Life Sciences Commons^™

Short Courses: Flexible Learning Opportunities In Informatics, Amy Olex, Aaron R. Wolen, Julie Arendt, Karen H. Gau, F. Gerard Moeller

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

In today’s fast-paced, data-driven world, researchers need to have a good foundation in informatics to store, organize, process, and analyze growing amounts of data. However, not all degree programs offer such training. Obtaining training in informatics on your own can be a daunting task for both new and established researchers who have little informatics experience. Providing educational opportunities appropriate for various skill levels and that mesh with a full-time schedule can remove barriers and foster a collaborative, informatics-savvy community that is better equipped to push science forward.

To enhance informatics education in bioinformatics, VCUs Wright Center for Clinical and Translational …

An Interdisciplinary Approach To The Target Elucidation Of Novel Antibiotic 31g12, Larissa A. Walker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive bacterial pathogen responsible for nosocomial and community-acquired infections that can quickly acquire antibiotic resistance. We have identified a novel triazole antimicrobial 31G12 based on the natural product core of nonactin isolated from the fermentation of Streptomyces griseus, that is active against many Gram-positive bacteria as well as antibiotic resistant methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus. The synthesis and characterization indicate that 31G12 exists as a mixture of two rotamers at room temperature and displays bacteriostatic activity against S. aureus with moderate mammalian cell toxicity. We have currently identified potential protein targets of 31G12 in …

Discovering Driver Mutations In Biological Data, Yahya Bokhari

Theses and Dissertations

Background

Somatic mutations accumulate in human cells throughout life. Some may have no adverse consequences, but some of them may lead to cancer. A cancer genome is typically unstable, and thus more mutations can accumulate in the DNA of cancer cells. An ongoing problem is to figure out which mutations are drivers - play a role in oncogenesis, and which are passengers - do not play a role. One way of addressing this question is through inspection of somatic mutations in DNA of cancer samples from a cohort of patients and detection of patterns that differentiate driver from passenger mutations. …

Scalable Feature Selection And Extraction With Applications In Kinase Polypharmacology, Derek Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

In order to reduce the time associated with and the costs of drug discovery, machine learning is being used to automate much of the work in this process. However the size and complex nature of molecular data makes the application of machine learning especially challenging. Much work must go into the process of engineering features that are then used to train machine learning models, costing considerable amounts of time and requiring the knowledge of domain experts to be most effective. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate data driven approaches to perform the feature selection and extraction steps in …