Projects

MicroRNAs are a recently discovered group of factors that control cell behaviour. There are thousands of microRNAs, but specific ones control the behaviour of cartilage cells and have key roles in osteoarthritis. Changing the level of a single microRNA can alter osteoarthritis, but we know that several microRNAs change during disease. The group has identified four microRNAs which have key roles in cartilage. This programme seeks:

to show that these microRNAs have a role in osteoarthritis in the
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Overall, we will measure in-vitro and model in-silico the short-term biochemical network dynamics of extra cellular matrix maintenance (ECM) in populations of young, old and senescent dermal fibroblasts. We have shown in previous work that differences in network dynamics are highly informative and provide a means to identify parts of the network that could be targeted to restore healthy function.

The work will be first carried out in 2D culture of human dermal fibroblasts then extended to a novel
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MESI-STRAT: Systems Medicine of Metabolic-Signaling Networks -A New Concept for Breast Cancer Patient Stratification.
Breast cancer is a complex disease with high prevalence in the European Union and world-wide. 75%-80 of the patients have estrogen receptor-positive (ER)-positive tumors and are treated with endocrine therapies. Endocrine therapies, which block ER-driven tumor growth, show high efficacy. Yet, a significant proportion of the patients will eventually relapse with metastatic breast
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Sustainable co-production is the short form of the research project “Tobacco as sustainable production platform of the natural biopolymer cyanophycin as co-product to oil and protein”. It combines plant and industrial biotechnology to increase the value of commercially grown tobacco with products that can sustainably substitute fossil raw materials. We aim to establish a new economically feasible production system for the biopolymer cyanophycin (CGP) as a by-product of tobacco without relevant
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Detection of pathogenic mutation in the patients with non-coronary heart diseases

Rhodolive

Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN) project 'OXYMOD - Optimized oxidative enzyme systems for efficient conversion of lignocellulose to valuable products'

Takato's summer study

Background- Thermophilic organisms are composed of both bacterial and archaeal species. The enzymes isolated from these species and from other extreme habitats are more robust to temperature, organic solvents and proteolysis. They often have unique substrate specificities and originate from novel metabolic pathways. Thermophiles as well as their stable enzymes (‘thermozymes’) are receiving increased attention for biotechnological applications.

The proposed project will establish thermophilic in
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Glycon proposal preparation

Salmon farmed on modern feeds contains less of the healthy, long-chain fatty acids (EPA and DHA) than before. Up until the turn of the millennium, farmed salmon were fed fish oil as a replacement for their omega-3 rich natural prey. However, fish oil is now a scarce resource, and more than half of the fat in modern feeds comes from plant oils that are inexpensive, but devoid of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. How can we increase the omega-3 content of salmon on sustainable feeds?

One option is
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Amino alcohol moieties are found in highly diverse classes of natural products that are of great importance due to their bioactivity, and they function as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. The chemical synthesis of stereoisomerically pure amino alcohols is difficult and typically requires uneconomical steps for protective group manipulations. Conventional syntheses in the chemical industry often use hazardous substances, consume large amounts of energy
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Bioprocesses for the optimized, integrated production of butyl esters from sustainable resources (BESTER)

Industrial Biotechnology is a key enabling technology to produce a plethora of different bio-based products from sustainable resources and a driver for developing the bio-based economy in Europe. Systems biology and Synthetic biology are recent additions to the biotechnology toolbox that in interplay with bioprocess and chemical process technology can help developing competitive industrial
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For plants, light is a signal that carries information about the environment, and a source of energy for photosynthesis. PHYTOCAL focuses on the interaction between phytochrome signalling and photosynthesis, and seeks to understand fundamental processes that make carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) resources available for plant growth. These unexplored connections underlie biomass production and plasticity, which contribute significantly to yield variability in the field.

Project/Kublanov

The COLOSYS project aims to develop a deeper understanding of colon cancer networks and convert them into computer models with which it will be better to predict response to treatment. The combination of computational, experimental and clinical testing will provide understanding of drug resistance mechanisms, and allow personalised treatment of colon cancer.

The aim of the project is bioprospecting, isolation and characterization of novel secondary metabolites, produced by extremophilic microorganisms. The project is dedicated to a poorly investigated problem of antagonistic interactions between extremophilic microorganisms in their communities, namely, to the investigation of the ability of extremophiles to produce secondary metabolites with biocidic, cytotoxic and cytostatic activities. Working out this problem will fulfill an important applied
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The main objective of SynBio4Flav is to go further in the standardization of high complexity synthetic biological parts, and to demonstrate the development of a standardized, and systematic platform for flavonoids production based on synthetic microbial consortia (SMCs).

This is a sandbox where DigiSal members can learn to use the SEEK.

Tutorial document: http://tinyurl.com/seek-ds17

The SEEK is a web interface to a database of research "assets" organised in a hierarchical "ISA structure" (investigation-study-assay) [1].
These are further organised into projects and programmes.

* Programme = Overarching research theme (The Digital Salmon)
* Project = Research grant (DigiSal, GenoSysFat)
* Investigation = a particular biological process, phenomenon or thing
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Despite the intensive use of agrochemicals, plant pathogens are responsible for huge yield losses worldwide. Understanding the interaction between plant and pathogens is crucial to ensure long lasting and environmentally friendly system of plant protection. Therefore research of the most important human food crops in combination with their pathogens is one of the highest priorities for sustainable agriculture.

The aim of the proposed research project is to bring new perspective into understanding
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pISA-tree: Standard project directory tree (ISA compliant)

Development of support for standardization of directory trees to suport ISA framework of research organization. We are developing a set of batch/make files to enable creation of trees for storage of assets (data/presentations/protocols/scripts) and description files that hold associated metadata for Investigation / Study / Assay levels.

Exploiting native endowments by re-factoring, re-programming and implementing novel control loops in Pseudomonas putida for bespoke biocatalysis. The EmPowerPutida project aims to engineer the lifestyle of Pseudomonas putida to generate a tailored, re-factored chassis for the production of so far non-accessible biological compounds. Pseudomonas putida is a bacterium with a highly versatile metabolism, including the capability to degrade or produce organic chemicals.

The Systems Biology Service Center of de.NBI (de.NBI-SysBio) provides bioinformatics support and a standards-based data management for systems biology projects, with focus on the provenance of experimental results and on the reproducibility of modeling experiments, as well as high-quality curated biochemical data to modelers and experimentalists.
The node concentrates on two tools for the data management in life sciences research: SEEK, a catalogue for storage, registration and exchange of data
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