Publications

21 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 21

Abstract (Expand)

The successful determination and analysis of phenotypes plays a key role in the diagnostic process, the evaluation of risk factors and the recruitment of participants for clinical and epidemiological studies. The development of computable phenotype algorithms to solve these tasks is a challenging problem, caused by various reasons. Firstly, the term ‘phenotype’ has no generally agreed definition and its meaning depends on context. Secondly, the phenotypes are most commonly specified as non-computable descriptive documents. Recent attempts have shown that ontologies are a suitable way to handle phenotypes and that they can support clinical research and decision making. The SMITH Consortium is dedicated to rapidly establish an integrative medical informatics framework to provide physicians with the best available data and knowledge and enable innovative use of healthcare data for research and treatment optimization. In the context of a methodological use case “phenotype pipeline” (PheP), a technology to automatically generate phenotype classifications and annotations based on electronic health records (EHR) is developed. A large series of phenotype algorithms will be implemented. This implies that for each algorithm a classification scheme and its input variables have to be defined. Furthermore, a phenotype engine is required to evaluate and execute developed algorithms. In this article we present a Core Ontology of Phenotypes (COP) and a software Phenotype Manager (PhenoMan), which implements a novel ontology-based method to model and calculate phenotypes. Our solution includes an enhanced iterative reasoning process combining classification tasks with mathematical calculations at runtime. The ontology as well as the reasoning method were successfully evaluated based on different phenotypes (including SOFA score, socioeconomic status, body surface area and WHO BMI classification) and several data sets.

Authors: Alexandr Uciteli, Christoph Beger, Toralf Kirsten, Frank A. Meineke, Heinrich Herre

Date Published: 20th Dec 2019

Publication Type: InProceedings

Abstract (Expand)

Die Notwendigkeit des Managements von Forschungsdaten ist von der Forschungscommunity erkannt – Sponsoren, Gesetzgeber, Verlage erwarten und fördern die Einhaltung der guten wissenschaftlichen Praxis, was nicht nur die Archivierung umfasst, sondern auch die Verfügbarkeit von Forschungsdaten- und ergebnissen im Sinne der FAIR-Prinzipien. Der Leipzig Health Atlas (LHA) ist ein Projekt zur Präsentation und zum Austausch eines breiten Spektrums von Publikationen, (bio) medizinischen Daten (z.B. klinisch, epidemiologisch, molekular), Modellen und Tools z.B. zur Risikoberechnung in der Gesundheitsforschung. Die Verbundpartner decken hierbei einen breiten Bereich wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen ab, beginnend von medizinischer Systembiologie über klinische und epidemiologische Forschung bis zu ontologischer und dynamischer Modellierung. Derzeit sind 18 Forschungskonsortien beteiligt (u.a. zu den Domänen Lymphome, Gliome, Sepsis, Erblicher Darm- und Brustkrebs), die Daten aus klinischen Studien, Patientenkohorten, epidemiologischen Kohorten, teilweise mit umfangreichen molekularen und genetischen Profilen, sammeln. Die Modellierung umfasst algorithmische Phänotypklassifizierung, Risikovorhersage und Krankheitsdynamik. Wir konnten in einer ersten Entwicklungsphase zeigen, dass unsere webbasierte Plattform geeignet ist, um (1) Methoden zur Verfügung zu stellen, um individuelle Patientendaten aus Publikationen für eine Weiternutzung zugänglich zu machen, (2) algorithmische Werkzeuge zur Phänotypisierung und Risikoprofilerstellung zu präsentieren, (3) Werkzeuge zur Durchführung dynamischer Krankheits- und Therapiemodelle interaktiv verfügbar zu machen und (4) strukturierte Metadaten zu quantitativen und qualitativen Merkmalen bereit zu stellen. Die semantische Datenintegration liefert hierzu die Technologien (Ontologien und Datamining Werkzeuge) für die (semantische) Datenintegration und Wissensanreicherung. Darüber hinaus stellt sie Werkzeuge zur Verknüpfung eigener Daten, Analyseergebnisse, öffentlich zugänglicher Daten- und Metadaten-Repositorien sowie zur Verdichtung komplexer Daten zur Verfügung. Eine Arbeitsgruppe zur Applikationsentwicklung und –validierung entwickelt innovative paradigmatische Anwendungen für (1) die klinische Entscheidungsfindung für Krebsstudien, die genetische Beratung, für Risikovorhersagemodelle sowie Gewebe- und Krankheitsmodelle und (2) Anwendungen (sog. Apps), die sich auf die Charakterisierung neuer Phänotypen (z.B. ‚omics‘-Merkmale, Körpertypen, Referenzwerte) aus epidemiologischen Studien konzentrieren. Diese Anwendungen werden gemeinsam mit klinischen Experten, Genetikern, Systembiologen, Biometrikern und Bioinformatikern spezifiziert. Der LHA stellt Integrationstechnologie bereit und implementiert die Anwendungen für die User Communities unter Verwendung verschiedener Präsentationswerkzeuge bzw. Technologien (z.B. R-Shiny, i2b2, Kubernetes, SEEK). Dazu ist es erforderlich, die Daten und Metadaten vor dem Hochladen zu kuratieren, Erlaubnisse der Datenbesitzer einzuholen, die erforderlichen Datenschutzkriterien zu berücksichtigen und semantische Annotationen zu überprüfen. Zudem werden die zugelieferten Modellalgorithmen in einer qualitätsgesicherten Weise aufbereitet und, soweit anwendbar, online interaktiv zur Verfügung gestellt. Der LHA richtet sich insbesondere an die Zielgruppen Kliniker, Epidemiologen, Molekulargenetiker, Humangenetiker, Pathologen, Biostatistiker und Modellierer ist aber unter www.healthatlas.de öffentlich zugänglich – aus rechtlichen Gründen erfordert der Zugriff auf bestimmte Applikationen und Datensätze zusätzliche Autorisierung. Das Projekt wird über das BMBF Programm i:DSem (Integrative Datensemantik für die Systemmedizin, Förderkennzeichen 031L0026) gefördert.

