Student:
Joost van Evert

Contact Information:
j.g.vanevert@ewi.tudelft.nl

Supervisors:
Marcel Reinders and Lodewyk Wessels

Thesis Title:
Find conserved regions in a combined protein interaction and mRNA co-expression network

Location:
ICT Group

Current Occupation:
None

Find conserved regions in a combined protein interaction and mRNA co-expression network

Introduction

Proteins are very import molecules in biology. They are responsible for all biological processes, by working together with each other and other molecules. DNA is also important, it contains the code for proteins and is regulated by proteins. In my graduation project I study protein interaction networks and mRNA co-expression networks for multiple organisms. I am searching regions of the combined protein interaction and mRNA expression network that are conserved in multiple species. This information can be used to transfer information from intensively studied proteins and molecular pathways to proteins and pathways whose function is still unclear.

In evolution organisms have specialized, some species are evolutionary closer than others. This evolutionary distance can also be seen on genetic level. Groups of genes can be defined that have a common ancestor. Such groups are called homologous groups of genes. Homologous genes within an organism, like the and globulin genes in mouse (Fig. 1), are called paralogs. Homologous genes between organisms are called orthologs.

Figure 1: homology