Genomics & Computational Biology: an REU Site

基因组学和计算生物学的实践研究将从全国范围内招募的 10 名参与者从代表性不足的群体带到佐治亚大学，在那里他们将与一个已建立的跨学科团队进行互动，该团队致力于识别基本过程的生物回路，并通过将它们拟合到基因组数据来验证这些生物回路。 自从 60 年前发现 DNA 作为遗传物质以来，生物学家一直在越来越精细地分解生命系统，直到我们能够确定许多生物体的完整遗传蓝图。 新千年的挑战是“重新组装碎片”，即从基因组转向生命。 重新组装各个部分的一种方法是借用计算机科学中的一个比喻：描述细胞行为的整个化学反应网络是一个生物回路。 该基因组学和计算生物学项目的主题是“计算生命”，即识别碳代谢等基本过程的生物回路，并通过将它们拟合到描述细胞正在做什么的基因组数据（即RNA和蛋白质分析数据）来验证这些生物回路（PNAS 99：16904-16909（2002））。 欲了解更多信息，请联系 lindalee@uga.edu 或访问 http://gene.genics.uga.edu/stc。 该网站由国防部与 NSF REU 计划合作支持

Hands-on research in Genomics and Computational Biology will bring 10 participants recruited nationally from underrepresented groups to UGA, where they will interact with an established interdisciplinary team working on identifying biological circuits for fundamental processes and validating these biological circuits by fitting them to genomics data. Since the discovery of DNA as the genetic material 60 years ago, biologists have been taking apart living systems on a finer and finer scale until we have been able to determine the complete genetic blueprint of many organisms. The challenge of the new millennium is "reassembling the pieces", i.e., moving from genomes to life. One approach to reassembling the pieces is to borrow a metaphor from computer science: the entire chemical reaction network describing what a cell does is a biological circuit. The theme for this genomics and computational biology program is "computing life", i.e., identifying biological circuits for fundamental processes like carbon metabolism and validating these biological circuits by fitting them to genomics data describing what the cell is doing (i.e., RNA and protein profiling data) (PNAS 99: 16904-16909 (2002)). For more information contact lindalee@uga.edu or visit http://gene.genetics.uga.edu/stc. This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program