This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Research Statement I am a professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey where I teach Genetics. I taught an advanced undergraduate course in Bioinformatics during the Spring Semester 2001-2002. It was a hands-on course covering most major aspects of Bioinformatics (such as nucleic acid sequences [DNA and RNA] and amino acid sequences [proteins]; RNA and protein structures; evolutionary conservation, phylogenetic trees, and classification of organisms and patterns of gene expression, functional interactions between molecules, an metabolic pathways; among others). The course was taught in Spanish in the computer facility at UPR-Cayey to 12 undergraduate students and provided them with the concepts and skills necessary to critically evaluate and effectively use biological information. The course requirements included individual studen research projects in Bioinformatics. Scientists from NCBI offered two additional workshops at UPR that were included as part of the course (Advanced BLAST [Dr. Peter Cooper] and Structural Analysis and Protein Modeling [Dr. David Wheeler]). Planning and teaching this Bioinformatics course was a rewarding experience for me. One of my current research projects carried out i conjunction with mentoring undergraduate students at UPR-Cayey involves characterizing gene families in the Rhesus monkey, Macaca mulatta . Conserved protein domains characteristic of gene families (such as homeo box genes, metalloprotease disintegrins, ABC transporters, potassium and calcium ion channels, and synaptic vesicle proteins) were used to design PCR primers for amplification of gene fragments from Rhesus genomic DNA. These PCR products were subsequently cloned, sequenced, analyzed using sequence similarity searches, multiple sequence alignments, and phylogenetic analyses. I am planning to initiate additional research projects in Bioinformatics this summe involving structure and function relationships of conserved protein domains found in gene families and the identification of sequence regulatory patterns in genomic DNA.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 292 publications
