Functional Genomics

Catalog description

Biochemical, genetic and evolutionary approaches to comprehensive discovery of functional DNA segments in genomes, including genes and regulatory sequences. BMB 484 Functional Genomics (3) What in your genomic DNA makes you different from chimpanzees, mice or flies? What sequences in your DNA make it more or less likely that you will develop diabetes or cancer? These are questions of widespread interest, answers to which could play major roles in personalized medicine and in understanding our place in the biosphere. Modern genomic analysis uses powerful technologies and generates massive amounts of data, which are yielding exciting insights into answering these questions. One hallmark of genomic research is that data are released rapidly along with tools for browsing and analyzing it. Thus not only can you learn the major results by reading papers, but you can examine the underlying data and do your own analyses. Discovery is no longer the exclusive domain of the data producers - you can join in!This course will introduce students to ongoing research aimed at identifying functional regions in genomes and encourage them to use web-based bioinformatics tools for exploring the genomic and epigenetic data. Students will develop creative projects that address issues in functional genomics of high interest to them.The course has two phases, the first on the basics of genomics (sequencing, alignment, assembly, resources), and the second on the search for functional elements in genomes. The course will explore ways to find:- Protein-coding genes within genomes- Transcribed regions: How much of the genome is transcribed? Which transcribed regions do not code for proteins? What roles do they play in the cell (regulatory and enzymatic)?- Evolutionary signatures of function: How can you use genome comparisons between species to estimate the amount of functional sequence - and to identify it?- Non-genic functional sequences: How do you map epigenetic features associated with gene regulation, such as histone modifications, DNase hypersensitive sites, and transcription factor occupancy?- Function by phenotype: Given the ability of genetic association to find loci that contribute to complex traits, such as disease susceptibility, how does functional genomics aid in finding basis of these traits?