ABI: Novel Tools for the Analysis & Interpretation of Gene Signaling Pathways

Wayne State University, Detroit MI

Investigators

Abstract

Wayne State University is awarded a grant to develop new algorithms and methods for the analysis of gene signaling pathways. Using a systems biology approach, the project will perform an impact analysis that includes classic performance statistics but also considers other crucial factors that have been previously neglected, such as the magnitude of each gene's expression change, their significance, their position in the given pathways, their interactions, and the full topology of the pathway. Preliminary work shows that the classical analysis can produce both false positives and false negatives while the proposed impact analysis can provide biologically meaningful results. The methods will be tested and validated in terms of the distribution of the p-values under the null hypothesis, as well as in a number of real biological problems. The validation will be done both in-house, as well as through a number of external collaborations. Members of under-represented groups will be involved in many aspects of this project through collaborations established with Douglass College and Renaissance High School. Douglass College is a undergraduate women's college at Rutgers University. Two annual visits to Douglass will present this research to their undergraduates with a view towards attracting some of them to graduate careers in this area, addressing the need for more women in computer science. Renaissance High School is a minority high-school in Detroit, MI. This project will include a series of lectures for the Renaissance students, as well as competitive summer internships that will involve these high-school students in hands-on research with the goal of enticing them to pursue careers in science. This project is expected to enhance the national education and research infrastructure by providing web-based software implementations of the new algorithms and methods developed as well as by contributing to the establishment of a national repository of bioinformatics education materials. The results of this project will be broadly disseminated by providing: i) a web interface to all tools developed during this project, and ii) by regular scientific communications in journals and conferences. More information about this project will be available through the PI's lab website at http://vortex.cs.wayne.edu/index.html .