Michael Marron, Ph'D', Director Division of Biomedical Technology National Center for Research Resou

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Michael Marron, Ph.D., DirectorDivision of
Biomedical TechnologyNational Center for
Research ResourcesNational Institutes of
HealthDepartment of Health and Human Services

• Biomedical Informatics Research Network

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BIRNBiomedical Informatics Research Network

• A testbed for a biomedical knowledge
  infrastructure
• Federated database of neuroimaging data
• Fusion of diverse data sources (location level
  of aggregation)
• Grid access to computational resources
• Datamining software
• Scalable and extensible
• Driven by research needs-pull, not technology-push

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BIRN Infrastructure

• Establish a stable high performance network
  linking key Biotechnology Centers and General
  Clinical Research Centers using Internet2
• Establish distributed and linked data collections
  with partnering groups
• Enable the use of "grid-based" computing
  resources for project specific data refinements
  and comparisons
• Enable data mining from multiple data collections
  or databases on neuroimaging
• Build a stable software and hardware
  infrastructure that will allow centers to
  coordinate efforts to accumulate larger studies
  than can be carried out at one site.

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BIRN Sites
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Information Integration
What is the cerebellar distribution of rat
proteins with more than 70 homology with human
NCS-1?
Integrated View
Integrated View Definition
Mediator
Wrapper
Wrapper
Wrapper
Wrapper
Web
protein localization
morphometry
neurotransmission
CaBP, Expasy
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Mouse BIRN

• Animal Models of Disease /Multi Scale/Multi
  Method - MS Mouse and DAT KOM (a schizophrenic
  and otherwise interesting mouse animal model)
• Looking at different resolutions by combining
  data from multiple modalities
• Duke, UCLA, UC San Diego, Cal Tech

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Morphology BIRN

• Neuroanatomical correlates of neuropsychiatric
  illness (unipolar depression, Alzheimer's
  disease, mild cognitive impairment)
• Overcome obstacles to the use of neuroimaging
  data as quantitative outcome measures for
  clinical investigation including issues raised by
  longitudinal and multi-site studies.
• Do structural differences contribute to specific
  symptoms such as memory dysfunction or depression
  independent of diagnosis?
• Do specific structural differences distinguish
  specific diagnostic categories?
• Harvard (MGH and BWH), Duke, UCLA, UC San Diego,
  Johns Hopkins, UC Irvine

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Functional BIRN

• Characterizing the collection and integration of
  fMRI data from multiple sites
• Study schizophrenia through fMRI images collected
  from patients around the country using
  standardized protocols
• UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, Harvard (MGH and
  BWH), Stanford, Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico,
  Duke, North Carolina

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BIRN Coordinating Center

• UC San Diego
• Best practices aggregator
• Technical development center
• Center for training and experience exchange
• Expert-level technical support
• High-level project management
• Oversight bodies point of contact

Uniform Hardware for BIRN Sites

• Gigabit/10/100 Network Switch Cisco4006
• Network Statistics System
• Gigabit Ethernet Network Probe
• Network Attached Storage Gigabit Ether
• 1.0 to 8.0 TB
• Grid POP
• SRB, Globus
• Dual Processor Linux w/ 1GB memory
• DL 380 General purpose
• Specialized encryption
• UPS for Rack

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Challenges

• Large data sets
• ISCAR - information storage, curation, archiving,
  and retrieval
• Bandwidth issues
• Quality control of data only analyzed by machine
• Visual interfaces for complex data sets
• Fostering collaboration
• Reward structures in government and academic
  institutions
• Intellectual property issues
• Data integrity
• Resistance to collaborate with competitors
• Data sharing issues (ownership, privacy,
  authorship)

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More Challenges

• Federated DB /Knowledge Engineering
• Dictionaries Ontologies
• Integrating different data types
• Accessing legacy systems
• Distributed query computations
• High-level management of projects
• Overcome technical institutional barriers
• Degree of centralization needed
• Role of standards
• Project subdivision and optimization

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BIRN Future

• Addition of new sites in a rapid, well-defined,
  affordable fashion
• Grid-based National Clinical Research Network
• Cross-species integration of data
• Characterization of treatment at multiple levels
• Expand model to other areas of biomedical research