Sean Eddy

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Sean Eddy

Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Applied Mathematics, Harvard University (Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, School of Engineering & Applied Sciences)
The Eddy lab is interested in deciphering the evolutionary history of life by comparative analysis of genome sequences. The group develops computational algorithms and software tools for genome sequence analysis, including the HMMER and Infernal software packages for identifying distant homologs of biological sequence families. The work relies on Bayesian probabilistic inference approaches, including hidden Markov models (stochastic regular grammars) for primary structure analysis of proteins and DNA, and stochastic context-free grammars for RNA secondary structure and sequence analysis. Most recently, the Eddy lab has begun looking for ways to study one of the great mysteries in biology: how a relatively small genome manages to specify biological complexity, especially something as complex as what we see in the neural circuits of a brain. This is an area where molecular evolutionary biology still largely lacks quantitative language for asking precise questions. As one way forward in this difficult frontier, the Eddy lab collaborates with neuroscientists working on the molecular regulatory specification of neural cell types in fly, worm, and mouse. (modified from http://sysbiophd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/sean-eddy)