miRcore Computational Biology Camp

At the Mircore camp for computational biology, we were tasked to research a specific multifactorial disease and then find certain gene expressions that may be correlated with that certain disease. My group decided on researching Parkinson’s disease as it is common in older people and currently has no cure. We then decided on a gene database to be able to find the gene expressions that make up Parkinson’s disease. We decided on choosing the dataset GSE202665 on GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) and analyzed it using GEO2R. We then selected 250 upregulated genes from the dataset and put it into String-db as it gave us the best results.

Once we put the genes in string-db, we found that rheumatoid arthritis had a correlation with Parkinson’s based on gene regulation. We then got the kegg pathway for rheumatoid arthritis and decided on 6 genes, one for each person in the group, to research in depth. I decided on researching the CXCL8 gene, also known as Interleukin-8 (IL-8), which is a gene that is the mediator of the inflammatory response. Also from my research I found out that it attracts neutrophils, basophils, and T-cells to sites of infection (types of white blood cells) and that it promotes angiogenesis (when new blood vessels form from old ones).