome breakage and to develop new therapies targeting these events.

MEGADOCK 4.0

Suleman Khan — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 18:08:54 -0500

An ultra–high-performance protein–protein docking software for heterogeneous supercomputers

Summary: The application of protein–protein docking in large-scale interactome analysis is a major challenge in structural bioinformatics and requires huge computing resources. In this work, we present MEGADOCK 4.0, an FFT-based docking software that makes extensive use of recent heterogeneous supercomputers and shows powerful, scalable performance of over 97% strong scaling.

Availability and Implementation: MEGADOCK 4.0 is written in C++ with OpenMPI and NVIDIA CUDA 5.0 (or later) and is freely available to all academic and non-profit users at: http://www.bi.cs.titech.ac.jp/megadock.

Contact: akiyama@cs.titech.ac.jp

Address of the bookmark: http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/06/bioinformatics.btu532.short

Bioinformatics PhD studentship available in New Zealand

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 13:36:30 -0500

Bioinformatics PhD studentship available in New Zealand

The importance of transcriptional control has been explored in a burgeoning line of research over several decades; nevertheless, we are still far from having a complete picture of the regulatory mechanisms of genes and non-coding RNAs, and their influences on different phenotypes and disease states of a cell. Recent shifts towards large-scale analyses of transcriptional regulation on a sequence and epigenetic level are at the forefront of research, mainly due to sequencing technology advancements and a deeper understanding of the fundamental regulatory processes involved.

Arriving at a better understanding of the influence of specific parts of the overall regulatory machinery on disease states is a high priority of the group’s research agenda.

We are seeking an enthusiastic student to join the group as a PhD student. Applicants must have a BSc(Hons) or MSc degree in a relevant discipline and a willingness to learn and apply new techniques and work in a team. Both local and international students are encouraged to apply.

The studentship covers all university fees and an annual tax-exempt stipend of NZ$22,000 for three years.

Sebastian Schmeier recently joined Massey University and started his own research group in Auckland, New Zealand, a city regularly ranked one of the most livable in the world. This is your chance to experience the amazing Auckland lifestyle and the excitement of joining a young new science team, while staying connected to world class scientific networks.

To apply for the post, please send a cover letter stating your interest in the position and why you think you would be a good candidate, a Curriculum Vitae, a copy of your academic transcript, a sample of your written scientific work, and the names of three referees. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Enquiries and applications to Sebastian Schmeier (s.schmeier@massey.ac.nz).

GrapheR !!!

John Parker — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:02:17 -0500

What a wonderful gem GrapheR is.... Oh yes it is. GrapheR is a GUI for base graphics in R by http://www.maximeherve.com/. The package provides a graphical user interface for creating base charts in R. It is ideal for beginners in R, as the user interface is very clear and the code is written along side into a text file, allowing users to recreate the charts directly in the console.

Adding and changing legends? Messing around with the plotting window settings? It is much easier/quicker with this GUI than reading the help file and trying to understand the various parameters.
Here is a little example using the iris data set.

library(GrapheR)
data(iris)
run.GrapheR()

This will bring up a window that helps me to create the chart and tweak the various parameters.

Finally, I find the underlying R code in a file created by GrapheR. For more details read also the package vignette, which is available in English, French and German!

India's own first drug - from Biocon.

Jitendra Narayan — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 16:05:39 -0500

Psoriasis is immune-mediated disease that effects the skin. the Disease on an average affects about 10-20 million Indians and it attacks the immune system of human beings. In generally occurs, when the immune system mistakes a normal skin cell for a pathogen, and sends out faulty signals that cause overproduction of new skin cells. More at >>

Biocon, India's largest publicly-held biotechnology firm, launched its second novel 'lab-to-market' molecule, Alzumab, to treat chronic plaque psoriasis at a cost 50 per cent lower than the existing one.

Biocon is bringing Alzumab (a biologic) in the form of a vial after working on it for nearly a decade. The work had initially started in a joint effort with the Center of Molecular Immunology, Havana, but Biocon took control of the programme soon after and also bought out its partner a few years ago. Biocon tell to the media that genotypic played a critical role in functional studies and clinical trial Genomics.

The Biocon drug, at around ₹ 7,500 a vial, will cost half as much as the currently available drugs - from Pfizer and J&J - to treat psoriasis, a skin disease that causes rough red areas where the skin comes off in small pieces. A patient is usually prescribed to consume more than 40 vials in a 24-week course.

pybedtools

Shruti Paniwala — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 01:03:41 -0500

pybedtools is a Python wrapper for Aaron Quinlan's BEDtools programs (https://github.com/arq5x/bedtools), which are widely used for genomic interval manipulation or "genome algebra". pybedtools extends BEDTools by offering feature-level manipulations from with Python. See full online documentation, including installation instructions, at http://pythonhosted.org/pybedtools/.

More at http://pythonhosted.org/pybedtools/

A powerful toolset for genome arithmetic.http://code.google.com/p/bedtools/

Spotlight on Genomics: Understanding Our Genes - A Step to Personalized Medicine

Mon, 26 Aug 2013 17:07:44 -0500

(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Learn about the essential role of genomics in the development of stem cell based therapies. Craig Venter, president and founder of the J. Craig Venter Institute and Catriona Jamieson, director for stem cell research at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, speak about the future of personalized medicine in which genomics, the study of genes and their function, is applied to pinpoint specific treatments for patients. Sandra Dillon, a clinical trial participant, gives a patient's perspective. [7/2013] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 24530]

The Future of Personalized Medicine

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 00:21:26 -0600

Howard Jacob speaking on Personalize Medicine at the Illumina Meeting in Feb. of 2013.

Bioinformatics JRF/SRF position at IARI

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 04:14:01 -0500

DIVISION OF NEMATOLOGY
INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
NEW DELHI 110012
Applications are invited for the posts of one Junior
Research Fellow and one RA in the DBT funded project entitled “ Plant parasitic nematode genome informatics - insilico resource development”. The project is for a period of three years.

Essential qualifications for JRF
: M. Sc. in Bioinformatics with experience in Proteomics, genomics and structural biology. Knowledge of programming language, pearl and database – HTML, CSS,php and Java script.
Essential qualifications for Research Associate:
MSc/MTech in Bioinformatics with three years experience or Ph.D in Bioinformatics with experience in proteomics, genomics and structural biology. Knowledge of programming language, perl and database
– HTML, CSS, Java script. NGS sequence assembly and analysis and algorithm designing.
Age limit : 35 years maximum (5 year relaxation for SC/ST and women candidates)
Emoluments:
JRF: 16,000 + 30% HRA
.
Res Assoc: Rs22,000 + 30% HRA
The post is purely temporary in nature and is co-terminus with the project. The appointment would be initially for one year and may be extended further upon satisfactory performance.
Interested candidates
should send the duly filled application forms (format in the following page ) so as to reach on or before 20.9.2014 along with all the relevant documents.

More at http://www.iari.res.in/files/JRF_RA-03092014-20140903-135319.pdf