A push for advanced biology in Turkey
Disciplines such as computational structural biology and biomaterials can facilitate a range of scientific and medical applications, widening the European Research Area (ERA) and contributing to the knowledge economy. The EU-funded project 'Towards excellence in computational structural biology and biomaterials' (Cosbiom) aimed to strengthen these disciplines at the Polymer Research Center (PRC) in Istanbul, Turkey. To achieve this, the project team built links with other European research centres, particularly with respect to mobility of visiting scientists, researchers and post-doctoral fellows. It upgraded the PRC's computational and experimental capabilities through improved human resources and helped the Center prepare new EU project proposals. The project built and launched the Cosbiom hybrid computational and data grid infrastructure in 2008, enabling the PRC to share resources and exchange data with other biology grids in Europe. The web-based Cosbiom information system represented the most important achievement of the project, leading to the development of novel computational approaches in structural biology to address important health-related issues. This also facilitates stereo-selective synthesis of drugs, as well as design and synthesis of novel multifunctional polymers with applications in dentistry and nanotechnology. Overall, Cosbiom has played an important role in advancing genomics in health applications, basic biological processes, bioinformatics, biomaterials and multifunctional materials. It has supported the PRC in several ways and has put Turkey on the road to joining a powerful European platform in health science. The project's dissemination of results through Cosbiom's website and through a number of publications and conferences should help ensure ongoing research in this area for all of Europe.
