The concerted use of SNP and expression data is emerging as an
important and challenging research field. Rebecca Doerge from Purdue University, USA, is one of the leading international figures on how to combine SNP and expression data to unravel insights that are not possible to achieve by dealing with one set of data at a time.
 Rebecca Doerge |
Place: Agricultural University of Norway, Soil Science building (Jordfagbygningen/Saghellinga), room J106. Building no. 35 on the map
Speaker: Professor Rebecca W. Doerge, Department of Statistics, Purdue University, Indiana, USA
In a current experiment sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Rebecca Doerge and her group are studying the expression level polymorphisms of quantitative trait loci (QTL) that affect the disease resistance pathways in Arabidopsis. Using Affymetrix GeneChip technology gene expression measurements are viewed as quantitative traits and mapped on to the known genetic map of Arabidopsis. The originating parental crosses have been chosen to maximize statistically significant differential expression, and then used to initiate a recombinant inbred population. QTL analysis and gene expression analysis are used in a coordinated manner for the purpose of uncovering regulatory regions or, expression level polymorphisms (ELPs), of the Arabidopsis genes that control quantitative trait loci. An update on this work will be presented along with statistical analyses and simulation results that investigate the many statistical issues that are known to surround both QTL analysis and microarray gene expression analyses.
Although Dr. Doerge's formal training is in Mathematics and Statistics, her research lies on the interdisciplinary boundaries of many fields (Animal Science, Biology, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Science, Horticulture, Genetics, Genomics, Plant Breeding, etc.) that are currently involved in assessing genomic based questions. Statistical Genomics brings together all of these scientific disciplines into one arena to ask, answer, and disseminate biologically interesting questions and information in the quest to understand the ultimate function of DNA for each and every genome. Currently, Dr. Doerge's research program encompasses four broad areas: development of methodology for genetic mapping and quantitative trait loci (QTL) location; applying up to date genetic mapping and QTL methodology to real experimental data; assessing genetic variation and diversity of populations and germplasm collections; and understanding and analyzing gene expression data for the purpose of statistically designing and then testing genomic/biologically based questions.
For more information on Rebecca Doerge's research and background, please see http://www.stat.purdue.edu/~doerge/
