The University of St. Thomas will continue in its efforts to be on the cutting-edge of bioinformatics thanks to a new special topics course which will be developed by Biology Professor Dr. Don Frohlich in Spring 2009.

This summer, Frohlich traveled to Washington University in St. Louis to receive training from the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), a program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which only accepts 12 undergraduate institutions per year. Bioinformatics major Jacquelyn Flores will work with Frohlich throughout the fall and receive the teacher’s assistant GEP training in January. Frohlich and Flores will develop a computer-based bioinformatics lab curriculum to analyze and annotate the genome of the Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly.

The goal of GEP is to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to participate in genomics research. Participating undergraduates learn to take raw sequence data to high quality finished sequence, and to annotate genes and other features leading to analysis of a question in genomics and research publication.

“At St. Thomas, we are trying to train our students to be the best bioinformaticists that they can be,” Frohlich said. “Being a part of the Genomics Education Project is an incredibly prestigious opportunity for UST, because there are so few undergraduate institutions able to participate, and usually, only doctoral students have a chance to work on this level. This is an indication that the University’s original instincts about bioinformatics increasing importance in science were right on the money. We are headed in the right direction.”

The fruit fly has been used as the model for genetic research because it can be raised or reproduced by the millions and enables scientists to observe genetic mutations in multiple generations over a shorter period of time than other organisms, Frohlich said. This project will enable students to research why certain parts of the genome are expressed, or ultimately, “how certain genes get turned on and how certain genes get turned off,” he said.

Though Frohlich maintains, “not everything in genetic research need relate back to humans, if it hadn’t been for fruit fly genetics, we wouldn’t have seen the majority of advances in human genetics so far,” he said.

Flores said the new course will strengthen the St. Thomas bioinformatics program.

“I am honored to be chosen for this extraordinary opportunity to learn at a world-class facility at Washington University, and then to come back to UST and share that knowledge with my fellow UST students,” she said. “I think this will give the students a greater insight into the field and further their understanding of genome sequencing.”
 
The Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly is shown on the home page template. Dr. Don Frohlich and Bioinformatics major Jacquelyn Flores are shown at top.