Distinguished Lecturer Series (Computer Science)

Martin Vingron from the Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Genetik Berlin gives an invited lecture on “Gene networks, epigenetic networks, and the inverse covariance matrix”.

Abstract:

Cellular processes are governed by interactions among genes and/or their protein-products. With recent technological advances, extensive
measurements of gene activity can be made for large numbers of genes. From such measurements one tries to deduce relationships among the genes,
commonly depicted in the form of a graph or network. This problem is called the network reverse-engineering problem.
A simple mathematical object, the inverse of the variance-covariance matrix, is at the heart of a whole
class of methods for attacking this problem. The talk will present the biological questions and explain how
the inverse variance-covariance matrix comes into play. Novel applications include epigenetic factors and the construction of networks
of epigenetic modifications and chromatin associated proteins.