Monday, 5 May 2025 @ 14:00–15:00 CEST

On-site:

University of Vienna
Seminarraum 2 (1. UG)
Währinger Straße 29
1090 Vienna

Online:

https://univienna.zoom.us/j/67032386717?pwd=g8HOG2oRrWK6T5cvmRA7bv17QRzq72.1

Meeting ID: 670 3238 6717
Passcode: 440328

Genome-based prediction of microbial traits

Abstract
:

The prediction of phenotypic traits from genomic information is an ongoing challenge in computational biology. Although the fundamental principles of information encoding in genomes have been studied since decades and allowed first directed modifications, the expression of phenotypic traits is often the result of complex interactions. Predictive approaches in bioinformatics therefore focus on machine learning from labeled genomic data.

During the last years, we have focused on the computational prediction of microbial phenotypic traits from metagenomic data. These data have been collected on large scale, to explore the diversity and composition of microbial communities and to correlate them with environmental factors (e.g. human health and disease). The prediction of traits for these millions of genomes, based on neural networks that use protein families as features, goes one step further and can be used in first applications.

Bio
:

Thomas Rattei is a chemist by training. He is Professor for "In silico genomics" at the University of Vienna since 2010. His main interests are computational and systems biology, genome and metagenome analysis, functional genomics, host-pathogen interactions, databases and infrastructure for bioinformatics.