Deciphering the Genomic Rosetta Stone

Speaker: Rob Phillips, Ph.D.
Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics, Biology, and Physics
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering
Caltech

Abstract: 

Learning to sequence the genomic material of living organisms is one of the great scientific revolutions of the modern world. As of today, the NIH Databases report roughly 10^17 nucleotides of genomic information.  But despite the great successes of genomic science, how well do we really understand the meaning of those famed letters A, C, G, and T?  Even in arguably one of biology’s best understood organisms, the humble bacterium E. coli, for more than 60% of its genes, we have no idea if or how they are regulated.  The situation is even more grim with other celebrated model organisms, never mind ...