Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed an algorithm capable of identifying proteins central to biological processes in various tissues in the human body. The algorithm, recently revealed in the scientific journalGigaScience and is expected to contribute significantly to the understanding of diseases and the development of tailored and targeted treatments
Proteins are the building blocks of biological systems, and the complex relationships between them provide critical information about their function and impact on human health. The new algorithm was developed to analyze networks of protein interactions—chemical “conversations” that occur in every cell in the body—and identify proteins that stand out in their function or behavior in particular tissues, such as the brain, heart, or liver. The unusual role of these proteins may indicate critical biological function and, in some cases, involvement in disease.
The study is the product of a collaboration between Prof. Estee Yager-LotemLabin, a protein network expert from the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev of Ben-Gurion University, Dr. Michael Pierre – Head of the Fire AI Lab in the Faculty of Engineering, specializing in the analysis of complex networks. A specialization that was built, among other things, from his research on interaction patterns in social networks. The unique combination of fields between bioinformatics and network analysis was born from a collaboration between seemingly distant research fields – biology on the one hand and cyber and social networks on the other. Pierre, who had previously examined behavioral patterns in networks to identify abnormal activity, saw the potential to apply similar principles within complex biological systems.
"This innovative algorithm allows us to identify critical proteins in specific biological contexts, which could help develop more targeted and effective treatments for various diseases." Prof. Yager-Lotem explains.
Dr. Michael Pierre Adds: "It is exciting to see how combining expertise in bioinformatics and network analysis, a field that originated in cyber research, is leading to breakthroughs in understanding human biology. Using machine learning and network analysis, we were able to develop a tool that can discover key proteins in different tissues – a significant step towards understanding health and disease."
As part of the researchers' commitment to scientific transparency and knowledge sharing, the algorithm is published as open source, so that researchers from all over the world can use it, improve it, and even apply it to further studies. In addition, Prof. Yager-Lotem's lab operates dedicated online tools that allow researchers from outside the computational field to perform similar analyses.
The research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) and the Council for Higher Education through the Data Science Research Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Infographic: Macedo Veiga Junior (Valve)
for further reading:
The full article on GigaScience: https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaf034
Pre-print version: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.19.572354
