Complex brains have evolved a highly efficient network architecture whose structural connectivity is capable of generating a large repertoire of functional states. We detect characteristic network building blocks (structural and functional motifs) in neuroanatomical data sets and identify a small set of structural motifs that occur in significantly increased numbers. Our analysis suggests the h...

While functional motifs are commonly detected and studied in protein sequences, few three-dimensional (3D) motifs, that is sets of residues spatially close in three dimensions but not necessarily adjacent in the sequence, have been identified so far, mostly through manual approaches. However, structural motifs may reveal novel and important functional sites and allow the detection of evolutiona...

We developed an algorithm, Lever, that systematically maps metazoan DNA regulatory motifs or motif combinations to sets of genes. Lever assesses whether the motifs are enriched in cis-regulatory modules (CRMs), predicted by our PhylCRM algorithm, in the noncoding sequences surrounding the genes. Lever analysis allows unbiased inference of functional annotations to regulatory motifs and candidat...

We developed an algorithm, Lever, that systematically maps metazoan DNA regulatory motifs or motif combinations to sets of genes. Lever assesses whether the motifs are enriched in cis-regulatory modules (CRMs), predicted by our PhylCRM algorithm, in the noncoding sequences surrounding the genes. Lever analysis allows unbiased inference of functional annotations to regulatory motifs and candidat...

The development of new and effective drugs is strongly affected by the need to identify drug targets and to reduce side effects. Resolving these issues depends partially on a thorough understanding of the biological function of proteins. Unfortunately, the experimental determination of protein function is expensive and time consuming. To support and accelerate the determination of protein funct...

Recent experiments provide an unprecedented view of protein-DNA binding in yeast and human genomes at single-nucleotide resolution. These measurements, performed over large cell populations, show quite generally that sequence-specific transcription regulators with well-defined protein-DNA consensus motifs bind only a fraction among all consensus motifs present in the genome. Alternatively, prot...

lactoferrin (lf) is an iron-binding multi-functional glycoprotein which has numerous physiological functions such as iron transportation, anti-microbial activity and immune response. in this study, different in silico approaches were exploited to investigate lf protein properties in a number of mammalian species. results showed that the iron-binding site, dna and rna-binding sites, signal pepti...