A COMPUTER ARRAY APPROACH TO ACCELERATING THE FUNCTIONAL PREDICTION OF BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMSREI 2005

Predicting the systems responsible for controlling biological processes is now possible thanks to the widespread availability of multiple genome sequences, the increased speed and accuracy of proteomic and microarray analyses and the development of novel powerful computer based algorithms. We have pioneered novel bioinformatic approaches that will allow for the prediction of components of the biological systems that contribute to human animal health and microbial pathogenesis. This bioinformatic expertise has generated a number of novel algorithms that allow for the simultaneous analysis of massive genomic and microarray derived data sets for the prediction of enhancer-gene linkage (Starkey, MacKenzie), yeast transcriptional profiling (Brown), the prediction of replication origins (Donaldson, Starkey), the prediction of protein-protein interactions (Ritchie) and the predictive modelling of translation termination ad elongation efficiencies (Stansfield, Starkey). All of the applicants have the expertise to test these predictions in the lab. Because of the nature of the algorithms that we are developing and the number and large size of the genomic, microarray derived data sets to be analysed the conventional desktop computers currently available to us lack sufficient processing power. In order to successfully carry out these analyses we are requesting funds to purchase and maintain a 32 node Dual AMD Opteron Cluster System computer array that will use our unique algorithms to quickly analyse massive data sets and thus speed up the prediction of biological system components by at least two orders of magnitude. Access to the AMD Opteron Cluster System will greatly accelerate our abilities to predict the function of a variety of different biological systems components and increase our knowledge of these biological systems and how these systems may be involved in increasing animal disease susceptibility and microbial pathogenesis.