^{Genomics and Molecular Biology}

Biography

Biography: Laila Alves Nahum

Abstract

The availability of genomic data provides an opportunity to understand parasite biology and to identify new drug candidates against neglected diseases aff ecting millions of people worldwide. Functional annotation of genomes, transcriptomes and predicted proteomes is one of the major challenges in sequencing projects. We address this challenge by applying an evolutionary framework to the interpretation of sequence data. Our research projects have been focused on the analyses of distinct protein families in helminths (Schistosoma and others) and protozoans (Leishmania, Trypanosoma, and Plasmodium), which cause a broad range of diseases. Th ese protein families include mainly protein kinases, protein deacetylases, and proteases. Potential homologues in the predicted proteomes of selected taxa are identifi ed by using hidden Markov model profi les. Evolutionary relationships of protein sequences are reconstructed by two character-based methods (Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood). Evolutionary trees are annotated with taxonomic and experimental information based on the scientifi c literature. Our work improves functional annotation of genes and proteins of diverse parasites and their homologues in humans. Furthermore, our work potentially identifi es molecular biomarkers with various applications.