Authors: F. A. Meineke, Sebastian Stäubert, Matthias Löbe, C. Beger, René Hänsel, A. Uciteli, H. Binder, T. Kirsten, M. Scholz, H. Herre, C. Engel, Markus Löffler

Date Published: 19th Sep 2019

Publication Type: Misc

Abstract (Expand)

The study of congenital virus infections in humans requires suitable ex vivo platforms for the species-specific events during embryonal development. A prominent example for these infections is rubella virus (RV) which most commonly leads to defects in ear, heart, and eye development. We applied teratogenic RV to human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) followed by differentiation into cells of the three embryonic lineages (ecto-, meso-, and endoderm) as a cell culture model for blastocyst- and gastrulation-like stages. In the presence of RV, lineage-specific differentiation markers were expressed, indicating that lineage identity was maintained. However, portrait analysis of the transcriptomic expression signatures of all samples revealed that mock- and RV-infected endodermal cells were less related to each other than their ecto- and mesodermal counterparts. Markers for definitive endoderm were increased during RV infection. Profound alterations of the epigenetic landscape including the expression level of components of the chromatin remodeling complexes and an induction of type III interferons were found, especially after endodermal differentiation of RV-infected iPSCs. Moreover, the eye field transcription factors RAX and SIX3 and components of the gene set vasculogenesis were identified as dysregulated transcripts. Although iPSC morphology was maintained, the formation of embryoid bodies as three-dimensional cell aggregates and as such cellular adhesion capacity was impaired during RV infection. The correlation of the molecular alterations induced by RV during differentiation of iPSCs with the clinical signs of congenital rubella syndrome suggests mechanisms of viral impairment of human development.

Authors: N. C. Bilz, E. Willscher, H. Binder, J. Bohnke, M. L. Stanifer, D. Hubner, S. Boulant, U. G. Liebert, C. Claus

Date Published: 10th Aug 2019

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

Background: During the last decades a number of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) has identified numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with different complex diseases. However, associations reported in one population are often conflicting and did not replicate when studied in other populations. One of the reasons could be that most GWAS employ a case-control design in one or a limited number of populations, but little attention was paid to the global distribution of disease-associated alleles across different populations. Moreover, the majority of GWAS have been performed on selected European, African, and Chinese populations and the considerable number of populations remains understudied. Aim: We have investigated the global distribution of so far discovered disease-associated SNPs across worldwide populations of different ancestry and geographical regions with a special focus on the understudied population of Armenians. Data and Methods: We have used genotyping data from the Human Genome Diversity Project and of Armenian population and combined them with disease-associated SNP data taken from public repositories leading to a final dataset of 44,234 markers. Their frequency distribution across 1039 individuals from 53 populations was analyzed using self-organizing maps (SOM) machine learning. Our SOM portrayal approach reduces data dimensionality, clusters SNPs with similar frequency profiles and provides two-dimensional data images which enable visual evaluation of disease-associated SNPs landscapes among human populations. Results: We find that populations from Africa, Oceania, and America show specific patterns of minor allele frequencies of disease-associated SNPs, while populations from Europe, Middle East, Central South Asia, and Armenia mostly share similar patterns. Importantly, different sets of SNPs associated with common polygenic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, neurodegeneration in populations from different geographic regions. Armenians are characterized by a set of SNPs that are distinct from other populations from the neighboring geographical regions. Conclusion: Genetic associations of diseases considerably vary across populations which necessitates health-related genotyping efforts especially for so far understudied populations. SOM portrayal represents novel promising methods in population genetic research with special strength in visualization-based comparison of SNP data.

