Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2006

White Robert A, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

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.