Persistent topology of protein space

Abstract

Protein fold classification is a classic problem in structural biology and bioinformatics. We approach this problem using persistent homology. In particular, we use alpha shape filtrations to compare a topological representation of the data with a different representation that makes use of knot-theoretic ideas. We use the statistical method of Angle-based Joint and Individual Variation Explained (AJIVE) to understand similarities and differences between these representations.