Controlling legs for locomotion-insights from robotics and neurobiology.

Walking is the most common terrestrial form of locomotion in animals. Its great versatility and flexibility has led to many attempts at building walking machines with similar capabilities. The control of walking is an active research area both in neurobiology and robotics, with a large and growing body of work.

Humanoid robot Lola: design and walking control.

In this paper we present the humanoid robot LOLA, its mechatronic hardware design, simulation and real-time walking control. The goal of the LOLA-project is to build a machine capable of stable, autonomous, fast and human-like walking. LOLA is characterized by a redundant kinematic configuration with 7-DoF legs, an extremely lightweight design, joint actuators with brushless motors and an electronics architecture using decentralized joint control.

Advances in clinical cancer proteomics: SELDI-ToF-mass spectrometry and biomarker discovery.

For most cancers, survival rates depend on the early detection of the disease. So far, no biomarkers exist to cope with this difficult task. New proteomic technologies have brought the hope of discovering novel early cancer-specific biomarkers in complex biological samples and/or of the setting up of new clinically relevant test systems.

Identification of the thrombin light chain a as the single best mass for differentiation of gastric cancer patients from individuals with dyspepsia by proteome analysis.

Gastric cancer mortality is second only to lung cancer, and its prognosis is dismal. Using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry, we previously identified a single best mass, which could separate gastric cancer from patients without cancer, with a sensitivity of 89.9% and a specificity of 90%.

Surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI TOF-MS) and ProteinChip technology in proteomics research.

In this review article, we describe some of the studies that have been performed using the surface-enhanced laser desorption ionization (SELDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometry and ProteinChip technology over the past few years, and highlight both their findings as well as limitations. Proteomic applications, such as target or marker identification and target validation or toxicology, will be addressed. We will also provide an examination of SELDI technology and go into the question of where possible future research may lead us.

Proteome analysis for the identification of tumor-associated biomarkers in gastrointestinal cancer.

Gastrointestinal cancers are usually diagnosed at advanced stages, making a curative treatment difficult. Biomarkers can help to overcome this problem by allowing earlier diagnosis, and thus better therapy. Proteomics tools are novel technologies to identify such biomarkers.