►The
Sun center of Excellence For Visual Genomics is
the Bioinformatics Research Center of theat
the University of Calgary.
Bioinformatics includes the study of genomics
and post-genomics data by computation, visualization, and 3D modeling.
Visual Genomics is a part of the Research Program of
Genome Canada which dedicates itself to
developing and implementing a national strategy in genomics and proteonomics
research.
"Genome
Canada invests and manages large-scale research projects in key
selected areas such as agriculture, environment, fisheries, forestry, health and
new technology development. Genome Canada also supports research projects aimed
at studying and analyzing the ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social
issues related to genomics research (GE3DS). Besides,
Genome
Canada is also involved in the
international
Haplotype Map Project of which the goal is to
develop a haplotype map of the humane genome - "HapMap"
- which will describe the common patterns of human DNA sequence variation.
According to Genome
Canada, the
HapMap is expected to be a key resource for
researchers to use to find genes affecting health, disease, and responses to
drugs and environmental factors. The information produced by the Project is
made freely available."
DrChristoph Sensen, professor
of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the
University
of Calgary is Director of the
Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics.
►The laboratory of
Visual Genomics is one of the leading
and best-funded bioinformatics research labs in the world as to the
modellization of the Humane genome. Modellizations of DNA
segments are studied by means of the world's first
Java 3DTM
enabled CAVE -
recursive acronym for Cave Automatic Virtual Environement, a walk-in display
unit which allows to create virtual reality 3D providing anatomical and
molecular images : genome, organs, cells,
organisms, ...
[The CAVE®,
researched and developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Chicago as a tool for
scientific visualization, has become the pinnacle of immersion systems in
the virtual reality and is now produced commercially for Universities and
Advance technology industry, an hundred installations in the world]
►The team
of
Visual Genomics
has pioneered the development of this 3D tool for the biology research
and is working on expanding its capabilities to enable the CAVE to load
volumetric data, including medical images such as MRI and CAT scans.
►The
project :
"Here and now, the team works on the project of a quadridimensional modellization - three spacial
dimensions, the fourth dimension being Time. With his
team,
Christoph Sensen
works on finding
a way to visualize the prodigious masses of data generated by genomic
technologies and to model genetic disease patterns
by creating fully integrated virtual-reality models of all aspects of disease.
This
4-D project will make it possible for investigators to immerse themselves
directly within an organism, to “see” the inner workings of its genome and to
study the way genetic changes affect the organism over time. Moreover, they will
be able to navigate through surrounding data in a virtual reality landscape, and
to interact with data in a user-friendly manner.
The virtual reality models of all aspects of disease will include medical
information, advanced imaging data, test results such as biopsies and gene
expression data and finally information about the structure, function and
interactions of proteins.
Dr. Sensen’s team has become
one of the few teams in the world with the computational power to successfully
undertake this new 4-D project. The team expects to advance the field of genomic
research, while developing a spin-off company that will market 4-D services to
the global pharmaceutical industry."
These promising technologies
are in full rise in Research and Industry.They
are the dawn of a new generation and will appeal to excellence as regards
mathematics and data processing applied to Science.
If you skipped the ludic
aspect that one can find in working in such an environment, then
surely it's now time to visit the
CAVE® ... it is
Sensentional !
Pierre-Guillaume
Gourio-Jewell
http://www.visualgenomics.ca/~pjewell
2005 Summer
student and "happy fellow slave" at Visual Genomics,
University of
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Sources : Visual Genomics, Genome Canada, HapMap
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