PhyloD Microsoft Computational Biology Tools Component
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PhyloD Tags

biology library biology computational performance computational efficiency computational geometry computational molecular biology Computational Model biology statistical computational finance Computational Biology Computational Component research component PhyloD Computational Biolog pre-compiled computational astronomy biology-related biology screensaver computational chemistry biology aid biology tool computational problem solver computational problem computational power biology computational models computational neuroscience micro-biology behavioral biology computational approach cell biology Computational Resource biology simulation Biology Foundation biology system structural biology community Biology Icon analyze biology text Biology Viewer Structural Biology generate computational artwork Computational Pipeline evolutionary biology tool Computational Intelligence

PhyloD Description

Pathogens live and reproduce inside the human host, whose immune system continually tries to rid the body of these pathogens. This leads to a tug-of-war between the pathogen and the human host, where the pathogen tries to adapt so as to "escape" the immune system, while the immune system learns to recognize and eliminate new foreign pathogens. A set of key players for the immune system are the HLA proteins, each of which can recognize specific short fragments of foreign (e.g. HIV) proteins, called epitopes, in infected cells and then alert the immune system to their presence. For rapidly evolving pathogens like HIV, a key defense mechanism is to evolve mutations that prevent the HLA proteins from recognizing the viral DNA. This evolution takes place anew in each patient, as each patient has a different set of HLA proteins that recognize different epitopes. PhyloD is a statistical tool that can identify HIV mutations that defeat the function of the HLA proteins in certain patients, thereby allowing the virus to escape elimination by the immune system. By applying this tool to large studies of infected patients, researchers are now able to start decoding the complex rules that govern the HIV mutations, in the hope of one day creating a vaccine to which the virus is unable to develop resistance. PhyloD Pre-Compiled application is a part of the Microsoft Computational Biology Tools package. Requirements: · NET Framework

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