Marco Roos (PhD) is a bioinformatician/molecular cytologist currently involved in e-science research.
This page is always under construction
Last update: 17/10/2006
I joined the Integrative Bioinformatics Unit (IBU) at the end of 2003. The IBU emerged from the microarray department (MAD) shortly after I joined the group. These first years I was involved in building this new research group, and in establishing its participation in the nation-wide projects VL-e (Bioinformatics application) and BioRange (three sub-projects). Starting from zero, this was quite an adventure (and still is). We started up work on a Semantic Web approach to data integration, transcriptome analysis using workflow, design space exploration, and the Histone-code and Huntington's disease case studies. My focus now shifts from methodology development to biological application of our methodology.
My research interest lies at the crossing between the function of DNA in its cellular context and developing informatics for biology. Therefore, I look for discoveries not only in biology, but also in approaches from computer science that promise to advance biological research. To me, this is what Bioinformatics research is about.
DNA is often considered as the key element of biological function, but this is an oversimplification. A biological system is only functional as a complex of many components. These include DNA, but also the proteins that bind DNA, higher order chromatin structures, transcriptional activity and epigenetic factors that change the state of chromatin, and so on. The relationships between these components are of interest and many new discoveries can be expected when we integrate data relating to various of these elements.
Perhaps the most important aspect of biological experimentation and the resulting data is the knowledge that is involved. Semantic Web technology allows to capture this knowledge and we are developing ways to use that knowledge, in particular for data integration. Not only does our approach give more insight into the integration, but it discloses biological knowledge for computational experimentation. A data integration experiment can be defined as an executable workflow, which gives insight into the steps of the experiment and direct correspondence between its design and execution. Workflows and their components can also be reused. We expect the combination of semantic modeling and experiment design through workflow will enable increasingly complex data integration experiments to be performed.
Other interests and past occupations include image processing, statistics, and simulation modeling. My motivation is always biology, but I particularly enjoy (trying) to use or make applicable advancements from other disciplines.