The importance of analyzing large data sets (e.g., RNAseq, ChIP-seq, genomic studies, etc) are increasingly used for a global analysis of molecular changes with age or with aging interventions. However, access to the bioinformatics and statistical expertise necessary to analyze and interpret these data can be rate-limiting for many investigators, especially junior investigators. Additionally, in the age of Big Data, there is a need to focus the development of bioinformatics methods that will help investigators answer aging-related questions. The goal of the GeroInformatics Core is to assist investigators in Oklahoma City and throughout the nation with bioinformatics and statistical analyses specifically designed for investigators studying aging questions. The Core will accomplish this goal using established bioinformatic methods for data analysis, statistical support for experimental design and analysis, as well as using novel and innovative approaches for data analysis developed by the GeroInformatics Core, specifically designed to analyze aging data bases. The GeroInformatics Core consists of established experts in bioinformatics methods development, statistics, and the molecular biology of aging. Besides established approaches for data analysis, the GeroInformatics Core has developed bioinformatics methods to interrogate large-scale data from different perspectives, such as literature-based networks of related entities (e.g., genes, diseases, metabolites, concepts), transcriptional correlations compiled from public data sources to compare new experiments against, and annotations of genomic regions to search for experimental commonalities. Because of the growing interest in the use of single-cell RNA-sequencing to study the effect of aging on individual cells from cell cultures or tissues and because of the lack of methods to critically analyze single-cell transcriptomic data, a new function of the GeroInformatics Core in this application is to develop methods to iteratively analyze single-cell transcriptomic data and make these novel analyses available to the aging community.
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