News

Evolutionary biologists have long known that DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of all organisms, contains a record of ancestry.

But could genomes also bear an imprint of the environments in which organisms evolved? According to a recent bioinformatics study, the answer, at least for some life forms and for some extreme environments, is an unexpected yes.

A team of researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, along with their colleagues at Western University, have successfully classified 191 previously unidentified astroviruses using a new machine learning-enabled classification process.

Extremophiles are species that are adapted to live at the edges of biological tolerance, in a range of environments that seem inhospitable to life by human standards. These extremely hardy organisms are found in all three domains and all six kingdoms of life, the highest and second highest levels of classification biologists use to categorize living things based on common ancestry.

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin described the evolutionary relationships between organisms as branches on a tree, a diagrammatic representation of all species that have ever existed connected by common descent.

The affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree. I believe this simile largely speaks the truth. The green and budding twigs may represent existing species; and those produced during each former year may represent the long succession of extinct species.

Our bodies are made of trillions of cells that form tissues and organs. The genes inside the nucleus of each cell code for proteins that determine a cell’s structure and function, as well as instruct a cell when to grow, divide and die. Normally, our cells follow these instructions, but if a cell’s DNA mutates it can cause the cell to divide and grow out of control. Cancer is fundamentally a disease of uncontrolled cell growth and regulation, and all cancers ultimately are caused by mutations to the genes that regulate cell division, growth and differentiation.

A world-leading University of Waterloo spinoff company, that decodes blood samples for potential treatments for illnesses like cancer and COVID-19, is expanding operations with the help of a $5-million USD investment.

Bin Ma, a University of Waterloo computer science professor who cofounded Rapid Novor in 2015, says the company’s technology is the most advanced in the world when it comes to deciphering the complex workings of antibody proteins, a process called sequencing.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science and Western University has developed a computational method that within minutes can identify and classify viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory pathogen responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bioinformatics is a program that encompasses courses in mathematics, biology, computer science, chemistry and, of course, bioinformatics. As the program is one of the smaller ones at Waterloo, among our goals is to connect students in the bioinformatics program to those in related areas.

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a powerful new online tool that allows users to navigate through an interactive microbial tree of life, and to generate new scientific hypotheses and discoveries.

By integrating data across thousands of microbial genomes, “AnnoTree” provides a comprehensive framework for exploring the evolution of microbial genes and functions, and can be used to advance research across a wide range of industries including microbiology, biotechnology, industrial products, biofuels, and food science.

Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor and University Research Chair Lila Kari has spearheaded the development of a software tool that can provide conclusive answers to some of the most fascinating questions in evolutionary biology.