Dr. David Gilbert

City University, London
European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge
Department of Biochemistry at University College London

Introduction to Bioinformatics

Abstract

Bioinformatics can be defined as the application of techniques from computer science to solve problems in molecular biology. In these lectures, I will introduce the topic (assuming no prior biological knowledge), give a classification of the problem areas which bioinformatics addresses, and illustrate these in detail with examples. Topics covered will include: Biological background: DNA, RNA, protein structure, metabolism, evolution. Computational techniques: search, pattern matching & discovery, comparison and alignments on sequences and structures, dynamic programming techniques, probability matrices; hidden markov models. Structure prediction. Biochemical networks. Gene expression analysis. Evolution & phylogenetic trees. Databases and tools for bioinformatics.

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Materials

See pointers at http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~drg/bioinformatics

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About the Speaker

Dr. David Gilbert is a a Reader in Bioinformatics in the Department of Computing, and leader of the of the Bioinformatics Research Group.

His primary research interest is the application of constraint solving techniques (within the framework of logic programming) to problems in Bioinformatics. His focus is on the use of constraints in pattern-based search and analysis of Bioinformatics databases (genomic, proteomic and metabolic), and interactive visualisation and exploration of biological data.
He is a Visiting Research Fellow at the European Bioinformatics Institute, and has a home page there where you can read about his research into protein topology and see the main page of the project on metabolic pathways in which he is involved as a collaborator. He runs a topology-based protein structure comparison service at EBI. More information on his activities in Bioinformatics can be found at http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~drg/bioinformatics/drg-bioinformatics.html.

He is on a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship for 6 months from 1 August 2000, investigating pattern discovery for protein classification. The project is based in the Biomolecular Structure and Modelling group in the Department of Biochemistry, University College London.

Other research interests include semantics of interaction and distributed computations, agents, and the application of computational logic and constraint technology to the design and construction of software systems.

His hobbies include ceramics and photography.

E-mail: drg@soi.city.ac.uk
URL: http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~drg