My research and main scientific motivation are driven by the fundamental challenge to uncover the link between genes and functions. I aspire filling the gaps in our current biological knowledge via application and implementation of computational algorithms tailored to handle big data. Most of the projects I am involved in are related to gene discovery for functional annotation.
Currently I am developing methods for omics data integration for discovery of drug-resistance-driver-mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
During my career, I have developed several computational user-friendly tools aimed at utilizing omics data sets for biological discoveries.
An example of these tools includes:
•MORPH http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/morphdb/morphDB/index/ is an algorithm designed to find candidate genes for specific metabolic pathways.
•MORPH.DB (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/coexpr/) a resource where MORPH-based candidate genes for large-scale functional annotations (Gene Ontology, MapMan bins) are integrated across multiple plant species.
•CoExpNetViz (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/coexpr/) is a tool for construction of co-expression networks (either in a single species or in a comparative transcriptomic manner).
•The hfAIM web-based tool (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/hfAIM/) can be used to effectively perform genome-wide in silico screens of proteins that are potentially regulated by selective autophagy.
•Cedalion, is a hypothesis generation platform that assists biologists with the interpretation of a newly sequenced genome (https://gitlab.psb.ugent.be/deep_genome/pipeline).