The Bioinformatics Division was created in January 2006, formerly having been part of the Genetics and Bioinformatics Division. The focus of the Division is the development of methods, algorithms and software for sequence analysis, expression analysis, statistical genetics and biostatistics. Modern genomic technologies generate unprecedented volumes of complex data for all of these fields which require automated analysis. The Bioinformatics Division works collaboratively with many research teams within and outside of WEHI, using statistical, mathematical and computational skills to facilitate the interpretation of these large scale biological experiments.

Sequence analysis is concerned with the analysis of genomic information. In the past year we performed the first sequence analysis of the major histocompatability (MHC) region of the opossum, the first marsupial to be sequenced, and identified members of an important class of genes involved in the transport of P. falciparum in the red blood cell.

Expression analysis allows the examination of the levels of expression of all genes in an individual. Large scale experiments can involve many individuals, tissue specimens and multiple conditions, or time points, to infer co-regulation of groups of genes. In the past year our work on differential expression analysis for microarrays was extended to yield interpretable groups of genes for experiments involving treatments measured over a series of timepoints. This work was applied in an experiment to understand the mechanism of drugs which inhibit tumour growth, in collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

Statistical genetics seeks to describe the location and contribution of genetic trait loci. It is used to identify the genomic location of faulty genes in families that are carrying a genetic disease. Highlights for the Bioinformatics Division include the development of a haplotype sharing methods in collaboration with the Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne, and Menzies Research Institute, Hobart, to identify multiple sclerosis susceptibility genes in the human genome and the genetic localisation of three genes in human families.

For further information, refer to the Division Faculty pages (top of page, click on Faculty names), and see the Bioinformatics web page. See the Prospective Students web page for information about projects available in the Bioinformatics Division.