Institute for
Biomedical Informatics

Irrespective of data size and complexity, query and exploration tools for accessing data resources remain a central linkage for human-data interaction. A fundamental barrier in making query interfaces easier to use,ultimately as easy as online shopping, is the lack of faceted, interactive capabilities. We propose to repurpose existing ontologies by transforming them into nested facet systems (NFS) to support human-data interaction. Two basic issues need to be addressed for this to happen: one is that the structure and quality of ontologies need to be examined and elevated for the purpose of NFS; the second is that mappings from data-source specific metadata to a corresponding NFS need to be developed to support this new generation of NFS-enabled web-interfaces. The purpose of this presentation is to motivate the concept of NFS, provide a preliminary order-theoretic formulation for NFS, and suggest topics for further investigation.

The outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria is a unique asymmetric membrane bilayer that is composed of phospholipids in the inner leaflet and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in the outer leaflet. Its function as a selective barrier is crucial for the survival of bacteria in many distinct environments, and it also renders gram-negative bacteria more resistant to antibiotics than their gram-positive counterparts. LPS comprises three regions: lipid A, core oligosaccharide, and O-antigen polysaccharide. In this talk, I will present our ongoing efforts to understanding various bacterial outer membranes and their interactions with outer membrane proteins. In addition, I will also present other research projects in my lab, such as the CHARMM-GUI development, a local structure-centric bioinformatics for drug development, and structure.

This talk will address the importance of assessing lifestyle modification and behavior, and the challenges of using EHR data to identify lifestyle modifications and behavior in clinical narratives. Registration is required by January 8.