The Bielefeld network center as a central facility for bioinformatics and transcriptomics

The network centre located at Bielefeld University houses a Technology Node (TN) which provides support to all network partners in the areas bioinformatics and transcriptomics.

Technology Node - Bioinformatics:

The major task of the TN-Bioinformatics is the further development of the well-established software suite for use in bacterial genome research. In particular, a GenoMik-Plus portal has been installed which ensures the unified access of users to software and data. Moreover, specific gates for each project were established which offer the combined knowledge about an organism by providing detailed information, news, access to recent publications etc. Another focus of software development is the improvement of data integration resulting from the various genomic and postgenomic techniques such as genome annotation employing GenDB and transcriptomics using the EMMA software. For the easy and fast access to data by users, a Data Warehouse has been established. In addition, the Data Warehouse ensures the integration of heterogeneous data, e.g. from RT-PCR experiments.

Technology Node - Transcriptomics:

The major task of the TN-Transcriptomics is to provide centralized  experimental support in transcriptomics which is a key issue of the research of most partners of the Bielefeld network.  Experimental support by the TN-Transcriptomics refers to the  construction of genome-wide microarrays, their hybridisation as well as the provision of the resulting data to the partners. In addition, the technology node trains partners of the network in the relevant experimental techniques.

The technology node also makes available its infrastructure to partners performing low-throughput proteomics  or metabolomics experiments.