Bioinformatics

Modern population genetics and system biology approaches use technology platforms that generate vast amount of data. In the bioinformatics group we face the challenge to combine and make use of data generated from several different experiments and platforms, for instance mRNA expression levels, genotypes, epigenetic data and ChIP-on-chip results. We also integrate information from publicly available databases with our data.

Central to our task is the creation and maintenance of a database that can store and query these different datasets in a unified manner. The aim is to provide a means for LUDC researchers to easily obtain valuable information from the database. The present focus is to set up the structure for data generated from the Tissue lab.

We are also working on projects to combine the information gathered from expression arrays with SNP (array) and/or other phenotype data. Within this framework we are interested in tools that identify regulatory DNA regions that modulate gene activity, tools that estimate/impute a putative functional role of a particular genetic variant and tools that identify functional networks of genes/proteins. The aim is to set up models that explain observed changes in expression levels and to estimate the impact of genetic components in these models.