Topic of Call for Proposals: Personalised medicine – genomics and bioinformatics
Project Title: Gene-Environment Interactions in Diverse Life-Sciences Settings
Participating Schools: II, V, VI

The interactions between genetic factors and environmental influences play an important role in personalised medicine. These interactions can determine, for example, whether a genetic predisposition leads to the development of a disease, for example. This bioinformatics booster unit plans to study these interactions in various areas and analyse large amounts of data using self-learning systems which can help to identify the genes, biological processes and environmental influences that trigger rare diseases.

The researchers will also investigate whether the computer-aided analysis of data which, for example, may not be available at a specific location can enhance the accuracy of examinations of newborns with regard to genetic abnormalities. Due to the sensitivity of the data to be analysed, dedicated data security technologies will be incorporated into the investigations. In other sub-projects, the participants will seek to identify key genes and processes associated with diseases of the aorta and blood vessels, as well as environmental factors and genes that enable bacteria to absorb foreign DNA from their environment and develop antibiotic resistance.