UC Davis/Berkeley Joint Colloquium, 5/3. Rasmus Nielsen “Statistical Problems in Analysis of Next-Gen Sequencing Data”

The 2012 UC BERKELEY / UC DAVIS JOINT STATISTICS COLLOQUIUM

Please join us for the 2012 Berkeley / Davis Joint Colloquium. This year’s Colloquium will feature a talk at 4:10pm by Prof. Rasmus Neilsen, followed by a reception in the statistics lounge. Grad students are also invited to the Berkeley / Davis Grad Student Colloquium from 5:30-6:30pm.

Coffee: 3:30pm, Statistics lounge (MSB 4110, 4th floor)

Seminar: 4:10 pm, Colloquium Room (MSB 1147)

Reception: 5:30 pm, Statistics lounge (MSB 4110, 4th floor)

Speaker: Prof. Rasmus Neilsen

Dept of Integrative Biology & Statistics, UC Berkeley

Title: Statistical Problems in the Analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing Data

Abstract: The biological sciences have been transformed by the emergence of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies providing cheap and reliable large scale DNA sequencing. These data allow us to address biological research questions that previously were considered intractable, but also raise a number of new statistical and computational challenges. The data contain errors that need careful attention, and the appropriate likelihood functions are usually not computationally accessible, because of the size of the data sets. I will discuss some solutions to these problems and illustrate them in the analyses of several different data sets. In one study we sequenced all protein coding genes of 2000 individuals to identify mutations associated with Type 2 Diabetes. In a second project we used similar sequencing techniques to identify the genetic causes of altitude adaptation in Tibetans. In the third study I will discuss, we sequenced the first Aboriginal Australian genome to elucidate the history and origins of Aboriginal Australians.

Graduate Student Colloquium : Please see the attached flier for details of the Graduate Student Colloquium, which will feature talks by Andrew Farris (UC Davis) and Vincent Yates (UC Berkeley).

http://www.stat.ucdavis.edu/davis-berkeley-colloquium-2012

davis berkeley colloquium 2012 flier.pdf

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis View all posts by Jonathan Eisen