As barriers to massive imaging collections fall, researchers can look at human systems in their entirety rather than in pieces
In the beginning there was the Visible Human. It broke new ground by gathering some 2,000 serial images from a death row inmate’s cadaver, and was the first time researchers had sectioned a...
Jul, 01, 2007
Ontology, defined as "a theory of existence," has an important place in Western philosophy. It seeks to account for all phenomena in the universe.
In biomedical computation, however...
Jan, 01, 2006
The importance of developing and deploying tools for the quantitative clinician scientist
The word Om (or Aum) has many meanings in ancient Hindu philosophy, one of which is “that which contains all other sounds.” The meaning has relevance to the now commonly used suffix...
Jun, 01, 2010
Biomarker research, genetics, and imaging are all coming into play
In 1906, at a small medical meeting in Tübingen, Germany, physician Alois Alzheimer gave a now-famous presentation about a puzzling patient. At age 51, Auguste D.’s memory was failing...
Oct, 01, 2007
New computational model simulates how particles in the air get deposited in the lungs during breathing
Depending on their nature, microscopic particles suspended in air—called aerosols—...
Apr, 01, 2009
By computationally combining incomplete imaging information with bits and pieces of structural data from all sorts of different experiments, researchers have worked out the protein-by-protein structure of an important cellular assembly called the nuclear pore complex.
Like puzzles? Here’s a tough one: Try figuring out the construction of a nearly 500-piece machine without blueprints or a complete picture. Biologists have now accomplished just such a feat,...
Apr, 01, 2008
LoopTK samples and visualizes many conformations of a protein loop to better understand loop movement
In the gaps between the tight coils and flattened sheets that comprise most protein structures, flexible loops wave and bend. When crystallized, these loops can appear fuzzy in an electron density...
Jul, 01, 2007
Machine learning for an artificial pancreas and deep brain stimulation
Embedded medical devices that both detect symptoms and treat them have existed for decades. Take, for example, the heart pacemaker. But a new generation of implants could soon emerge to do something...
Oct, 19, 2012
A pair of challenges increasingly threaten the success of bioinformatics research: convincing biologists to share their data and convincing computational colleagues to share their code. Many of us...
Jul, 01, 2006
They've gone from hype to backlash. Now it's time for reality: How microarrays are being used to benefit healthcare
When DNA microarray technology emerged more than a decade ago, it was met with unbridled enthusiasm. By allowing scientists to look at the expression of enormous numbers of genes in the genome...
Oct, 01, 2006