Domain Expertise
What Are We Good at?
- Evolutionary informatics: Lead by the author of MEGA and TimeTree software, BARN is proud to provide state-of-art phylogenetics analysis service to the research community. Along with our continuous improvement of MEGA functionalities, we are able to apply existing methods and develop novel algoriths to process large and diverse and sometimes even noisy sequence sets.
- Gene family analysis: Understanding the evolutionary path for a gene family can shed lights on its functionalities. We have successfully developed various novel computational methods to study tens of thousands of genes in human and related species, enabling researchers to learn their functions, origins and relationships to diseases.
- NextGen sequencing analysis: Data generated by NextGen sequencing technologies have unique features, which requires special processing before they can be fed into traditional analysis pipelines. BARN's scientists have extensive experience with data generated on 454 or Illumina platforms, and are fully aware of their advantages and caveats. We are currently developing a protocol to automatically correct 454 sequencing errors on homopolymer-run regions using a comparative genomics approach.
- Gene expression analysis: In addition to the popular microarray platform, BARN analyzes gene expression profiles assayed using other molecular techniques as well. The FlyExpress system, developed by the BARN team, employs an image-matching search engine to explore the spatiotemporal expression patterns in Drosophila. A new package, Quantitative Sequence Expression Regression (QSER), will be added to our tool box soon to further advance our understanding of the relationships between gene expression patterns and sequence motifs.
- Metagenomics: Both shotgun genomic sequences and 16s rRNA survey can be handled in BARN, using publically available tools and our proprietary algorithms currently supported through a NIH grant. We will help reveal the taxonomical composition in your sample and gain insight of its evolutionary properties.
- Database and web application development: The BARN team has several professional software developers, web designers and system administrators, who developed and maintain the large database backend and user-friendly web interface for FlyExpress and TimeTree. With your specifications for a biological database and web application, we will implement it with an emphasis on functionality and usability.