Mihai Pop
Errors in databases and microbiome research
Abstract:
Biological databases are rapidly growing in size, making it impossible for scientists to verify the data and correct errors. The impact of database errors on the conclusions of analytic workflows that rely on these databases is not currently well understood. Given the increase reliance in both biomedical research and clinical practice on computational analytics, it is important to develop a better understanding of how data and software interact. I will describe new results from my lab that demonstrate that some classifiers can be influenced by even small errors in the data, and that using computationally-inferred labels in databases can skew the classification output.
I will conclude my talk with a summary of other recent research taking place in my lab in the context of microbiome data analytics.
Speaker: Mihai Pop, University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences
Mihai Pop is a professor of computer science and co-director of the University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences. He develops computational approaches for the strain-level analysis of microbial communities. Other interests include biological databases, antibiotic resistance, and software testing. His lab has developed several widely used open-source software tools for the analysis of genomic and metagenomic data. Pop teaches at all academic levels and is a strong advocate for inclusion and diversity in science. He is particularly interested in developing open educational resources in computer science and bioinformatics. Pop holds a B.S. (1994, Politehnica University in Bucharest, Romania), and a Ph.D in Computer Science (2000, The Johns Hopkins University). and has joined the University of Maryland in 2005. He is an MPower Professor, University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, and fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery and of the International Society for Computational Biology.
Host: Jeffery Klauda
Seminars start at 4:00 pm, and refreshments will be served at 3:45 pm. All seminars are held in the 2136 Physical Sciences Complex (#415) unless otherwise noted.