Modeling Structure and Function of Proteins Encoded by the Rice Genome
Start Date: August 15, 2002
Expires: July 31, 2007
Estimated total amount: $1,896,908
Investigator: Ram Samudrala
Sponsor: University of Washington
The grant covers a plan to construct a structural and functional model for all proteins encoded by the rice genome and to make that information available online so that researchers can have a comprehensive picture of rice and cereal biology. The project will use computational biology methods developed at the University of Washington, will involve elucidating the function of characterized and novel proteins, and is aimed at identifying proteins that make rice disease- and pest-resistant, as well as those that improve yield.
Topics in Protein Folding and Protein Dynamics
Start Date: Jul 15, 2002
Expires: June 30, 2005
Estimated total amount: $411,000
Investigator: Devarajan Thirumalai
Sponsor: University of Maryland, College Park
The grant supports development of algorithms and theories to explain phenomena such as the force-induced unfolding of proteins and assembly of beta-hairpin structures, the mechanism of urea-induced denaturation, and chaperone-assisted folding of proteins. The work uses statistical mechanics and simulations previously used to study glass. It also endeavors to incorporate recent experimental work.
Constructing Protein Ontologies Using Text Mining
Start Date: July 1, 2002
Expires: June 30, 2004
Estimated total amount: $698,430
Investigator: Inderjeet Mani
Sponsor: Georgetown University
The project focuses on developing an ontology, or semantic model, that includes shared vocabulary and concept classification for protein names. The project involves compiling a data dictionary and links to more specific, more general, and synonymous protein names. Instead of manually compiling the ontology, the project applies statistical and computational linguistics methods to text from Medline and a knowledge base developed at the Protein Information Resource. The ontology and software system developed in this project will be available online in XML-based ontology interchange formats.