Authors: M. Nikoghosyan, S. Hakobyan, A. Hovhannisyan, H. Loeffler-Wirth, H. Binder, A. Arakelyan

Date Published: 21st May 2019

Publication Type: Journal article

Abstract (Expand)

INTRODUCTION: Autoinflammatory and autoimmune disorders are characterized by aberrant changes in innate and adaptive immunity that may lead from an initial inflammatory state to an organ specific damage. These disorders possess heterogeneity in terms of affected organs and clinical phenotypes. However, despite the differences in etiology and phenotypic variations, they share genetic associations, treatment responses and clinical manifestations. The mechanisms involved in their initiation and development remain poorly understood, however the existence of some clear similarities between autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders indicates variable degrees of interaction between immune-related mechanisms. METHODS: Our study aims at contributing to a holistic, pathway-centered view on the inflammatory condition of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. We have evaluated similarities and specificities of pathway activity changes in twelve autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders by performing meta-analysis of publicly available gene expression datasets generated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells, using a bioinformatics pipeline that integrates Self Organizing Maps and Pathway Signal Flow algorithms along with KEGG pathway topologies. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal that clinically divergent disease groups share common pathway perturbation profiles. We identified pathways, similarly perturbed in all the studied diseases, such as PI3K-Akt, Toll-like receptor, and NF-kappa B signaling, that serve as integrators of signals guiding immune cell polarization, migration, growth, survival and differentiation. Further, two clusters of diseases were identified based on specifically dysregulated pathways: one gathering mostly autoimmune and the other mainly autoinflammatory diseases. Cluster separation was driven not only by apparent involvement of pathways implicated in adaptive immunity in one case, and inflammation in the other, but also by processes not explicitly related to immune response, but rather representing various events related to the formation of specific pathophysiological environment. Thus, our data suggest that while all of the studied diseases are affected by activation of common inflammatory processes, disease-specific variations in their relative balance are also identified.

Authors: A. Arakelyan, L. Nersisyan, D. Poghosyan, L. Khondkaryan, A. Hakobyan, H. Loffler-Wirth, E. Melanitou, H. Binder

Date Published: 4th Nov 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

The SNP variant rs2943650 near IRS1 gene locus was previously associated with decreased body fat and IRS1 gene expression as well as an adverse metabolic profile in humans. Here, we hypothesize that these effects may be mediated by an interplay with epigenetic alterations. We measured IRS1 promoter DNA methylation and mRNA expression in paired human subcutaneous and omental visceral adipose tissue samples (SAT and OVAT) from 146 and 41 individuals, respectively. Genotyping of rs2943650 was performed in all individuals (N = 146). We observed a significantly higher IRS1 promoter DNA methylation in OVAT compared to SAT (N = 146, P = 8.0 x 10(-6)), while expression levels show the opposite effect direction (N = 41, P = 0.011). OVAT and SAT methylation correlated negatively with IRS1 gene expression in obese subjects (N = 16, P = 0.007 and P = 0.010). The major T-allele is related to increased DNA methylation in OVAT (N = 146, P = 0.019). Finally, DNA methylation and gene expression in OVAT correlated with anthropometric traits (waist- circumference waist-to-hip ratio) and parameters of glucose metabolism in obese individuals. Our data suggest that the association between rs2943650 near the IRS1 gene locus with clinically relevant variables may at least be modulated by changes in DNA methylation that translates into altered IRS1 gene expression.

Authors: K. Rohde, M. Klos, L. Hopp, X. Liu, M. Keller, M. Stumvoll, A. Dietrich, M. R. Schon, D. Gartner, T. Lohmann, M. Dressler, P. Kovacs, H. Binder, M. Bluher, Y. Bottcher

Date Published: 28th Sep 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Abstract (Expand)

OBJECTIVE/METHODS: DNA methylation plays an important role in obesity and related metabolic complications. We examined genome-wide DNA promoter methylation along with mRNA profiles in paired samples of human subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and omental visceral adipose tissue (OVAT) from non-obese vs. obese individuals. RESULTS: We identified negatively correlated methylation and expression of several obesity-associated genes in our discovery dataset and in silico replicated ETV6 in two independent cohorts. Further, we identified six adipose tissue depot-specific genes (HAND2, HOXC6, PPARG, SORBS2, CD36, and CLDN1). The effects were further supported in additional independent cohorts. Our top hits might play a role in adipogenesis and differentiation, obesity, lipid metabolism, and adipose tissue expandability. Finally, we show that in vitro methylation of SORBS2 directly represses gene expression. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data show distinct tissue specific epigenetic alterations which associate with obesity.

Authors: M. Keller, L. Hopp, X. Liu, T. Wohland, K. Rohde, R. Cancello, M. Klos, K. Bacos, M. Kern, F. Eichelmann, A. Dietrich, M. R. Schon, D. Gartner, T. Lohmann, M. Dressler, M. Stumvoll, P. Kovacs, A. M. DiBlasio, C. Ling, H. Binder, M. Bluher, Y. Bottcher

Date Published: 27th Jan 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Human Diseases: obesity

Powered by
(v.1.13.0-master)
Copyright © 2008 - 2021 The University of Manchester and HITS gGmbH
Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, University of Leipzig

By continuing to use this site you agree to the use of cookies