What are genes and how can we find them?

Although 'gene' is a word that is used frequently in the society, most people probably do not know what genes actually are. In fact, its definition is not so straightforward. In this talk, I will first give a historical perspective and our current understanding of what genes are and what they look like. Then, I will talk about 'gene prediction'. Once we obtain the DNA (genome) sequence data of a given species, we must 'find' the genes within the genome. This involves computational prediction utilizing probabilistic models and various sources of external evidence. I will briefly explain how this is done.