Bioinformatics data and techniques

Content:
In the first lecture by Dr.Dinu, the various kinds of bioinformatics data – genome, proteome, metabolome and transcriptome were discussed. The “ Central Dogma of Life” which involves the conversion of DNA to mRNA(transcription) ,which is in turn converted to protein (translation) is described and its relevance in obtaining various sources of “-omic” data is elaborated. Biomarkers for various diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, alzheimer’s disease were also discussed.

In the second lecture, various techniques that could be used to analyse the bioinformatics data to understand the disease processes were discussed. These techniques include biomarker tests, machine learning approaches like clustering, decision trees, classification, regression and statistical tests of significance like T-test, Chi square test, odds ratio. Pair wise sequence alignment using BLAST (several versions-protein blast, nucleotide blast, blastx, tblastn) and global alignment using dynamic approaches are of significant importance in genomic studies.

Both the lectures gave a good understanding of various concepts and tools in bioinformatics and possible areas of research emphasis.

Posted by
Harsha Undapalli