Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2006

这一行动为NSF 2006财年生物信息学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持生物学与信息科学、计算科学、数学科学和统计科学交叉的博士后水平的研究和培训。该研究金的目标是为一名青年科学家提供培训，为从事生物信息学的职业做准备，在生物信息学中将把研究和教育结合起来。在所有职业层面上，对生物信息学的培训的需求越来越大，预计通过这些奖学金培训的研究员将在培训未来的劳动力方面发挥重要作用。该奖学金的研究和培训计划题为“通过跟踪共同进化模式，发现细菌用来感知环境的识别代码”。细菌具有多个双组分信号通路，负责环境刺激引起的适应性变化。这一过程的中心磷酸转移需要精确的蛋白质对接，而多条通路的存在要求结构相似的信号对只与它们的同源伙伴对接。通过研究1000多个功能对的共同进化模式，本研究调查了这些限制是如何被大自然满足的，然后利用这些知识构建了一个工具来预测未知的功能对。生物信息学工具的相关性将依赖于对200多个测序细菌基因组的结构数据、蛋白质组数据的同化，以及这些途径的生化和生物学特征的详细知识。通过与主办实验室的生物化学家和生物学家合作，这位研究员获得了一种视角，这将丰富他从信息学角度为工作生物学家做出贡献的能力，并使他能够积极参与未来不同专业领域的综合。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2006. The fellowship supports research and training at the postdoctoral level at the intersection of biology and the informational, computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences. The goal of the fellowship is to provide training to a young scientist in preparation for a career in biological informatics in which research and education will be integrated. There is an increasing need for training in biological informatics at all occupational levels, and it is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training the future workforce.The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "Discovering the recognition code bacteria use to sense their environment by tracking co-evolutionary patterns." Bacteria posses multiple two-component signaling pathways that are responsible for adaptive change due to environmental stimuli. The phospho-transfer central to this process requires precise protein docking, while the presence of multiple pathways requires that the structurally similar signaling pairs only dock with their cognate partners. By studying co-evolutionary patterns in over 1000 functional pairs, this research investigates how these constraints have been met by nature and then uses this knowledge to construct a tool to enable prediction of unknown functional pairs.The relevance of the bioinformatic tool will rely on the assimilation of structural data, proteomic data of over 200 sequenced bacterial genomes, and detailed knowledge of the biochemical and biological characteristics of these pathways. In working with biochemists and biologists at the host lab, the Fellow is gaining a perspective that will enrich his ability to contribute to working biologists from an informatics perspective and allow him to actively participate in the synthesis of diverse areas of expertise in the future.