Computational Genomics and Systems Biology

The focus of the Computational Genomics and Systems Biology group is to develop and apply computational and mathematical methods in the area of modern biology to understand how biological systems function and evolve over time. Specifically, such approaches are being employed to decipher the genetics of bread wheat and understand the type and number of hybridization events through which modern day bread wheat has evolved from different goat grass and Eikorn (pasta wheat). This project uses the latest technologies in genomic sciences including high-throughput sequencing and associated statistical analysis to determine the precise nature and extent of genetic variation that has led to the modern day bread wheat. The other project involves development of Rahnuma v2.0, a web-based tool to facilitate comparisons of metabolic networks between organisms and prediction of metabolic pathways between metabolites or groups of metabolites. Rahnuma v2.0 will provide an intuitive way to answer different biological questions focusing on differences between multiple organisms or evolution of different species by allowing pathway based metabolic network comparisons at organism as well as phylogenetic levels.