AG BIODV - Applied Bioinformatics
Head of the group:
Dr. Ralf Schneider
The AG BIODV (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Biologische Datenverarbeitung) develops strategies and software for the analysis and description of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory elements and regulatory networks. The knowledge about these elements and networks is essential to fully understand the processes involved in mammalian development and pathogenesis.
We therefore join forces and collaborate with bioinformatics and experimental groups (“Wet lab”) on the national and the international level. The interdisciplinary cooperation is of mutual benefit, since it leads to the generation of new hypotheses, improves the experimental design as well as strategy and program development.
Using this approach we have developed strategies that identified and characterised two functionally antagonistic post-transcriptional control elements (RTE and INS) and were able to verify our in silico predictions.
We have developed the literature data mining tool, LitMiner, that scans PubMed abstracts for gene-gene relationships, annotates and extracts to fill a database with regulatory key players (genes, proteins) of gene expression.
The LitMiner system was used to generate a primary gene list for the analysis of the disease related regulatory network of MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young). This list initiated the devlopement of a new strategy that involves promoter-modelling which allowed reconstruction of the regulatory MODY network and the identification of potentially co-regulated genes.