April 2020: Merging with Data Science for Health applications
The MBI-DS4H platform now shares resources in structural bioinformatics, complex networks, knowledge graphs and large graphs, text and data mining for knowledge discovery in health applications.
It is mostly used by two teams at the Loria : Capsid and Orpailleur.
It receives technical support by three engineers from SISR : Jonathan Alcuta (50%), Patrice Ringot (20%) and Antoine Falcone (10%).
The MBI-DS4H platform benefits for its material equipment from the financial support of CPER Santé (IT2MP) and FEDER of the Region Lorraine. It is an integral part of the SMEC platform (Simulation, Modélisation et Extraction de Connaissances).
2006-2014: CPER MISN project
The MBI platform (Modelling of Biomolecules and their Interactions) was created in the frame of the Lorraine CPER MISN project at the LORIA (2006-2014). It was organized as an INRIA experimental research platform to be used for collaborative research projects between biologists from outside the Loria and informaticians at the Loria (about 6 and 14 persons respectively).
The general goal of this project was to develop new algorithms and methods for studying biomolecules interactions using knowledge-based approaches. Thus the main activities run on the MBI platform concerned structural bioinformatics and complex biological data integration and mining. Interdisciplinar research operations were evaluated by the CPER MISN scientific committee every year from 2006 to 2013. Bioinfo days were organized in october 2008 and in october 2012 to present the results obtained by each MBI operation.
In 2011 the MBI platform joined the North-East (NE) node of the French RENABI Network of Bioinformatics Platforms. The NE node of RENABI groups the Lille, Strasbourg, Reims and Nancy bioinformatics platform and is coordinated by Maude Pupin in Lille.
In 2012 the MBI platform and the NE node of the French RENABI network joined the French Institute of Bioinformatics.
2015-2020: CPER IT2MP project
From 2015 till now, the MBI platform contributes to the building of the SMEC platform (Simulation, Modélisation et Extraction de Connaissances) which is one of the four inter-connected platforms that support the ambitious IT2MP project (Innovations Technologiques, Modélisation et Médecine Personnalisée) carried by Professor Faïez Zannad (CIC-P) and since 2018 by Professor Jacques Felblinger (IADI) from the Regional University Hospital of Nancy (CHRU Nancy) and involving numerous teams of the University of Lorraine, CNRS, Inria and INSERM laboratories in the Lorraine region.
The SMEC platform proposes resources for (i) high-performance simulation of multi-component protein complexes and (ii) for big-data analyses from biological and biomedical databases using statistic and symbolic methods for knowledge discovery.
Contacts SMEC: Marie-Dominique Devignes and Malika Smaïl-Tabbone (Loria, team Capsid), Éliane Albuisson (IECL and CHRU) and François Dehez (LPCT, Nancy).
in 2017, the MBI platform joined the new IFB project at the French Institute of Bioinformatics.
Functionning of the MBI platform (2006-2014)
During the CPER MISN (2006-2014), the MBI operation committee has been coordinated by Marie-Dominique Devignes, scientist in the Orpailleur team at the Loria. This committee was formed by all the MBI operation leaders and used to meet every year to decide on the use of the MBI budget for the operations needs and for the MBI platform.
The MBI platform was mostly used at the Loria by the ORPAILLEUR team. External users were external partners of the MBI operations such as INRA (IaM laboratory), INPL (ENSAIA) and Nancy University (Laboratory of Genetics and Microbiology).
