Phylogenetic Footprinting: A Technique for Motif Discovery
by
Jai Modi
Computational Biology is the science of managing and analyzing
biological data using advanced computing techniques, and the use of such
data to make biological discoveries or predictions. One of the main
challenges facing biologists is to understand the complex mechanisms of
gene regulation. An important aspect of this challenge is the
identification of binding sites on the DNA for the proteins involved in
such regulation. Phylogenetic footprinting is an approach that predicts
binding sites by considering regulatory regions of a single gene from
multiple species. The objective of my research is to study the gene
regulation for S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (SAMS) in bacteria, using
the approach of phylogenetic footprinting. SAMS is a gene present in
organisms ranging from bacteria to humans, because of its central role
in the synthesis of methionine. Biologists are just beginning to
understand the complex story of the regulation of SAMS in bacteria.
Advised by Martin Tompa
EE1 037
Wednesday
April 14, 2004
3:30 - 4:20 pm