College - Author 1
College of Engineering
Department - Author 1
Computer Science Department
Advisor
Borislav Hristov, College of Engineering, Computer Science and Software Engineering Department
Date
10-2025
Abstract/Summary
Malaria, a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite, is responsible for more than a half a million deaths per year, the vast majority of which occur in central Africa. The parasite undergoes an incredibly complex cell molecular transformation as it transitions from living in mosquitoes to living in humans with different sets of genes being activated or silenced in order to evade the immune system of the host. Understanding how its genome guides this transition is critical for developing adequate treatments. In this project, we aim to develop a computational framework for investigating the role of the three dimensional (3D) DNA architecture in enabling the expression of virulence genes. We use recently and newly acquired data of DNA-DNA and long non-coding RNA-DNA interactions to create a genome interaction map. We plan to employ a diffusion kernel algorithm to highlight clusters of interacting virulence genes and computationally build a background model to statistically assess the importance of lncRNAs. Our work lays the foundations for further systematic analyses of changes in 3D parasite genome conformation during its complex lifecycle.
October 1, 2025.
Included in
Computer and Systems Architecture Commons, Molecular, Cellular, and Tissue Engineering Commons
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/ceng_surp/153