Title: Algorithms for Integrating Big “Omic” Data to Understand Complex Diseases
Speaker: Mehmet Koyuturk, T. & D. Schroeder Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Abstract: In the study of biological systems, many phenotypes, i.e., observed differences between the behavior of different organisms, are complex – that is, they are based on a set of complex interactions between multiple genetic and environmental factors. Recent technological innovations enable interrogation of biological systems at multiple levels, offering valuable types of “big data” representing various aspects of cellular systems. These data types include sequences and structures of genes, RNAs, proteins, quantitative measurements on the abundance of these molecules under different conditions, and the interactions among these molecules.
However, these data are highly heterogeneous, noisy, and often provide static representations of a complex and dynamic system. In this talk, we investigate how these useful, yet limited sources of biological data are integrated through innovative use of computational approaches to gain insights on the molecular mechanisms of complex phenotypes. In particular, we discuss how the data on protein interaction networks can be used to provide a functional context for the interpretation of molecular data, with the aim of identifying disease markers for effective diagnosis and prognosis, as well as targets for therapeutic intervention.
Speaker Bio: Mehmet Koyutürk is Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University. He also serves as the Co-Director of Systems Biology at the Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics at Case School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2006. His research mainly focuses on the analysis of biological networks, systems biology of complex diseases, and computational genomics. He has published around 60 papers in various computational and biological journals and conferences, has served on the organizing and program committees of many conferences on bioinformatics and computational biology, including ISMB, RECOMB, and ACM-BCB, and currently serves as an associate editor for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB) and EURASIP Journal on Bioinformatics for Systems Biology. Mehmet received an NSF CAREER Award in 2010.