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This course is a short series of lectures on Statistical Bioinformatics. Topics covered are listed in the Table of Contents. The notes were preparedby Ewa Paszek, Lukasz Wita and Marek Kimmel. The development of this course has been supported by NSF 0203396 grant.

Introduction

A central goal of molecular biology is to understand the regulation of protein synthesis and its reactions to external and internal signals. All the cells in an organism carry the same genomic data, yet their protein makeup can be drastically different both temporally and spatially, due to regulation. Protein synthesis is regulated by many mechanisms at its different stages. These include mechanisms for controlling transcription initiation, RNA splicing, mRNA transport, translation initiation, post-translational modifications, and degradation of mRNA/protein. One of the main junctions at which regulation occurs is mRNA transcription. A major role in this machinery is played by proteins themselves that bind to regulatory regions along the DNA, greatly affecting the transcription of the genes they regulate.In recent years, technical breakthroughs in spotting hybridization probes and advances in genome sequencing efforts lead to development of DNA microarrays, which consist of many species of probes, either oligonucleotides or cDNA, that are immobilized in a predefined organization to a solid phase. By using DNA microarrays, researchers are now able to measure the abundance of thousands of mRNA targets simultaneously ( DeRisi et al.,1997 ; Lockhart et al., 1996; Wen et al., 1998). Unlike classical experiments, where the expression levels of only a few genes were reported, DNA microarray experiments can measure all the genes of an organism, providing a“genomic”viewpoint on gene expression. As a consequence, this technology facilitates new experimental approaches for understanding gene expression and regulation (Iyer et al., 1999; Spellman et al., 1998).

A central focus of genomic research concerns understanding the manner in which cells execute and control the enormous number of operations required for their function. Biological systems behave in an exceedingly parallel and extraordinarily integrated fashion. Feedback and damping are routine even for the most common activities. Thus, in this area of genomic biology, single gene perspectives are becoming increasingly limited for gaining insight into biological processes. Network applications are becoming increasingly important for making progress in our understanding of the manner in which genes and molecules collectively form a biological system and harnessing this understanding in educated intervention for correcting human diseases. Such approaches inevitably require computational and formal methods to process massive amounts of data, understand general principles governing the system under study, and make useful predictions about system behavior in the presence of known conditions. There is a rather wide spectrum of approaches for modeling gene regulatory networks, each with its own assumptions, data requirements, and goals. The group of the most popular models includes: Boolean, Probabilistic Boolean and Bayesian networks.

Questions & Answers

what is mutation
Janga Reply
what is a cell
Sifune Reply
how is urine form
Sifune
what is antagonism?
mahase Reply
classification of plants, gymnosperm features.
Linsy Reply
what is the features of gymnosperm
Linsy
how many types of solid did we have
Samuel Reply
what is an ionic bond
Samuel
What is Atoms
Daprince Reply
what is fallopian tube
Merolyn
what is bladder
Merolyn
what's bulbourethral gland
Eduek Reply
urine is formed in the nephron of the renal medulla in the kidney. It starts from filtration, then selective reabsorption and finally secretion
onuoha Reply
State the evolution relation and relevance between endoplasmic reticulum and cytoskeleton as it relates to cell.
Jeremiah
what is heart
Konadu Reply
how is urine formed in human
Konadu
how is urine formed in human
Rahma
what is the diference between a cavity and a canal
Pelagie Reply
what is the causative agent of malaria
Diamond
malaria is caused by an insect called mosquito.
Naomi
Malaria is cause by female anopheles mosquito
Isaac
Malaria is caused by plasmodium Female anopheles mosquitoe is d carrier
Olalekan
a canal is more needed in a root but a cavity is a bad effect
Commander
what are pathogens
Don Reply
In biology, a pathogen (Greek: πάθος pathos "suffering", "passion" and -γενής -genēs "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is anything that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term pathogen came into use in the 1880s.[1][2
Zainab
A virus
Commander
Definition of respiration
Muhsin Reply
respiration is the process in which we breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide
Achor
how are lungs work
Commander
where does digestion begins
Achiri Reply
in the mouth
EZEKIEL
what are the functions of follicle stimulating harmones?
Rashima Reply
stimulates the follicle to release the mature ovum into the oviduct
Davonte
what are the functions of Endocrine and pituitary gland
Chinaza
endocrine secrete hormone and regulate body process
Achor
while pituitary gland is an example of endocrine system and it's found in the Brain
Achor
what's biology?
Egbodo Reply
Biology is the study of living organisms, divided into many specialized field that cover their morphology, physiology,anatomy, behaviour,origin and distribution.
Lisah
biology is the study of life.
Alfreda
Biology is the study of how living organisms live and survive in a specific environment
Sifune
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Source:  OpenStax, Introduction to bioinformatics. OpenStax CNX. Oct 09, 2007 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10240/1.3
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