Scoring alignments by embedding vector similarity.

Sequence similarity is of paramount importance in biology, as similar sequences tend to have similar function and share common ancestry. Scoring matrices, such as PAM or BLOSUM, play a crucial role in all bioinformatics algorithms for identifying similarities, but have the drawback that they are fixed, independent of context. We propose a new scoring method for amino acid similarity that remedies this weakness, being contextually dependent.

Quantifying Parameter Interdependence in Stochastic Discrete Models of Biochemical Systems.

Stochastic modeling of biochemical processes at the cellular level has been the subject of intense research in recent years. The Chemical Master Equation is a broadly utilized stochastic discrete model of such processes. Numerous important biochemical systems consist of many species subject to many reactions.

A hybrid method for micro-mesoscopic stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems.

The present paper introduces a new micro-meso hybrid algorithm based on the Ghost Cell Method concept in which the microscopic subdomain is governed by the Reactive Multi-Particle Collision (RMPC) dynamics. The mesoscopic subdomain is modeled using the Reaction-Diffusion Master Equation (RDME). The RDME is solved by means of the Inhomogeneous Stochastic Simulation Algorithm.

Effective implicit finite-difference method for sensitivity analysis of stiff stochastic discrete biochemical systems.

Simulation of cellular processes is achieved through a range of mathematical modelling approaches. Deterministic differential equation models are a commonly used first strategy. However, because many biochemical processes are inherently probabilistic, stochastic models are often called for to capture the random fluctuations observed in these systems.

An efficient finite-difference strategy for sensitivity analysis of stochastic models of biochemical systems.

Sensitivity analysis characterizes the dependence of a model's behaviour on system parameters. It is a critical tool in the formulation, characterization, and verification of models of biochemical reaction networks, for which confident estimates of parameter values are often lacking. In this paper, we propose a novel method for sensitivity analysis of discrete stochastic models of biochemical reaction systems whose dynamics occur over a range of timescales.

Hybrid stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems with slow and fast dynamics.

In this paper, we present a novel hybrid method to simulate discrete stochastic reaction-diffusion models arising in biochemical signaling pathways. We study moderately stiff systems, for which we can partition each reaction or diffusion channel into either a slow or fast subset, based on its propensity. Numerical approaches missing this distinction are often limited with respect to computational run time or approximation quality.

Variable time-stepping in the pathwise numerical solution of the chemical Langevin equation.

Stochastic modeling is essential for an accurate description of the biochemical network dynamics at the level of a single cell. Biochemically reacting systems often evolve on multiple time-scales, thus their stochastic mathematical models manifest stiffness. Stochastic models which, in addition, are stiff and computationally very challenging, therefore the need for developing effective and accurate numerical methods for approximating their solution.

An adaptive stepsize method for the chemical Langevin equation.

Mathematical and computational modeling are key tools in analyzing important biological processes in cells and living organisms. In particular, stochastic models are essential to accurately describe the cellular dynamics, when the assumption of the thermodynamic limit can no longer be applied. However, stochastic models are computationally much more challenging than the traditional deterministic models.

Efficient computation of spaced seeds.

Background: The most frequently used tools in bioinformatics are those searching for similarities, or local alignments, between biological sequences. Since the exact dynamic programming algorithm is quadratic, linear-time heuristics such as BLAST are used. Spaced seeds are much more sensitive than the consecutive seed of BLAST and using several seeds represents the current state of the art in approximate search for biological sequences.

SpEED: fast computation of sensitive spaced seeds.

Summary: Multiple spaced seeds represent the current state-of-the-art for similarity search in bioinformatics, with applications in various areas such as sequence alignment, read mapping, oligonucleotide design, etc. We present SpEED, a software program that computes highly sensitive multiple spaced seeds. SpEED can be several orders of magnitude faster and computes better seeds than the existing leading software programs.

Seeds for effective oligonucleotide design.

Background: DNA oligonucleotides are a very useful tool in biology. The best algorithms for designing good DNA oligonucleotides are filtering out unsuitable regions using a seeding approach. Determining the quality of the seeds is crucial for the performance of these algorithms.

HiTEC: accurate error correction in high-throughput sequencing data.

Motivation: High-throughput sequencing technologies produce very large amounts of data and sequencing errors constitute one of the major problems in analyzing such data. Current algorithms for correcting these errors are not very accurate and do not automatically adapt to the given data.

Results: We present HiTEC, an algorithm that provides a highly accurate, robust and fully automated method to correct reads produced by high-throughput sequencing methods.

Fast computation of neighbor seeds.

Motivation: Alignment of biological sequences is one of the most frequently performed computer tasks. The current state of the art involves the use of (multiple) spaced seeds for producing high quality alignments. A particular important class is that of neighbor seeds which combine high sensitivity with reduced space requirements.

Multiple spaced seeds for homology search.

Motivation: Homology search finds similar segments between two biological sequences, such as DNA or protein sequences. The introduction of optimal spaced seeds in PatternHunter has increased both the sensitivity and the speed of homology search, and it has been adopted by many alignment programs such as BLAST. With the further improvement provided by multiple spaced seeds in PatternHunterII, Smith-Waterman sensitivity is approached at BLASTn speed.