Dr. Gabriel Moreno-Hagelsieb

Associate Professor, Biology
On Sabbatical

Contact Information

Email: gmoreno@wlu.ca
Phone: (519) 884-0710 ext.2364

Office Location: N3021B

Languages Spoken

English
Spanish

Academic Background

Ph.D. in Biotechnology
Institute of Biotechnology
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Research: Comparative and functional genomics. Stability and evolution of genetic functional modules.

Teaches:

• BI304: Introductory Bioinformatics;
• BI404: Advanced Topics in Computational Genomics;
• BI402: Computational Evolution

Course web page: Go to WebCT!

Biography

Genomes are complete maps of all genetic information or hereditary material possessed by an organism. Using information from all publicly available microbial genomes, I aim to determine the organization of gene products into 'functional modules'. Where a functional module would be a set of gene products working together to attain a particular biological function. Because of the many microbial genome projects, there is a great deal of genes that lack information as to what their functions are. In addition, because genes within species continue to evolve, it is crucial to be able to determine if changes have a functional consequence, i.e. if the gene products will do something different. I am seeking to classify all modules, and genes within, from most stable to least stable –functionally speaking. This research might have applications to the development of antimicrobial agents (stable, functionally-tied, genes) and for finding the most appropriate genes for "pathway engineering" (plastic, functionally versatile, or more "evolvable" genes).

Additional Information