Differential co-expression in DNA microarray data and it's application to animal health

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Many of the interactions between the host and pathogen during infection and disease occur at the molecular or cellular level. DNA, RNA and protein molecules, from both host and pathogen, all interact with one another to create the disease and the host immune response, both of which are interesting to investigate. Techniques developed over the last ten years now enable us to measure the quantities of these molecules that are present in any given biological sample. By carefully designing experiments involving both host and pathogen, both before and after infection, we can gather data on the differences between these states in terms of the biologically important molecules which are present. Combining data from these various experiments in order to infer how these molecules interact is a large challenge which will require skills in computing, mathematics and statistics. Recent publications, including one by the author of this proposal, have shown that analysing when and where these moelcules interact (termed co-expression) leads to new information regarding the mechanism of disease and the host immune response. We intend to develop and apply these techniques to data gathered at the institute for animal health on important farm animal diseases, in an attempt to understand infection, disease and the host immune response.