HEALTH

Met2Net

Combines exciting results from bioanalytical and small molecule screening studies with medical and biological expertise by using new methods in information technology

Background

One of the greatest challenge in current research is the link between new findings and already existing knowledge to generate new comprehensive hypotheses. Individual scientists are experts for narrow, highly specialized research areas but good cooperations and networks among different research areas are often difficult to implement. One possible solution could be a more intensive use of modern information technology to help combine knowledge. In the field of systems biology, IT has already been successfully used for a systematic, electronic collection of new knowledge and associated ontologies.

Project goals

Metabolomics is the systematic study of small molecule metabolite in biological samples.

The project Met2Net takes the existing metabolomics platform to a higher stage of development and embeds it within information technology infrastructure that has been designed to meet these goals. Intense cooperation efforts with project partners in various fields of application including cancer research, clinical biomarker research, and also biotechnological production, enable us to identify customized user profiles on the basis of their requirements and develop customized information technology tools.

Thus, within the boundaries of Met2Net, we aim to move beyond the pure metabolomic analysis toward a cross-disciplinary interpretation of data to visualize relationships among metabolic processes.

The Institute HEALTH strives to establish itself both internationally and in Styria as a think tank for dealing with problems and questions relevant to the field of metabolomics. The development of a central knowledge base for a variety of issues related to metabolism is critical. The generated data can, if desired by the client (such as is expected, in the case of universities), be made accessible to the general public. This allows "in silico" experiments using archived study data to be performed in the future as preparation for clinical and pre-clinical studies.

Results

Software has been newly developed that can be used to archive data and process mass spectrometric data generated during metabolomics analyses (JRMDb)

 

Financial support