Interdisciplinary Research

Next-Generation IT Platform for Topological Proteomics to be Created

MelTec GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT today signed a collaboration agreement to develop an information technology platform for the management and interpretation of high-throughput experiments analysing protein networks of whole cells in situ, also known as topological proteomics or toponomics. MelTec continuously generates large data sets to decipher the toponome of cells an

European scientists will be ‘turning off’ the effects of gravity during the STS-107 Space Shuttle research mission this month in order to gain a better understanding of processes in medicine, technology and science.

Their investigations will be among some 80 experiments performed during a 16-day mission in Earth orbit to be launched from Cape Canaveral tomorrow.

Seven of the 31 payloads are sponsored by ESA, and the crew will work 24 hours a day in two alternating shifts on experi

Scientists are to go below ground in seven tropical countries to search for the largest source of untapped life left on Earth.

Experts know that, millimetres below the surface in the twilight, subterranean world, of the earthworm and the nematode, tens of thousands of new species of tiny organisms including bacteria, fungi, insects, mites and worms await discovery.

Scientists are also convinced that unraveling the secrets of how they operate may be the key to restoring the fe

Researchers in Finland are working to develop a comprehensive, multidisciplinary model of the carbon cycle and its impacts on climate change in northern ecosystems. The focus of work in the Academy of Finland’s Global Change Research Programme (FIGARE) has been on the uptake and release of carbon in different ecosystem reservoirs, the atmosphere, vegetation, trees, forest land and lakes.

‘The carbon dioxide content in the earth’s atmosphere is slowly and steadily increasing. Given the resul

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego, have created the first computer simulation of full-system protein folding thermodynamics at the atomic-level. Understanding the basic physics of protein folding could solve one of the grand mysteries of computational biology.

Proteins are the basic building blocks of life and protein folding, the process by which proteins reconfigure themselves – the actions that result in structural change – are the

Engineers, computer scientists and graphics technology experts at Purdue University have created the first publicly available simulation that uses scientific principles to study in detail what theoretically happened when the Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon last Sept. 11.

Researchers said the simulation could be used as a tool for designing critical buildings – such as hospitals and fire stations – to withstand terrorist attacks.

The simulation merges a realistic-looking visual