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02/13/2018 10:20

Mission Accomplished

Dr. Peter Saueressig Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Heidelberger Institut für Theoretische Studien gGmbH

    HITS Junior Group “Computational Biology” is bringing its work to a close with two publications in “Nature.” According to Group Leader Siegfried Schloissnig, “We had enough time to do diligent quality work.” New HITS Junior Groups will be established in 2018.

    Their focus was on strange creatures with stunning characteristics: The Junior Group “Computational Biology” at HITS investigated the genome of salamanders and flatworms. After almost five years of intensive research, Group Leader Dr. Siegfried Schloissnig and his team – together with colleagues from Dresden and Vienna – managed to decipher the genome of the Mexican salamander Axolotl and the flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea. Both animals are important organisms in regeneration research. The research results have been published in the scientific journal “Nature” and achieved significant response from the media.

    MARVELous: a new software for regeneration research

    Schloissnig and his colleagues Philipp Bongartz, Philipp Kämpfer, Martin Pippel, and Sean Powell have been developing an entirely new software program – the genome assembler “MARVEL” – since 2013. The program can also reconstruct a genome from extremely large amounts of highly repetitive genetic information. “Our mission is accomplished,” Siegfried Schloissnig cheers. Born in Klagenfurt, Schloissnig’s next career move will take him back to Austria, where he will be head the IT department of regeneration research at the Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna.

    “Working at HITS has truly been a privilege because it allowed us to pursue our work undisturbed and in pleasant surroundings,” Schloissnig concludes. “And thanks to our donor, Klaus Tschira, we had plenty of time and no publication pressure.”

    HITS junior groups: support for young researchers

    Through the establishment of Junior Groups, HITS aims to support ambitious young scientists and researchers on their career paths. This year, HITS plans to set up two Junior Groups dealing with “Machine Learning” and “Computational Materials Science.” In addition, the Junior Group of Andreas Bauswein, who has received an ERC Starting Grant, will begin its work in May 2018.

    More on the research work of the Junior Group “Computational Biology”: https://www.h-its.org/news/cbi-mission_en/


    More information:

    https://www.h-its.org/news/cbi-mission_en/ HITS press release
    https://www.h-its.org/scientific-news/cbi-axolotl-en/ the Axolotl genome
    https://www.h-its.org/scientific-news/cbi-schmidtea-en/ the Schmidtea mediterranea genome


    Images

    Mission accomplished with new software: the Computational Biology group at HITS, 2013-2018.
    Mission accomplished with new software: the Computational Biology group at HITS, 2013-2018.
    Photo: HITS
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    The Axolotl genome has 32 billion base pairs, it is more than ten times larger than the human genome. the researchers needed around 300,000 CPU hours in the HITS data center.
    The Axolotl genome has 32 billion base pairs, it is more than ten times larger than the human genome ...
    Photo: IMP, Vienna
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    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars
    Biology, Chemistry, Information technology, Mathematics, Medicine
    transregional, national
    Organisational matters, Research projects
    English


     

    Mission accomplished with new software: the Computational Biology group at HITS, 2013-2018.


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    The Axolotl genome has 32 billion base pairs, it is more than ten times larger than the human genome. the researchers needed around 300,000 CPU hours in the HITS data center.


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