IU science center celebrates 5 years of research

IU's Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics celebrated five years of research, including projects aimed to eventually shed light on the evolutionary process and pinpoint causes of contamination in freshwater sources in the United States, with an inaugural symposium Friday afternoon in Jordan Hall. \nThe CGB began as a research center designed to study genomics, the study of genomes (complete gene sets for a particular species) and bioinformatics, the intersection of microbiology and computer science. It has grown through cross-disciplinary collaboration and support from the biology department and School of Informatics to include 30 programmers and full-time scientists in addition to an administrative staff of three. \nCGB is beginning to raise Indiana's prominence in the field of Genomics and Bioinformatics due to its success obtaining grants the past five years from the Indiana Genomics Initiative, the Eli Lilly Endowment and others.\nFriday's symposium highlighted current research projects undertaken by the CGB. Among these was the study of arthropods (insects and their relatives), a current hot topic in genomics. Arthropods are of particular interest because of the amount of diversity within the group and the belief that they make up a singular evolutionary family. By studying their differing genomes, researchers predict more can be learned about the evolutionary process. \nSpecifically, the center's researchers have studied the species Drosophilia, a flightless fruit fly, and Daphnia, a small crustacean known to some as a "water flea." \nThe Daphnia project is the first crustacean genome project and Daphnia are used to determine the health of the freshwater habitat they live in. By understanding the workings of Daphnia's genomes, researchers in the future might be able to pinpoint the specific cause of contamination in streams, rivers and ponds across the country.\n"Daphnia occur all over the world. They live in freshwater environments everywhere," said Peter Cherbas, biology professor and CGB director.\nAnother successful project of the CBG, in conjunction with the biology department's Rieseberg Lab, was the first genome mapping of a species of sunflower. Zhao Lai, a CBG staff scientist, spoke on the development of sunflower genomics resources at the symposium.\nBioinformatics also plays a key role in the CGB projects, and Informatics professors Sun Kim and Haixu Tang are having considerable success developing this area. Kim, who developed a software that aids in the study of genomics, is one of the professors who has been working with the CGB since its inception. \n"One of the very nice things about this program has been the interactions between the two schools and (Kim) was a part of that from the beginning," Cherbas said.\nTang is currently studying computer-generated models of ribonucleic acid, which will aid drug companies attempting to understand the true structure of RNA in the human system. \nComputers and informatics are also central in the work of the CGB. \n"The spirit of informatics is that computer science plays an important role in every discipline. Computers are everywhere," Kim said.\nIn the coming years, the CGB hopes to expand its research even further. This will be aided by its move into the new Simon Hall, which is currently under construction behind Myers Hall. \n"We will also be able to keep some of the space we are currently using," Cherbas said.\nMost likely, the CGB will generate much discussion in years to come.