Bioinformatics: Turning Data into Knowledge

Bioinformatics is the use of computers to process, analyze and understand certain types of biological data. Our metagenomics study will generate such a large amount of data (many billions of microbial DNA sequences) that we will need to use and develop state-of-the-art computational approaches to perform the data processing and analysis.  The bioinformatics component of the project will enable:

• Development of new and better tools for analyzing metagenomic data
• Visualization of changes in the communities of microorganisms in the watersheds
• Correlation of these changes in the microbial communities to water pollution
• Identification of novel indicators that detect water pollution and pinpoint the source of that pollution