BioInformatics

Bioinformatics is the application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology. This term was coined by Paulien Hogeweg and Ben Hesper for the study of informatic processes in biotic systems.

Bioinformatics now entails the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data. Common activities in bioinformatics include mapping and analyzing DNA and protein sequences, aligning different DNA and protein sequences to compare them and creating and viewing 3-D models of protein structures.

We are working in two fields of Bioinformatics: Biological methodology of elucidation of new antimicrobial and other agents

Biological methodology of elucidation of new antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antitumour, antiparasitic, and hemolytic) and other agents are developed. Natural oligopeptides (consisted of from 2 to ~50 amino acid residues) are chosen for this. The data of the public and special databases, containing uncharacterized/unnamed amino acid residue sequences, our EROP-Moscow (Endogenous Regulatory OligoPeptides) database as well as special computer programs can be used for this work. All amino acid residue sequences of uncharacterized sequences and of all known oligopeptides of EROP-Moscow database are compared in this way. The research is focused on animal and plant food which are relevant for the Chilean economy (grapes, avocado, salmon and others).

Fragmentomics: elucidation of physiologically active fragments of proteins. Natural fragmentation of peptide and other chemical structures is well known. They are a significant object of biochemical investigations. Thereupon, the bases and determination are given for the notion of the “fragmentome” as a set of all fragments of a single substance, as well as for global fragmentome of all chemical components of living organisms. It is described how protein-peptide fragments are formed in nature, what experimental and theoretical methods are used for their investigation, as well as mathematical characteristics of fragmentomes. Individual fragmentomes of food proteins (e.g., hemoglobin and casein) are considered in detail. Structural and functional variety of its possible fragments was revealed by computer analysis. Formation in an organism of an exogenous–endogenous pool of oligopeptides and correlation of these data with concepts of structure–functional continuum of regulatory molecules is shown on an example of food protein fragments. Possible practical importance of the use of natural fragments in dietology, therapy, as well as in sanitary hygiene and cosmetics is noted.

Current results are:

  • FONDEF project G09i1007, “Desarrollo y aplicación de herramientas de genómica e ingeniería genética para potenciar el fitomejoramiento de vides de mesa”, main developer is INIA
  • Publications and presentations in scientific meetings

Bioinformatics Team: