BIBIS Bremerhaven Institute of Biological Information Systems

Development of processes and software tools for bioinformatics

The illustration shows the various schematic metabolic pathways which occur in a cell – important for understanding which metabolic products are increased or reduced ("metabolic network"). (jpg, 32.0 KB) /fastmedia/12/bibisbig.6799.jpg/fastmedia/12/thumbnails/bibisbig.6799.jpg.14892.jpg

Description:

Bremerhaven is increasingly developing into a centre for food technology and biotechnology. One major factor behind this trend is the Bremerhaven Technology Transfer Centre (the ttz Bremerhaven): it currently consists of six highly modern institutes which place their research in the service of science and the specific needs of the regional and supra-regional economy. The latest addition to the research centre is the newly-founded Bremerhaven Institute of Biological Information Systems (BIBIS), which focuses on bioinformatics.

In the coming years, issues like quality, safety and new products will play an increasingly important role, particularly in the field of nutrition and food, but also in trade in biological substances, maritime research, farming, environmental protection and medical diagnostics.

Here, new analytical procedures based on molecular biology will play a major part, such as the use of DNA microarray technology to indicate the presence of organisms in all kinds of biological samples, or to analyse the genetic expression of organisms under various (production) conditions. However, the planning, realisation and evaluation of these and other experiments necessitate the structuring, handling, analysis and interpretation of enormous amounts of data from very heterogeneous sources in order to derive new findings. A key role is therefore played by bioinformatics, since it represents the link between biotechnology and information and communications technology.

Applications of these technologies include the provision of secure evidence of the origin of biological raw materials and animals, the optimisation of starter cultures, the development of new diagnostic techniques and medicines, and the better understanding of the role of micro-organisms in (marine) ecosystems.

Against this background, BIBIS is particularly working on the development of processes and software tools

• for the genome analysis and the modelling of metabolic pathways,
• for the configuration and evaluation of DNA microarrays,
• for the analysis of large data sets (data mining) to identify interesting patterns and relationships, and
• for the modelling of biological expertise in order to derive automatic conclusions to complex queries.

The illustration shows the various schematic metabolic pathways which occur in a cell – important for understanding which metabolic products are increased or reduced ("metabolic network").

Contact:

more informations www.ttz-bremerhaven.de