The project is a molecular biology computer Resource for the Northeastern United States, coupled with a Research program on computer pattern recognition in molecular genetics. The Research has two main objectives. One is to develop statistical and computer methods that can reveal syntactic and semantic patterns in DNA, RNA, and protein sequences, most of which are still obscure or unknown. The other is to use such pattern analysis tools - those developed in the course of the project and others that are deemed appropriate - to discover sequences that trace evolution and that regulate the expression of important genes and gene families. The identification of such sequences should provoke the formulation and testing of major hypotheses in molecular evolution, gene regulation and developmental genetics. The molecular biology computer Resource provides these DNA, RNA, and protein sequence analysis tools - and all others that are demonstrably valid and useful and freely available - to investigators within this region on-line, and to the larger research community on magnetic media. On-line access is through computers at the Resource site, and the programs distributed on tapes and floppy disks are for micro, supermicro, mini, and mainframe computers running under UNIX and other operating systems. The resource trains molecular biologists in statistics and computer methods, and educates biomathematicians and computer scientists in contemporary molecular genetics. Research opportunities combining these disciplines are offered yearly to postdoctoral fellows, and quarterly to visiting scientists. In addition, the Northeast and Los Alamos Resources (the Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory that is responsible for GenBank) will co-sponsor an international symposium on computer analysis in molecular evolution, gene regulation, and developmental genetics in 1985. The Northeast resource is committed to the principle of a Molecular Biology Network linking all regional computer resources in that field of science.
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