Center for Clinical and Translational Science

February 10th 2011 marked the first meeting of the campus-wide collaborative group for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics. Since the inaugural meeting, the group has assembled bimonthly for interesting presentations given by invited guest speakers and lively discussion on the relevant topic of the day. The groups’ mission is to provide a platform where interested professionals can share new ideas and “problem solve” in a friendly collegial environment.  Even though it is a relatively new field, Bioinformatics’ breadth, complexity, and rapid growth is extraordinary. As a result, it is timely to have a group of investigators on campus who share in the enthusiasm to use bioinformatics/biostatistics to unlock the mysteries of biological science.

The group will also play a crucial role in planning for the “data tsunami” ensuing from the new generation of “omics” data. The groups’ name reflects the need for seamless integration of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics to most effectively advance the scientific mission.
At the group’s meeting on October 21st, Dr. Chaolin Zhang from the laboratory of Dr. Robert Darnell presented details of the bioinformatics processing involved in the HITS-CLIP techniques of Protein-RNA interaction analysis. CLIP stands for Cross Linking and ImmunoPrecipitation while HITS stands for HIgh Throughput Sequencing. This methodology has greatly improved our understanding of the role RNA binding proteins in biology and disease. The Darnell lab has studied the role of the Nova protein in alternative splicing and brain regulation by analyzing RNA sequences at single nucleotide resolution from RNA bound to the Nova protein. The presentation highlighted the novel bioinformatics/biostatistics methods developed and applied by Dr. Zhang.

The collaborative group’s efforts are just beginning and they are expected to expand by exploring numerous ‘cutting edge’ bioinformatics and biostatistics techniques, algorithms, and applications to advance Rockefeller science.  All individuals on campus with an interest in bioinformatics or biostatistics are welcome to join the group. Please contact Ed Barbour at ebarbour@rockefeller.edu to be added to the list of invitees for upcoming meetings.