Scientific projects

Larkbio has contributed to the success of many research projects with a variety of topics and scope. With an even increased focus on European joint research in the next decade, our background and expertise should be a valuable asset in any relevant consortia.

MYHEALTHAVATAR

MyHealthAvatar is an attempt at a proof of concept for the digital representation of patient health status. It is designed as a lifetime companion for individual citizens that will facilitate the collection of, and access to, long-term health-status information. It is funded by the European Commission as a high impact project within its seventh framework program (FP7).

Apart from playing an active part in the scientific tasks of the project, Larkbio is the leader of the ‘Exploitation’ work package. This includes identifying possible exploitation scenarios, specifying procedures and IPR management, identifying possible early adopters and preparing a Business Plan.

More: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/myhealthavatar-your-digital-health-status-through-app

METAGENOME ANALYSIS OF MOSS-ASSOCIATED MICROBIOME (FFG)

The aim of the project is to run a metagenomics analysis in order to explore the ecology and biotechnological potential of the microbiome of Sphagnum-dominated wetlands.

As part of the project Larkbio has done raw data analysis of the metagenomic sequence data, sequence based filtering and diversity estimation. We have assessed two different sample collection methods. The steps of the analysis were: (1) Raw data quality analysis; (2) Blast against the NCBI nr database; (3) Filtering; (4) Species diversity analysis

For more information on the project please visit: http://www.acib.at

DRSCREEN: DEVELOPING A COMPUTER-BASED IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR DIABETIC RETINOPATHY SCREENING

The aim of the project is to develop an automated image analysing system for retinopathy screening (ophthalmological application). The function of the system being developed in the project is to separate the pathological and the normal retina by the digital images. Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, England) – one of the most prestigious eye clinic in the world – will be involved in the research and the clinical validation.

The proper segmentation of the vascular system of the retina has a very important role in automatic screening systems. Larkbio developed a framework which assembles several preprocessing methods to strengthen the detection accuracy of the individual approaches. The proposed method has proved its superiority over the individual algorithms as it produced the best results in a worldwide competition dedicated to measure the accuracy of microaneurysm detectors.

For more information on the project please visit: http://drscreen.eu/drscreen/fooldal.html

SCHIZO: BIOBANK BASED BIOMARKER DISCOVERY AND MOLECULAR MECHANISM RESEARCH TO SUPPORT ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUG DEVELOPMENT

A particular drug was found more effective on a certain group of schizophrenic patients. Scientists who were involved suspected a pharmacogenetic explanation behind the difference in drug response. The aim of the project was the identification of genetic markers – enabling the preliminary grouping of patients. Project partners set up a biobank and organized the collection of clinical data as well as human samples. The actual experiments involved microarray and next generation sequencing.

Larkbio had two main responsibilities within the project:

  1. Creation and maintenance of the IT system behind the biobank.
  2. Performing the complete secondary and tertiary data analysis using genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and phenotypic data.

For more information on the project please visit: http://www.schizobank.hu/ 

JOINT RESEARCH ON MELANOMA THERAPY

Identification of tumor associated antigens that can be targeted for enhanced anti-tumor immunity (vaccination) is a new possibility of tumor therapy. In this joint research partners mutually delivered experimental data on melanoma to elaborate an mRNA designing bioinformatic pipeline for controlled gene delivery.

Larkbio constructed a molecular model comprising the necessary elements of a stable mRNA transcription and subsequent protein translation. More optimization strategies and options were included regarding the nature of the host cell or the different expression conditions. Finally, the pipeline was used to generate mRNA sequences coding for variable length and stability proteins being capable of evoking strong anti-melanoma autoimmunity. Optimized sequences along with the applied methodology were submitted to the French partner for testing and validation in melanoma cell lines and mice.