Inhaltspezifische Aktionen

JLU bioinformatician Stefan Janssen included in the RTG

For its current second funding period the RTG 2355 expanded its research focus to investigate the functional contributions of RNA structure and structural rearrangements. In order to better address this yet under-studied aspect of RNA biology and to foster respective collaborations, we recently included Prof. Dr. Stefan Janssen, bioinformatician at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, in our consortium.

Stefan Janssen has designed algorithms for RNA secondary structure prediction for almost fifteen years. He co-developed the high-level abstraction language and compiler Bellman’s GAP as an implementation of the so-called algebraic dynamic programming discipline which strictly separates the different aspects of RNA secondary structure prediction into independent and therefore reusable modules; this modularization liberates users from subscripts and other technical hurdles and thus allows them to focus on modeling aspects. With Bellman's GAP, Stefan Janssen and colleagues were furthermore able to re-implement the major RNA secondary structure prediction programs RNAfold, mfold, its successor UNAfold and RNAstructure to compare the energetic contributions of dangling bases within just one study, and to extend secondary structure prediction to H-type pseudoknots. Stefan Janssen will enable us to make better use of the biological data generated within the RTG, and furthermore to contribute significantly to the yet-understudied field of RNA secondary structure prediction. Welcome, Stefan Janssen!