Using bioinformatics to predict how protein mutations can affect protein functioning

This study uses bioinformatics to predict if a protein mutation has a deleterious effect. The type of mutation in the primary structure and the location of the mutation in the tertiary structure are important considerations in making this prediction. This thesis consists of a new Java computer application, built on NetBeans platform. Web services description language is used to access the Protein Data Bank database. Two types of already existing software are integrated into this thesis computer application to determine if amino acid substitution(s) affect protein functioning. This computer application displays a printable report describing differences between a mutant and its parent protein. A separate screen displays information about other proteins that have a similar amino sequence. The objective of this thesis is to provide a user-friendly computer application to research protein mutations and compare and contrast various bioinformatics software accessible on the web.