Simulating central dogma of life using Python
hulksmash (~someshchaturvedi) |
Description:
Central dogma of life or of molecular biology is the core molecular process which keeps us alive! It's the machinery which converts DNA to mRNA to protein to active protein which eventually gets distributed in the body.
DNA -> mRNA -> Protein
Through this talk, I'll give a live demonstration of the processes by which this mechanism takes place and unravel its mysteries using Python! I'll explain how python is helping us simulating biological processes in the most elegant manner.
How is DNA transcripted to mRNA? How is mRNA translated to protein? These are some of the questions I’ll answer by simulating the actual processes using Python. By solving small challenges involved with this mechanism, I’ll tell the audience, why Python is the best computer language for a bioinformatician and how great python libraries can make the life even easier especially BioPython. The challenges I am talking about are real bioinformatics problem, although basic, including translation, transcription and reverse complement.
In the end, I’ll brief some huge accomplishments of bioinformatics and computational biology and how we can contribute to this sector which has a promising future as well.
Contents of the talk:
- Introduction: Introduction to gene and how we (computer scientists) recognize a gene
- Central Dogma of Life: a Live action of how a gene is converted to RNA and then to protein using Python.
- Why Python is best for biology?: Bioinformatics can be best studied using Python
- Impact of this sector: Accomplishments of Computational Biology and bioinformatics
- Conclusion: Possible ways in which we can contribute.
- Q & A session: Questions and answers session.
Outcome:
After the talk, the audience will have an understanding of how we function at a cellular level, how proteins are formed in our body and how can we simulate other biological processes using Python and will recognize the power of Python which can be harnessed in biology as well as other sciences. They will also have a basic introduction of BioPython.
Prerequisites:
Curiosity to learn :)
Content URLs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_dogma_of_molecular_biology
Work in progress slides
Speaker Info:
I have completed my B.Tech in Biotechnology this year from IIT Roorkee. I have interests in Web applications, Artificial Intelligence and Computational Biology. I have worked a couple of years in Computational Biology and Translational Bioinformatics Lab at my Institute and currently a Google Summer of Code student working with Global Alliance for Genomics and Health on Reference Sequence Retrieval API.