| Title: | The Inference of Gene Regulatory Interactions and Gene Networks from Expression Data |
| Date: |
November 24, 2005 (Thursday)
|
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
|
| Venue: |
Room 121, 1/F, Ho Sin-hang Engineering Building,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T. |
| Speaker: |
Prof. Alan Wee-Chung Liew
Department of Computer Science and Engineering The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
The inference of gene network is an important problem in bioinformatics. Gene networks describe functional pathways in a given cell or tissue, representing processes such as metabolism, gene regulation, transport and signal transduction. Most gene regulatory networks involve many components (DNA, RNA, proteins, and small molecules) connected in a complex manner with positive and negative feedback loops. Large scale high throughput technology such as microarray gene expression analysis has opened up the possibility to study such complex interactions. However, even with such technology, the problem is still hard to tackle.
In this seminar, I will present a survey of research efforts in this area. Many techniques for gene network inferences have been proposed, and they range from physical modeling of the dynamic biochemical processes by non-linear differential equations to highly abstract Boolean networks that only hope to qualitatively capture the high level functions of the process. Recently, powerful probabilistic modeling of gene networks using graphical models has gained popularity. I will discuss several such graphical models that so far have shown some degree of success. Nevertheless, even with such sophisticated probabilistic models, the degree of inference is not very high. I will conclude the seminar with some discussions about possible research directions in this open area.
BIOGRAPHY:
ALAN WEE-CHUNG LIEW is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His current research interest is in bioinformatics, in particular, the inference of gene regulatory networks from expression data.
Enquiries: Miss Temmy So at tel 2609 8444
For more information, please refer to http://www.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/seminar