There will be a Bioinformatics colloquium Tuesday 11/10/09 in Bull Run 
Hall Rm. 130 at 4:30 pm.

The speaker James Diggans Ph.D. of the Mitre Corporation is one of our 
former students. Here is his title and abstract.

*DOTS: DNA Order Tracking System*
The ability to construct gene- and genome-length DNA fragments from 
scratch is a rapidly developing technology in the field of synthetic 
biology. Existing efforts to screen DNA synthesis orders rely solely 
upon direct alignment of ordered sequence to threat agents. Our approach 
assumes intent to obfuscate on the part of the ordering entity. We 
hypothesize that any truly valuable screening method will have to 
collate and analyze orders over time to determine relationships between 
orders and overall correspondence to threat agent sequence. A system 
capable of monitoring incoming DNA synthesis requests and identifying 
hazardous DNA sequences, ordered whole or in parts and spanning multiple 
vendor companies, time frames and points of origin, can be built around 
existing techniques utilized for sequence alignment and shotgun genome 
assembly.


ALSO:

We have spaces open for ESP and MMB grad students to present their 
research at the Student Research Day this year.  As a reminder, it's 3pm 
on December 8th, Room 130 in BRH.

We have 4 poster slots and 6 speaking slots open.  (The oral presenters 
have 10-15 minutes for their presentation.)

Please let me know if any of your MS or PhD students would like to 
present, and if with a poster or oral presentation.

Thank you!
Mary-Margaret Flannery
BCB Dept.
703-993-8449
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