The structure of RNA is an important key to its function—including its role in disease. However, the structure of most RNAs is unknown because their extreme flexibility and high charge...
Mar, 01, 2009
Describing information flow within cells
Like corporate and governmental organizations, cells rely on middle managers to keep things running smoothly. These “middle managers” function as a critical bridge that controls the flow...
Jun, 01, 2010
Automated Function Prediction conference launches a new field
At the birth of a new field, a conference can act as a midwife, making sure the infant enters the world smoothly. Such was the case for the Automated Function Prediction (AFP) conference held at the...
Jan, 01, 2007
Ecce Homology is a physically interactive new-media work that visualizes genetic data as calligraphic forms.
A group of artists and scientists has created an interactive artwork using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), one of the foundational algorithms for comparative genomics. Normally, the BLAST...
Sep, 01, 2005
Computation offers a window into a disease often described as a black box
The growing threats of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) are spurring worldwide interest in faster and more innovative research approaches, such as...
Jun, 06, 2012
Bringing models closer to reality
When the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia launched on January 16, 2003, a large piece of foam fell off and hit the left wing. Alerted of the impact, NASA engineers used a computer model to predict...
Oct, 19, 2012
Researchers have designed a protein that, in computer simulations, induces other proteins to misfold
Inside a live cell, strings of amino acids instantaneously fold into proteins with very specific shapes. Typically, no harm is done if a protein somehow folds into an unconventional configuration....
Sep, 01, 2005
The study of HIV evolution is not only critical to fighting the virus; it has also driven advances in the computational tools used to study evolution in general.
When Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, it would be decades before HIV would jump from monkeys to humans and set off a devastating worldwide pandemic. But evolution is at the heart of...
Jul, 01, 2009
An exploration of data-driven and process-driven approaches to data privacy
Trust. It’s the basis of every patient/physician interaction: Shared personal health information is kept confidential and used only for the patient’s benefit. It’s a tradition that...
Jan, 02, 2012
The complexity and variability of aging itself, along with the fragmented nature of researchers’ current understanding of aging, call for tools that can help scientists dig through mounds of data to find often subtle connections.
Jeanne Louise Calment of Arles, France rode a bicycle until she was 100 years old. When she gave up smoking at age 117, her doctor suspected it was out of pride. (She couldn’t see well enough...
Apr, 01, 2008