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Bioinformatics in the Identification of Novel Targets and Pathways in Neurodegenerative Diseases

  • Neurogenetics and Psychiatric Genetics (M Hiltunen and DR Marenda, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of complex conditions that lead to progressive degeneration or death of neurons. The economical and societal costs of these diseases are increasing rapidly, so there is an urgent need to find new solutions to remedy the situation. Understanding these diseases on a molecular pathway level could lead to development of better biomarkers and treatments, but the massive amounts of data involved makes this a challenge.

Recent Findings

Bioinformatics approaches can be used to manage and analyze data from the current high-throughput research technologies and provide means for novel discoveries in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.

Summary

This review introduces different bioinformatics approaches used to identify and study molecular targets and pathways, using examples from recent neurodegenerative diseases research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Yliopistonranta 1, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    Jussi Paananen

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  1. Jussi Paananen
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Correspondence to Jussi Paananen.

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Jussi Paananen declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Neurogenetics and Psychiatric Genetics

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Paananen, J. Bioinformatics in the Identification of Novel Targets and Pathways in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Curr Genet Med Rep 5, 15–21 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40142-017-0115-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40142-017-0115-8

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