Andreas Beyer

Andreas Beyer, Biotec, TU-Dresden A growing number of technologies allow for the genome-scale measurement of biological properties such as protein and mRNA concentrations or phenotypic changes (e.g. response to RNAi knock-downs). The genome-wide nature of the available data facilitates a systems perspective: It becomes possible to go beyond individual genes or pathways and to study regulatory processes of the entire system "cell". However, up to now the potential is by far not being fully exploited. We develop computational tools to aid the processing and interpretation of large-scale biological data. Our group adopts a network perspective by studying relationships between proteins and other biomolecules (e.g. DNA, RNA) in silico to reveal the regulatory context of relevant genes.

We develop algorithms for identifying regulatory pathways and differentially regulated pathways, we search for subnetworks controlling common physiological phenotypes and we device statistical methods for linking molecular phenotypes (such as expression or localization) with physiological phenotypes (such as behavioral changes, learning ability).

The biological questions that we address with these tools include neurogenesis, differentiation of osteoclasts, formation and biogenesis of vesicles (endosomes, lysosomes), and the relationship between genotype and disease susceptibility.