MOTIVATION: Reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPAs) allow sensitive quantification of relative protein abundance in thousands of samples in parallel. Typical challenges involved in this technology are antibody selection, sample preparation and optimization of staining conditions. The issue of combining effective sample management and data analysis, however, has been widely neglected. RESULTS: This motivated us to develop MIRACLE, a comprehensive and user-friendly web application bridging the gap between spotting and array analysis by conveniently keeping track of sample information. Data processing includes correction of staining bias, estimation of protein concentration from response curves, normalization for total protein amount per sample and statistical evaluation. Established analysis methods have been integrated with MIRACLE, offering experimental scientists an end-to-end solution for sample management and for carrying out data analysis. In addition, experienced users have the possibility to export data to R for more complex analyses. MIRACLE thus has the potential to further spread utilization of RPPAs as an emerging technology for high-throughput protein analysis. AVAILABILITY: Project URL: http://www.nanocan.org/miracle/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Suspicion of water ice deposits in the lunar south-polar region have sparked new interest into the earth's smaller companion, and robotic crater sample return missions are being considered by a number of space agencies. The difficult terrain with an inclination of over 30°, eternal darkness and temperatures of less than -173°C make this a difficult task. In this paper we present a novel, bio-inspired light-weight system design, which demonstrates a possible approach for such a mission. The robot managed to come first in the Lunar Robotic Challenge (LRC), organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) in October 2008. Using a remote operated robot, we demonstrated to climb into and out of a lunar-like crater with inclination of more than 35° on loose substrate, and performed the collection and delivery of a 100 g soil sample without the aid of external illumination.