An efficient algorithm for approximating geodesic distances in tree space.

The increasing use of phylogeny in biological studies is limited by the need to make available more efficient tools for computing distances between trees. The geodesic tree distance-introduced by Billera, Holmes, and Vogtmann-combines both the tree topology and edge lengths into a single metric. Despite the conceptual simplicity of the geodesic tree distance, algorithms to compute it don't scale well to large, real-world phylogenetic trees composed of hundred or even thousand leaves.

Finding new genes for non-syndromic hearing loss through an in silico prioritization study.

At present, 51 genes are already known to be responsible for Non-Syndromic hereditary Hearing Loss (NSHL), but the knowledge of 121 NSHL-linked chromosomal regions brings to the hypothesis that a number of disease genes have still to be uncovered. To help scientists to find new NSHL genes, we built a gene-scoring system, integrating Gene Ontology, NCBI Gene and Map Viewer databases, which prioritizes the candidate genes according to their probability to cause NSHL. We defined a set of candidates and measured their functional similarity with respect to the disease gene set, computing a score ( S S M avg) that relies on the assumption that functionally related genes might contribute to the same (disease) phenotype.