| Zhanxing Zhu and Ian Simpson |
| Tue 16 Feb 2016, 11:00 - 12:00 |
| IF Room 4.31/4.33 |
If you have a question about this talk, please contact: Gareth Beedham (v1gbeed2)
Maciej Pajak
"Beyond proteins - non-coding RNAs' regulatory role and computational tools"
Non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a broad term used to describe RNA molecules which get transcribed from genome but do not code for proteins, their functional role in regulatory processes attracted significant attention of experimental as well as computational research in recent years.
In this talk I will briefly introduce general landscape of computational methods for inference of function, structure, and evolutionary history of selected ncRNA classes.
I will focus on my work with two classes of ncRNA - microRNA (miRNA) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA): a Bioconductor R package facilitating miRNA workflows, and my current project on phylogenetic methods for miRNA and lncRNA.
Finally I will discuss how computational methods initially developed with proteins in mind may be adapted to ncRNAs and what is the biological relevance of this approach.
Ian Simpson
"Meta-genomics in animal health and disease"
The emergence of low cost high throughput DNA sequencing technologies has enabled a step-change in the way in which biological samples can be analysed. One such approach, meta-genomics, involves the sequencing of populations of DNA sequences representing many tens or hundreds of thousands of different organisms. Mapping of these sequence fragments to databases of organismal genome sequences allows for detailed characterisation of the distribution of species in any given sample. This approach is now widely used in environmental studies to catalogue microbial populations, and is increasingly being used to investigate both the mechanism and epidemiology of disease. In this talk I will introduce the field of meta-genomics, discuss emerging opportunities and challenges with illustrations from current and future projects in the group.