A James Cook University scientist is part of an international team that’s used new ‘big data’ analysis to achieve a major advance in understanding neurological disorders such as Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr Ashley Waardenberg, a Theme Leader from JCU’s Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, said scientists from JCU, The Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney, University of Southern Denmark and Bonn University (Germany) looked at how neurons in the brain communicated with each other.
“We studied the synapse – the communication hotspot between neurons – which is a place where neurological disorders and diseases can interfere with the brain’s normal functions,” said Dr Waardenberg.
“We aimed to use new methods for mapping the protein pathways that neurons use to communicate with each other (neurotransmission) and tried to see if we could identify patterns of activity related to memory.”
“A key part of the project that I led was to develop new computational methods to assess the very large amount of data that we collected. This led to the discovery of the major proteins responsible for the changes observed in the neurons,” said Dr Waardenberg.
He said the discoveries open up many new avenues for studying the protein pathways underlying neurotransmission and how they might be linked to neurological diseases and disorders.
Dr Waardenberg said the breakthrough demonstrates how new computational methods are needed to develop insights from ‘big data’.
He said the team of scientists is releasing the paper detailing the computational methods and the thousands of new proteins sites identified as a resource to the scientific community.
“We hope that this resource will help our future understanding of neuron signaling and memory. The discovery has very important implications for understanding the mechanisms of neurotransmission and neurological disorders,” he said.
Dr Waardenberg is now aiming to establish these new methods at JCU and continue to develop new computational methods for tackling tropical diseases such as malaria.
Learn more: Big data takes aim at a big human problem
The Latest on: Big data
[google_news title=”” keyword=”big data” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Big data
- In race to build artificial intelligence, tech plans a big plumbing upgradeon April 28, 2024 at 5:57 am
The money being thrown at technology to support artificial intelligence is also a reminder of spending patterns of the dot-com boom of the 1990s ...
- Advice about 401(k) rollovers is poised for a big change. Here's whyon April 28, 2024 at 5:30 am
Rollovers from 401(k) plans to individual retirement accounts are a key focus of a new Labor Department rule that aims to raise the bar for retirement advice.
- It's still painfully expensive to buy a house, but relief could be on the wayon April 26, 2024 at 1:42 pm
Mortgage rates climbed to 7.1%, marking the third straight week of gains. Here's a look at what to expect from the housing market in the months ahead.
- Big Data From Assembly Tools Raise Quality at Volvo Truckson April 26, 2024 at 6:15 am
Every time an assembler uses an electric fastening tool at the Volvo Group truck factory here, the data from the operation is logged and stored. Engineers are now using that data to increase quality.
- Google Thinks It Can Cash In on Generative AI. Microsoft Already Hason April 25, 2024 at 6:29 pm
While both Alphabet and Microsoft boasted strong quarterly earnings, only one tech giant showed that its generative AI bet is starting to pay off.
- Rubrik’s stock pops in IPO debut as CEO sees big opportunity in data protectionon April 25, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Shares of Rubrik RBRK, +16.00% opened at $38.60, 21% above their initial-public-offering price of $32. The first trade was executed at 12:47 p.m. Eastern time for 2.7 million shares. The cybersecurity ...
- Stock Market Today: Stocks tumble as GDP slows with inflation spike; Meta plungeson April 25, 2024 at 8:22 am
Big Tech earnings and GDP data are in focus as markets look to defend a largely positive week for the S&P 500.
- Mamaearth Parent Bets On Made-For-India Goods In World's Fastest Growing Beauty Marketon April 24, 2024 at 4:30 pm
Honasa Consumer Ltd., the newly listed parent of India’s personal-care brand Mamaearth, is taking on global giants in the world’s fastest-growing beauty market with onion hair oil and ...
- Apache Celeborn Elevates to Top-Level Project, Revolutionizing Big Data Computingon April 24, 2024 at 4:00 pm
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced this week that Apache Celeborn has been promoted from an incubator project to a Top-Level Project (TLP). Designed as an intermediate ...
- The Coolest Big Data Management And Integration Tool Companies Of The 2024 Big Data 100on April 23, 2024 at 3:48 pm
Data management and data integration software is one of the most dynamic segments of the big data universe with hundreds of vendors providing software products for specific data management tasks or ...
via Bing News