NSF funds Expresso project, a bioinformatics col...( BLACKSBURG VA. Oct. 26 2001A multidi...)

The award supports the further design and implementation of Expresso a sophisticated computational system for microarray bioinformatics. Microarrays (sometimes called DNA chips) are an approach to studying simultaneously the expression of hundreds or thousands of genes in a given organism.

The funded project will address all stages involved in microarray experiments design, processing, analysis, and interpretation of the biological results. Expresso's design automates many of the tedious methodological aspects of conducting microarray experiments and analyzing subsequent data. It will serve as a tool of powerful synergy between traditional laboratory work and the high-level goals of experimental biologists. The grant project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and biologists, who will use the developed management infrastructure of the Expresso software to conduct their investigations.

According to two of the investigators for the grant, Naren Ramakrishnan and Lenwood S. Heath of Virginia Techs computer science department, Expresso is a software system that can be used to conduct a variety of experimental biology research projects. For example, with colleagues at North Carolina State University, the group is using microarrays and Expresso to identify genes that allow Loblolly Pine trees to resist periods of drought. The result will be hardier pine trees that will be economically valuable for the forest industry, the researchers said.

Also, with Malcolm Potts of biochemistry and Rich Helm of wood science and forest products, both at Virginia Tech, the researchers are analyzing microarray data from both bacteria and human tissue to identify genes whose expression changes in the face of
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Contact: Dr. Naren Ramakrishnan
naren@vt.edu
540-231-8451
Virginia Tech
26-Oct-2001