The research team succeeded in collecting the $120,000 necessary to program a model of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as perfectly as possible.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a popular model organism, especially in developmental biology and genetics. Using the nematode, physicians worldwide explore diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease and other biological processes. So far scientists have not been succeeded in fully simulating the worm’s brain processes in a model. The research group coordinated by Stephen Larson from the University of California in San Diego now wants to address this and has invented the project Openworm.

Since simulating the human brain, such as in the Human Brain Project, is very complicated, they want to try a simpler organism.

Donors can also participate to a certain extent. For a minimum donation they can play around with the simulation of that virtual animal.

Source (in German): http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/
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