Colloquium Mathematics, Dr. Maria Colomé Tatché

Join us for coffee and tea at 15.30 p.m.

Date:                        Tuesday, January 28^th 2014
Speaker:                   Maria Colomé Tatché, ERIBA| European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing
                                 University of Groningen
Room:                       5161.0293 (Bernoulliborg)
Time:                        16.00

Title: Detection of genome-wide combinatorial epigenetic states

Abstract:

Epigenetics is the study of stable changes in gene expression that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic factors are for example responsible for making a skin cell look different from a brain cell, even though both cells have the same DNA sequence. The best-known epigenetic factors are DNA-methylation (addition of a methyl group to a cytosine nucleotide) and post-transcriptional modifications of histone proteins. The unique assembly and distribution of these epigenetic factors along the genome gives rise to specific gene expression programs that define the functional state of a cell. Next generation sequencing technologies allow us to measure the presence or absence of these epigenetic marks genome-wide. However, the statistical analysis and integration of these data is currently one of the major bottlenecks in computational biology.

In my talk I will outline our strategy for the genome-wide mapping of combinatorial epigenetic states based on multivariate Hidden Markov Models. This approach takes next generation sequencing data collected from different histone modifications as inputs and constructs well-defined sets of combinatorial states, which can be used for downstream functional analysis. Our method promises to deepen our basic understanding of the molecular processes underlying genome regulation.

Colloquium coordinators are Prof.dr. A.C.D. van Enter (e-mail : A.C.D.van.Enter@rug.nl) and Dr. A.V. Kiselev (e-mail: a.v.kiselev rug.nl )

http://www.rug.nl/research/jbi/news/colloquia/mathematics-colloquia/