The Bioinformatics Research Unit serves as a vital hub for the secondary analysis, management, and interpretation of data produced by research laboratories and clinical operational units. Active since 2011, the unit’s members bring together expertise spanning the full spectrum of contemporary omics sciences. Their skills range from computational and evolutionary metagenomics to oncogenomics, proteogenomics, molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules and drugs, and the application of artificial intelligence, effectively bridging diverse fields within systems biology.
From its foundation, the unit's multidisciplinary expertise has been a defining strength, fostering a uniquely innovative scientific environment in the Italian research landscape, specifically designed to address "the most ambitious clinical needs." This approach has driven groundbreaking studies, particularly in the fields of rare and complex genetic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and oncology.
The unit leverages cutting-edge pre-Exascale computing infrastructures and advanced hardware to process complex bioinformatics algorithms and perform statistical inference at scale.
Its primary research activities include:
- Modeling biological processes through semantic interaction graphs and multidimensional data structures.
- Investigating the structural and topological properties of biological and pharmacological molecules.
- Conducting high-throughput data analysis and evaluating the pathogenicity of nuclear and mitochondrial genome variants using artificial intelligence algorithms and large language models (LLMs).
- Advancing scientific dissemination through augmented and virtual reality platforms.
Furthermore, the unit develops cross-platform software tailored for unconventional hardware and designs custom data warehouses to support its research endeavors.
