Event
Enabling Systems Biology

September 16, 2002 10:00 AM  to 
September 16, 2002 11:00 AM
NSF, Stafford II, Room 555, Arlington, VA

Lecturer: Dr. Gene Myers, Vice President of Informatics Research, Celera Genomics

Now that we have the genomes of human and mouse, and with many more on the way, the challenge becomes the interpretation of these genomes with the goal of understanding the first-order functioning of the cell. We survey the state of the art in both technology and computation with the conclusion that much more work is needed in both regards. Current post-genomic programs are not focused on the system as a whole, and the selection of genomes for comparative genomics has not been focused on understanding a given target genome. A coherent program based on the model organism Drosophila is outlined that promises to deliver an empirically verified and exhaustive annotation of the transcripts and cis-regulatory elements in the genome, and a set of clone and assay resources that will accelerate biologists ability to systematically elucidate the behavior of the cell including development, differentiation, and cell signaling.

About the Speaker:
Gene Myers is Vice President of Informatics Research at Celera Genomics where he has built an assembler for the whole-genome shotgun sequencing of the Drosophila, Human, and Mouse genomes, and is building next generation analysis software for these genomes. He is currently on leave from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Arizona where he has served on the faculty after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1981. His research interests include the design of algorithms, pattern matching, computer graphics, and computational molecular biology. Among the tools he has developed are Blast -- a widely used tool for protein similarity searches, FAKtory -- a system to support DNA sequencing projects, Anrep -- a pattern matching language for applications in molecular biology, and Mac- & PC-Molecule -- a molecular visualization tool for Apple and Wintel computers. Dr. Myers recently won the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for his contributions to computational molecular biology.

This event is part of Distinguished Lecture Series.

Meeting Type
Lecture

Contacts
Michael J. Pazzani, mpazzani@nsf.gov

NSF Related Organizations
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering