Scientists exploring human cell division with online movies

Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany have made available the resource that they have been using to observe how different genes affect cells in the human body.

The Heidelberg-based research unit – alongside their collaborators in the Mitocheck consortium – use ‘movie’ clips to show how cells will fare when specific genes in the human body are switched off. In particular, they have examined the genes involved in mitosis, the most common form of cell division. “Without mitosis, nothing happens in life, really,” says Jan Ellenberg, leader of the study at EMBL.

Around 600 of the 22,000 genes in each human cell are involved in mitosis, and the researchers needed simulations to understand how cell division would be affected if particular genes were ‘turned off’. The research team inactivated each of the 22,000 genes and one by one in a different set of cells, then filmed these cells under a microscope and generated time-lapse movies showing how the cells reacted to the deactivation of the gene. In generating and using all of these movies, the team needed to create a new software system.

The end result is that we now have a very rich resource for the scientific community, as we’re making all the movies and all the analysis data freely available online,” explains Ellenberg. “Scientists can go to the website, type in the name of their favourite gene, and watch what happens when it is silenced; they can find out what other genes have similar effects – all in a few mouse clicks, instead of months or years of work in the lab!”

This view of sharing computational resources is one echoed by Iain Mattaj, Director General of the EMBL. In an exclusive interview with Projects, Professor Mattaj discusses the importance of emerging grid technologies in EMBL making their software resources available to research institutions across the world. Mattaj reiterates Ellenberg’s thoughts, explaining that the organisation is responsible for maintaining and providing databases, giving access to corebiomedical and biomolecular information collected throughout the world by researchers. “[EMBL] helps fulfil the gap between genotype and phenotype, developing technologies and methods which should be useful in filling the gap.

“Advances in computational power, including grid and cloud, are of great importance to biomedical research. EMBL organise the one database dedicated to protein sequencing… but databases are accessible to all.”

Subscribe to Projects Magazine to read the full interview with Professor Mattaj and the latest in European research.

More information on the EMBL can be found on their website.

Published: Friday, 9th April 2010 by Tom Freeman

Comment on this article

Comments

No comments for this article, be the first to comment