Berlian Al Kindhi while presenting her dissertation to achieve a doctorate in the Department of Electrical Engineering ITS

ITS  Campus, ITS News – Reviewing the very high mutation rates in Hepatitis C Viruses that are genetically very varied, Berlian Al Kindhi in her dissertation proposed a new method called Hybrid KINTRIMA (Kindhi-Tri-Mauridhi) Clustering that was able to provide three analyzes at once. She explained this in the Open Session of Doctoral Promotion at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), last Wednesday (2/13).

In her dissertation, it was explained that Hybrid KINTRIMA Clustering is one grouping method that provides three output approaches at once. The approach is exclusive clustering for the isolated tendency of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) towards a primer, flexible clustering to look for trend primers, and hierarchical clustering to analyze the origin of HCV infection from an isolated DNA. The three approaches are adopted from three clustering methods that are often used, namely K-Means, Fuzzy C-Means, and Hierarchical Clustering.

The woman who is familiarly called Kindhi also explained, when infected by a virus, Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) will try to adapt by changing the RNA code pattern, hence the DNA formed will also change. “So it continues to produce new subtypes in HCV and not all primers are able to recognize inside isolated DNA,” said the woman who is also a lecturer in ITS Electrical Engineering.

There is still no vaccine that can absolutely be used to prevent HCV. This method is expected to be able to predict the presence of HCV with its diverse pattern of mutations. Thus, the results of clustering analysis and predictions from this method are also expected to be used as evaluations in the medical field, moving one step closer to the discovery of the HCV vaccine.

At the end of her dissertation presentation entitled Trends Analysis of Hepatitis C Virus Mutations at Isolated DNA based on Hybrid KINTRIMA Clustering, Kindhi said that this research would continue in the future. “So we will continue to do research together with teams that are experts in their respective fields,” said the woman born in Ponorogo. (sof / ITS Public Relation Officer)

The examiners asked several questions about Berlian Al Kindhi’s dissertation