Research Summary Computational Bioinformatics Laboratory Major areas of research are: knowledge-based problem solving methods, clustering, and predictive data mining for bioinformatics, representation and inference for biomedical image interpretation, distributed collaborative problem solving and planning systems, multimodal interfaces and medical decision-making systems. In bioinformatics my major research is in the area of predictive data mining and clustering of macromolecular structural data. I am developing new techniques of spatial data analysis involving segmentation, clustering, interpretation and prediction of structural and functional classes of macromolecules. Current projects include: new algorithms for combinatorial clustering of RNA ribosomal data; new feature selection methods for characterizing conformational patterns of DNA, automated interpretation of multidimensional NMR data, methods for extracting the core of a protein structure in a family-specific manner, and techniques for multi-alignment and segmentation of proteins.      I am also coordinating a Strategic Resource Opportunity initiative in Bioinformatics which includes collaborations with the NDB Project headed by Dr. H. Berman in Chemistry, the NMR Interpretation Project headed by Dr. G. Montelione at CABM, and the Immunoglobulin Project headed by Dr. I.G. Gelfand at the Mathematics Department. These, and other projects with the Waksman Institute, DIMACS, and several academic departments, support and introduce advanced Computer Science methods into molecular biology and more generally into the Life Sciences. Publications Zimmerman, D., Kulikowski, C.A., Huang, Y., Feng, W., Tashiro, M., Shimotakahara,S., Chien, C., Powers, R., and Montelione, G.T. 1997. Automated Analysis of Protein NMR Assignments Using Methods from Artificial Intelligence. J. Mol. Biol. 269:592-610. Kulikowski, C.A., and Gong, L. 1997. Advances in Image Processing, in Handbook of Medical Informatics (J. H. van Bemmel and M. Mussen, eds.), Springer,Heidelberg, 413-422. Nordyke, R.A., and Kulikowski, C.A. 1998. An Informatics-Based Chronic Disease Practice: Case Study of a 35-year Computer-based Longitudinal Record System. J. Am. Med. Inf. Assoc. 5:88-103. Medl, A., Marsic, I., Popescu, V., Shaikh, A., Andre, M., Kulikowski, C.A., and Flanagan, J. Multimodal Interface for Collaborative Mission Planning. Proc. Workshop on Real-Time Intelligent Interfaces for Decision Support and Information Visualization, San Francisco. Gelfand, I.M., Kister, A., Kulikowski, C.A., and Stoyanov, O. 1998. Algorithmic Determination of Core Positions in the VL and VH Domains of Immunoglobulin Molecules, Proc. RECOMB 98, New York. Poe, X., Kulikowski, C.A., and Muchnik, I. 1998. Analysis of Ribosomal RNA Sequences by Combinatorial Clustering. Proc. Workshop on Combinatorial Clustering for Multidomain Protein Structure Analysis, DIMACS, Rutgers University. Lab Support Dr. Ilya Muchnik, Senior Investigator Dr. Ognyan Stoyanov, Investigator George Armhold, Senior Programmer C. Gregory Hagerty, Graduate Assistant Y. Song, Graduate Assistant Poe Xing, Graduate Assistant