Blood Samples From the Zoo

Researchers want to use similar genetic patterns, which have been present in the blood of humans and animals, to improve computer-badisted disease prognosis.

The research project is unusual for bioinformaticians not only because of the cooperation with the zoo. Andreas Keller, bioinformatics professor at Saarland University, explains: "Measuring the molecular blood profiles of animals has never been done before," Keller and Eckart Meese, a human geneticist from Saarbrücken, badyzed blood samples from 21 animals. Zoo director Richard Francke had collected the blood during routine examinations between 2016 and 2018 and made it available to the scientists. In fact, these scientists generally investigate biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's earlier and better. "Micro-RNAs are well suited for this," says Andreas Keller.

"These are short sections of specific molecules in ribonucleic acid that play an important role in the control of these methods, including the use of modern bioinformatic methods, including machine learning, a method of artificial intelligence. to a challenge in which the animals from the two Saarland zoos can help. "Up to 20 million data points are collected per (human) patient. The machine learning methods recognize the typical patterns, for example for a lung tumor or Alzheimer's disease. However, it is difficult for artificial intelligence to learn which biomarker patterns are real and which only seems to fit the respective clinical picture. "This is where the blood samples of the animals come into play.

"If a biomarker is evolutionarily conserved, i.e. also occurs in other species in similar form and function, it is much more likely that it is a resilient biomarker," explains Professor Keller. For this reason, the researchers badyzed the results of the blood samples taken from the animals. A total of 21 samples were taken from 19 animal species, including a Humboldt penguin. "The new findings are becoming more accurate in the future," explains Keller.

The researchers from Saarbrücken have published their results in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. In addition, they have set up a database in which they also enter their current results. So far, scientists have examined the blood of a total of 40 animals, including an anaconda and a kangaroo. Scientists from all over the world. The research project was financially supported by the state government of Saarland.