Hermes: a digital library component that allows getting relevant information by means of use of different information retrieval models; text and query processors; and accesses to different collections. Hermes proposes an architecture with which the independence of each level is achieved, allowing its future expansion by adding new models, collections, or text and query processors.

Hermes is a server that allows the connection of different applications, so its programmers can retrieve information by choosing any available model and an existent collection; avoiding waste of time in the investigation and implementation of the same ones. As a result, the applications receive the information about the most relevant documents, its ranking value, as well as their metadata. This metadata is based on the Dublin Core standard.

Modern microarray technology provides thousands of gene expression values for each sample. This large amount of data can be analyzed from several perspectives and with different goals. Although standard pattern recognition, machine learning, or statistical analysis methods can be called into action, gene expression data have specific characteristics which demand some special care. For example, in sample classification, one often has to deal with just a few samples (say 10 to 100) in a very high dimensional space (i.e., number of genes, say 1000 to 10000). This is a very unusual situation in most other domains.

In this talk, I will briefly overview three basic problems in the analysis of gene expression data (gene clustering, gene selection, and sample classification). I will then describe, in a little more detail, a recent approach which is able to simultaneous learn how to classify samples and select which genes are relevant for this purpose.

The field of DNA microarrays or DNA chips can potentially revolutionize the acquisition and analysis of genetic information. In these devices, DNA hybridization may occur in a massively parallel manner with different single-strand DNA capture probes immobilized at specific sites on a microarray. This talk will be divided into two parts: (1) a general overview of the different technologies presently being used in fabricating DNA chips and (2) an introduction to the work being done at INESC MN on the addressing of DNA molecules using electric field pulse and their detection with an integrated photodetector.