The project name ‘DiASPora’ stands for ‘Digital Approaches for the Synthesis of Poorly Accessible Biodiversity Information’. DiASPora is a joint venture of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, the German Central Technical Library (TIB) – Leibniz-Information Center Technology and Natural Sciences and the German Central Library for Medicine (ZB MED) – Information Center Life Sciences. The partners plan to use digital methods to find, bring together and publish information on the biodiversity of bacteria that is currently difficult to access but highly relevant. During a meeting on 26th November 2019, the Senate of the Leibniz-Community decided to sponsor the initiative over a three year period with roughly 1 million Euros with funds from the Leibniz Competition.
DiASPora aims to improve the integration, accessibility and manageability of information on bacterial biodiversity. To this end, currently available information is gathered and processed from a multitude of sources, including more than 150 scientific journals. “The project uses the established de.NBI database BacDive to link data in machine-readable form, making it easily accessible”, explains Prof. Dr. Jörg Overman, Scientific Director of the Leibniz-Institute DSMZ in Braunschweig and DiASPora coordinator. “At the same time, we are developing new bio-informatic tools that enable multidimensional analyses of these widely divergent molecular, phenotypical and ecologic data. Our ultimate goal here is to make bacterial properties predictable. This way, the project will make a valuable contribution to Life Sciences Research in Germany.”
Researchers from a multitude of disciplines will use their different methods to work together within the framework of the project. These experts provide competences in microbiology, informatics, semantic knowledge management, data sciences, software development, text mining and bio-informatics, linking various complementary approaches: manual curation, text mining, inferences by bio-informatic methods and machine learning. “In this project we will work both with established methods and with new tools to find, standardize and consequently link these diverse and heterogenous data”, continues Prof. Overmann. “The integration of these bio-diversity data by digitalization and the latest data-scientific methods will allow us to gain completely new scientific insights and, on that basis, ultimately discover innovative practical applications.”
Creating a semantic data network plays an important role in this respect, as Prof. Dr. Sören Auer of the TIB points out. “Vocabularies and ontologies let us convert microbiologic data of the BacDive database into a machine-readable format with the help of the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The transformed data are consequently used to establish a Knowledge Graph, which enables innovative search possibilities to discover new scientific findings and data connections that were hidden until now.”
According to a statement by the Leibniz Senate Committee, DiASPora deals with a contemporary issue of great importance, covering a wide variety of areas from environmental protection to health care; the project was deemed to be both innovative and extraordinary as well as very convincing. Its interdisciplinary research consortium was found to be excellent, professionally complementary and to promise a high level of synergies. The partner organizations involved were highly distinguished and offered an outstanding, appropriate institutional framework. “We look forward to implementing this interdisciplinary project together with the DSMZ and TIB“, states Prof. Dr. Konrad Förstner, project manager at ZB MED. “We have put together a unique package of expertise. The joint application of text mining of academic literature and bioinformatic methods as well as the transfer of results into machine-readable formats to expand the Knowledge Graph has great potential to significantly increase our microbiological knowledge.”
The Leibniz Community has a competition procedure to support various programs that serve to reach strategic objectives within the framework of the pact for research and innovation. DiASPora is supported within the Leibniz Cooperative Excellence program. This year, 89 applicants have participated in the Leibniz Competition; 27 programs will be included in the sponsorship.
Background Informations:
Leibniz Institute DSMZ
The Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures is the world's most diverse collection of biological resources (bacteria, archaea, protists, yeasts, fun-gi, bacteriophages, plant viruses, genomic bacterial DNA as well as human and animal cell lines). Microorganisms and cell cultures are collected, investigated and archived at the DSMZ. As an institution of the Leibniz Association, the DSMZ with its extensive scientific services and biological resources has been a global partner for research, science and industry since 1969. The DSMZ is the first registered collection in Europe (Regulation (EU) No. 511/2014) and certified according to the quality standard ISO 9001:2015. As a patent depository, it offers the only possibility in Germany to deposit biological material in accordance with the requirements of the Budapest Treaty. In addition to scientific services, research is the second pillar of the DSMZ. The institute, located on the Science Campus Braunschweig-Süd, accommodates more than 72,500 cultures and biomaterials and has 198 employees. www.dsmz.de
Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
Dept. of Press and Communication
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ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences
As a key component of German and European information infrastructure, ZB MED is the central partner for the life sciences, including medicine, biodiversity, environmental protection and beyond. The institute as it exists today has evolved from a former library. With its expanding collections of literature, databases, and research data, ZB MED supports researchers in acquiring new information and insights – both locally in Cologne and Bonn, and nationwide. ZB MED offers digital value-added services via LIVIVO – the semantic-based search engine, and PUBLISSO – the open access publication platform. Another key area of focus is the teaching of information and data competence. ZB MED conducts its own application-based data science research with the aim of developing products and services to support life science research. Researchers at ZB MED aggregate, apply, and combine heterogeneous data, information, and literature, which enables new approaches to research. The focus here is on semantic-based methods, automated processes, as well as text and data-mining. The promotion of open science is one of ZB MED’s core priorities. ZB MED is a foundation under German public law.
Find out more at www.zbmed.de
ZB MED – Information Center for Life Sciences
Ulrike Ostrzinski, Press Officer
Gleueler Str. 60
50931 Köln
Phone: +49 (0) 221 478-5687
Email: pressestelle(at)zbmed.de