Professors Leppek and Billmann are collaborating to explore how computer modeling can be better employed to gain insights into cellular mechanisms, drawing on huge volumes of experiment data derived from biological process analysis. These enormous yet highly specific data sets, it is believed, hold information relevant for the new joint research focus on mRNA translation via ribosomes.
The award comes with a purse of up to 50,000 euros in research funding. “This award is quite an important for us, as it supports longer-term transdisciplinary collaboration between two laboratories that respectively operate in very different research areas,” explains Dr. Kathrin Leppek, who is Assistant Professor of Immunobiochemistry at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn. Project co-lead Dr. Maximilian Billmann, Assistant Professor of Pharmacogenomics at the Institute of Human Genetics at University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn, commented on the tremendous innovation potential he believes their joint research project can unlock: "We are optimistic that our transdisciplinary approach will yield at least a partial remedy to a problem commonly encountered in using artificial intelligence: the availability of specific data.”
Teams from all TRAs at the University of Bonn entered the award competition. The award decision was made by the steering committee of the Life and Health transdisciplinary research area, applying such criteria as innovativeness, degree of transdisciplinarity, scientific quality and applicant qualifications.
The Transdisciplinary Research Areas at the University of Bonn are areas for innovation and explorative research and teaching, in line with their strategic purpose. TRAs represent spaces in which researchers of different fields and faculties work together, involving external, non-academic partners as necessary to make advances on crucial scientific, technological and social issues that will affect our future. These efforts yield solutions and insights that would otherwise not be obtainable working in isolation.
For more information on TRAs see: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/research-and-teaching/research-profile/transdisciplinary-research-areas/tras?set_language=en
A video presenting the two TRA research award winners has been posted to YouTube: https://youtu.be/tg-eanlT7fI
