The Laboratory of Bioinformatics mostly focuses on building and maintaining new and unique biological databases. It maintains phiSITE, a database holding data on regulation of gene expression and general genomics of bacteriophages. Its integrated visualisation tool phiGENOME is optimised for visualising phage genomes, especially their gene regulatory elements. phiBIOTICS is phage-related database which collects information on representative enzybiotics and relevant research studies on their practical application in the field of phage therapy. The accompanying tool phiBiScan can reliably predict potential new enzybiotics based on their primary structure. viruSITE is a unique viral database which was developed to bring together high-value information on viruses compiled from various sources. The Laboiratory also touches the field of theoretical biology. A mathematical model simulating the interaction between bacteriophages and their bacterial hosts was developed based on other known models describing these types of interactions, but enhanced by the ability to model the system when influenced by environmental factors such as pH and temperature.
The lab also cooperates with a number of other research groups in Slovakia, mainly using its skills in DNA arrays and NGS data analysis. These include the study of the silkworm Bombyx mori neuroendocrine system (collaboration with the Insititute of Zoology SAS) and cancer research (collaboration with the Institute of Virology SAS, the Institute of Experimental Oncology SAS, and the National Institute of Oncology and Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin). The group uses its broad knowledge of advanced analysis pipelines together with its available computing infrastructure to interpret the large data sets produced by these cutting edge technologies. In addition, the group is also involved in extensive international collaborations (running the national EMBnet node, participating in the preliminary phase of the ELIXIR consortium foundation, and participating in the COST SeqAhead project), teaching activities at Comenius University, and training Ph.D. students and young scientists (e.g. the DNA arrays and NGS data analysis workshop organised in 2015).