BCH3031 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Small Interfering Rna, Omics, Transcriptome
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Traude Beilharz
Lecture 16 – Systems Biology: integrating the omics
Concepts of Systems Biology
• Hypothesis neutral vs. reductionist research
o Don’t plan experiment just to test hypothesis
• Hypothesis building rather than testing
• How this turns traditional research on its head and why so many people hate it
• System biology starts without a specific hypothesis
o E.g. disease ‘z’ means perturbation in some network
o Lets test all the networks we can, to see which
genes/proteins/metabolites are perturbed using statistical tools
o Narrow our focus onto core genes/proteins that are altered in disease
o Done by cross-disciplinary teams, but still need traditional biologists to
validate by traditional approaches
o Do these genome wide experiments with specific purpose but not with
outcome hypothesis in mind → generates large amount of data
• Some people hate
o Because hard, complexity of biological system is overwhelming
o Don’t like jumping into unknown
Concept of Networks in Biology
• Genetic Screens and Networks
o E.g. siRNA Screens (1)
▪ C.elegans siRNA prac
▪ Feed worms bacteria expressing dsRNA
▪ Cross the gut and knock down gene expression
▪ Observe phenotypes
▪ All screens score a specific assay
▪ Have whole Transcriptome represented by siRNAs on different
plates – have worms feeding on genes → what genes are
important for surviving
• All screens have assay for scoring phenotype
▪ Done on mutliplate format
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