Rudy Guerra, PhDDepartment of Statistics,

Rice University

Statistical Genetics

•Heritability - phenotype caused in part by genes••Genotype-phenotype correlations

•Genetic Linkage (family studies)••Linkage disequilibrium (association)• - Population based samples

•Genes and environment

•Genome scans

Problems center on identifying and characterizingassociations between genes and phenotypes (diseases,cholesterol, plant height).

Bioinformatics: The New Era

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (2001)

Bioinformatics is the field of science in which biology, computer science, and information technology merge into a single discipline. There are three important sub-disciplines within bioinformatics: the development of new algorithms and statistics with which to assess relationships among members of large data sets; the analysis and interpretation of various types of data including nucleotide and amino acid sequences, protein domains, and protein structures; and the development and implementation of tools that enable efficient access and management of different types of information."

Hot spots Block

MicroarrayCorner of 2-sample cDNA slideCorner of Affymetrix Human chip

Areas of significant correlation on chr 4

Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21)

DNA copy number profiles of 57 medulloblastomas based on SNP array

Tum

or

Chromosome

6 7 171 22

Gain Loss

Rice Statistics Department: Statistical Genetics & BioinformaticsMajor Research Components of ResearchRudy Guerra Dennis CoxMarek Kimmel Javier RojoMarina Vannucci

Collaborators ApplicationsIntra-department Cancer, heart disease, metabolic syndrome,MD Anderson, BCM-TCH genomic disorders, obesity, cholesterol