Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) joins the BioPreDyn-project for biotechnological research. BioPreDyn consists of five European research institutes, three universities and three companies in software and biotechnology. The project will develop a toolbox to aid researchers in drawing reliable conclusions from a huge amount of biological data. Ultimately this will mean that biotechnological products, such as foods and medicine, can be developed quicker.
An organism consists of countless numbers of cells, molecules and chemical reactions. Modern technology allows scientists to collect data for many of these processes. To be able to handle these amounts of data, system biologists often use computer simulations (dry experiments). Using known or presumed behavior, computers predict the outcome of new experiments. Subsequently, researchers perform these experiments (wet experiments) and modify the computer model wherever necessary.
Making correct models takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore, the biologists, mathematicians and computer scientists of the BioPreDyn-project want to develop tools that can use data from previous simulations and experiments to make reliable predictions.
CWI researcher Joke Blom will deal with the validity of the
predictions. She will calculate and minimize errors in for instance the
experiments and the models. This will determine whether the results are valid,
or require further experiments.
Further information: BioPreDyn website
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