SBIR-STTR Award

This SBIR Phase I project addresses an increasingly significant issue faced by academic and clinical research laboratories: the inability to effectively manage and share rapidly growing scientific data produced by different types of instrumentation. This proposal contends that a content management system developed by the PI, based upon the innovative open source web based database platform technology of Linux/PHP/MySQL, can be successfully applied to create a robust and affordable solution. This solution will provide the ability to (a) import data directly from laboratory instrument systems, (b) automatically couple the data with annotation information that describes and explains it, and (c) to store, retrieve, share, and analyze the data and associated documents in a secure environment accessible via the Internet. The PI will prove viability by focusing upon flow and image cytometry as representative technologies that generate data sets in high volume, and are commonly found in these research environments. Phase I will utilize the expertise of the Gladstone Institute Flow Cytometry Core and the UCSF Laboratory for Cell Analysis for specification design and testing. In addition, core labs at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Vaccine Research Center at the NIAID, Carnegie-Mellon, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will participate in alpha testing. The objectives of Phase I are: design, prototype, and test critical elements of the Cytometry Data Management System (CDMS), and to use these results to develop a specification for a full-featured CDMS that would be implemented in Phase I1. Proving the viability and subsequent use of such an online system has profound implications by creating enabling technology with the following impact on scientific knowledge: 1) Increase the progress rate of a research study or patient analysis, 2) Increase the continuity of research efforts as personnel in laboratories change, 3) Increase the ability to collaborate between researchers at different sites, 4) Increase the ability to verify or utilize past research studies and patient analysis results, 5) Increase the security of perhaps irreproducible data and analyses. This proposal could be subsequently applied to a broad range of instrumentation data types. The PI has an extensive track record of successfully commercializing data management solutions for the public sector market.

Thesaurus Terms:
data management, flow cytometry, technology /technique development computer program /software, confocal scanning microscopy, data collection, digital imaging, online computer

Researchers must deal with increasingly vast quantities of data produced over multiple projects, by multiple instruments, and by multiple people. Current ad hoc methods of managing internal research data are prone to error and time consuming. The Phase I prototype Research Data Management System (RDMS) proved the viability of utilizing the Pl's commercially successful content management system (created with the open source web based database platform technology of Linux/PHP/MySQL/Java) to successfully develop a scalable, affordable, and commercially viable solution which will provide the ability to (a) easily collect data directly from laboratory instruments, (b) easily and automatically couple the data with annotation information that describes and explains it, (c) easily store, retrieve, share, and analyze the data and associated documents in a secure environment accessible via the Internet. Phase 1 results achieved each its Specific Aims and exceeded the expectations of the alpha testers at UCSF Cancer Center and Gladstone Institute. The Pl's goal for this Phase II proposal is to develop a scalable, commercially viable version of the RDMS to fulfill the needs of academic and small to medium commercial laboratories in a user-friendly and affordable manner. Phase II will scale the software to a broad range of instrumentation data types, a greater set of annotation and retrieval tools, and different biomedical research end points. Phase II will utilize the expertise of the Gladstone Institute Flow Cytometry Core and the UCSF Laboratory for Cell Analysis for specification design and testing. In addition, core labs at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Carnegie-Mellon, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will participate in beta testing. Development of such an online system has profound implications by creating enabling technology with the following impact: 1) increase the progress rate of a research study or patient analysis, 2) Increase the continuity of research efforts as personnel in laboratories change, 3) Increase the ability to collaborate between researchers at different sites, 4) Increase the ability to verify or utilize past research study and patient analysis results, and 5) Increase the security of perhaps irreproducible data and analyses. PI has an extensive track record of successfully commercializing data management solutions for the public sector market.

Thesaurus Terms:
computer program /software, computer system design /evaluation, data management Internet, confocal scanning microscopy, data collection, digital imaging, flow cytometry, online computer