Genomic and Computational Tools for Infectious Diseases

The main purpose of Genomic and Computational Tools for Infectious Diseases is to systematically present to the reader with a description and review of the principles, methodology, applications, and challenges related with the use of genomic tools to study influenza, HIV, encephalic and hemorrhagic viruses, malaria, and tuberculosis. This book will compile a comprehensive overview of the application of computational technologies to understand the biocomplexity of new and reemerging infectious diseases. The intent of this book is not to exhaustively survey the published literature on microbial functional genomics or bioinformatic tools, but rather, to provide the reader with representative examples and an illustrative guide of basic principles, approaches, and applications in genomics and computational biology specifically applied to specific pathogens. The book will include documents written by seasoned international researchers with extensive experience in both industry and academia. Each chapter will effectively outline the use of genomics for diagnostics, to study key aspects of the biology of a particular pathogen and its interaction with the host. Topics will include large scale sequencing, transcriptional analysis, regulatory element interactions and structural analysis of pathogen proteins and RNA interference. Another purpose of this book is to show the reader the advantages and limitations of recently developed high-throughput genomic and bioinformatic technologies. The book concludes with two chapters related to the use of nanobiotechnology and synthetic biology and their implications in the discovery, diagnostics and therapeutics. Numerous exercises for self-study as well as data sets and a useful collection of computational tools on the authors Web site will make this book a valuable resource for both students and professionals in the field.