Science / Technology - Colloquium
Monday, January 30, 2006
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Olin Hall
107
Before being translated into proteins, messenger RNA is processed in the nucleus. The spliceosome directs precursor mRNA to remove intervening sequences (introns), and to splice the remaining expressed sequences (exons) back together to form mature mRNA. The alternation of coding and noncoding regions makes eukaryotic genes difficult to predict from primary sequence alone, so the ability to correctly identify the intron-exon boundaries is also crucial to gene finding efforts. Splicing is done with great specificity, even though the apparent splicing signals are rather weak. Methods from statistics have proven most effective to identify the splice sites, but we know that cells don't perform Hidden Markov calculations. Cells use thermodynamics. I will present results of our thermodynamic model of splice site recognition. I will then discuss how statistical-mechanical scaling ideas led us to improve upon statistics methods.
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by: WPI Physics Department, Dr. Rafael Garcia
Suggested Audiences: Adult
E-mail:
garcia@wpi.edu
Phone: 508-831-5342
Last Modified: January 17, 2006 at 4:06 PM
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