Projects
- Is Quantum Information Approach Suitable For Modelling Genetic Code?
Since the early 1950s, marked by the revolutionary discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by F. Crick and J. Watson, Biology has probably been developing most intensively compared to other natural sciences. A lot of empirical data have already been revealed using increasingly sophisticated methods. In spite of a remarkable progress made during the last century, Theoretical Foundations of Biology still remain in a nascent state, which can be compared with the state of Theoretical Physics before Newton. This is the reason why it is necessary to search for a reliable theoretical basis especially in the modelling of the genetic code. This project aims to show the possibilities of modelling the information content carried by quantum mechanical DNA-molecules by means of the formalism used in quantum informatics. Such modelling would open new options to reveal nature’s information patents and to use them, for instance, in quantum computing and artificial intelligence (A.I.) Moreover, it would give an opportunity to understand the ways of managing information in living organisms. As an empirical base, the open accessible data from GenBank which contains hundreds of millions of long DNA texts collected from thousands of organisms can be used.
The project is being conducted by Professor Dr. Elena Fimmel in cooperation with the Laboratory of biomechanical systems of the Mechanical Engineering Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for six months starting in September 2021.
- Uncrackable encryption from other universes of set theory Project funded by the Vector Foundation
Ordinary cryptographic methods to encrypt data are usually based on the limitations of memory, speed and capacity of modern computers. For instance, the RSA method uses the product of two large prime numbers and for decrypting the message the unique prime factor decomposition of the product is needed which takes even the best super computers inefficiently long. However, in theory it is possible to crack this kind of codes. The search for provably uncrackable encryption is therefore of greatest importance.
In the project Professor Dr. Lutz Strüngmann will combine cryptography and set theory which is a novel attempt to produce a new method for encryption. More explicitly, it is the idea to use the method of forcing which is well-known in set theory and turn it into an encryption algorithm. If this works theoretically we will also implement the algorithm and produce a corresponding software.
The project is funded by the Vector Foundation within the MINT program for one year and starts in January 2018. We would like to thank the Vector foundation for their kind support. - NeoTrie – a project on virtual reality, schools and the genetic information
Professor Dr. Lutz Strüngmann has recently started a collaboration with the University of Almeria and VIRTUALDOR (see http://www.virtualdor.com/) on a new software project related to virtual reality: NeoTrie (see http://virtualdor.com/NeoTrie-VR/). Originally designed for helping pupils in school to better understand geometry it is the idea of this collaboration to firstly incorporate the software in courses on mathematics taught at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and secondly to further develop the software for a possible use in research activities of the competence center, e.g. in visualizing and investigating the genetic information. A first very successful workshop took place in Almeria in September 2018 (see https://sites.google.com/ual.es/imneo-vr) where the first steps of the project were discussed. - Concerning DNA as information
Members of the competence center have an ongoing collaboration with two research groups from the Universities of Bologna and Strasbourg concerning DNA as information. In particular the theory of circular codes is developed.