| Seq #79 | Friday, April 4, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Hilton Anatole Hotel Monet Ballroom, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genomics & Oral Pathogen Research: Making the Connection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sponsored by: Microbiology / Immunology and Infection Control, NIDCR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: During the last decade, 15 oral pathogen genomes have been completely sequenced or are nearing completion. Combined genome informatics and experimental approaches provide a more complete picture of the pathogenesis of oral disease. The presentations of this symposium will focus on past successes and future directions in research that involve the collaborative interaction between genome informatics and experimental approaches in oral pathogen research. The post-genomic era has brought with it a change in the way basic experiments are conducted, enabling oral pathogen researchers to examine biological systems more comprehensively. As a result, a much broader picture can be obtained by combining genome informatics and experimental approaches. This combined approach has been used to confirm and assess some of the hypotheses and predictions that resulted from proteomics and transcriptome derived data sets, both of which were enabled by genomic sequence data. Furthermore, sequencing different strains of Porphyromonas gingivalis and species of Streptococcus followed by comparative genomics study has the potential of helping us to understand the evolution and adaptation of these oral pathogens, and the complex mechanisms by which they interact with their hosts. In light of the diverse microflora in the oral cavity with greater than 800 species estimated to exist there, a comprehensive metagenomic study of the oral microflora is being conducted. These experiments should reveal different aspects of the microbial community found in the human oral cavity. The techniques include comparative 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene analysis and metagenomic gene inventories. These efforts will aid in the molecular understanding of microbial interactions, pathways, and networks that are responsible for the development and progression of oral diseases and disorders. This symposium is designed for scientists who want to engage in the application of genome informatics to experimental oral pathogen research. The main goals are: 1) To understand how the comparative analysis of gene content and structure among different bacterial cells/strains can aid in the development, testing and or validation of experimental research goals. 2) To further foster collaboration between genome informatics and experimental scientists. 3) To engage the community in discussions surrounding computational and experimental approaches to study the oral metagenome data. 4) Finally, we hope to encourage young students to explore the genome informatics field and educate the general public the cutting-edge development in the field of applied genome informatics facilitating the experimental oral pathogen research. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairpersons: G. XIE and T.S. BRETTIN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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