Myeloma Research Web Portal at Dana Farber
Researchers can view genetic information from multiple databases with a specially designed Web portal.
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston is harnessing the dual power of business intelligence and Web 2.0-based scientific search tools to gather complex, scattered data to better treat patients and work toward a cure for this formidable disease.
Dana-Farber physicians and researchers regularly slog through complex calculations to find connections between data gleaned from tumor biopsies and other clinical samples and the vast genetic research housed within the organization or spread among three massive public-domain databases.
Dana-Farber officials are using data warehousing capabilities with Web-based data- collection tools, since vital connections between patient samples and analytical data will almost certainly prove the crux of both effective patient treatment and any potential breakthroughs tied to the disease, according to researchers.
Not only is data on multiple myeloma and other diseases often far-flung and fiercely guarded, it is also incredibly complex, says Joseph White, a senior research scientist at Dana-Farber. "A single gene may be represented by several different name sequences," he explains. "To gather all of the information on any one particular gene, a researcher must look at many sources and different expressions for the gene."
"You can't engineer serendipity," says White. "You want to be able to ask questions such as 'How do I cure cancer?' and not be limited to questions that are too specific, such as 'Does eating beets have a correlation to curing cancer?'"
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston is harnessing the dual power of business intelligence and Web 2.0-based scientific search tools to gather complex, scattered data to better treat patients and work toward a cure for this formidable disease.
Dana-Farber physicians and researchers regularly slog through complex calculations to find connections between data gleaned from tumor biopsies and other clinical samples and the vast genetic research housed within the organization or spread among three massive public-domain databases.
Dana-Farber officials are using data warehousing capabilities with Web-based data- collection tools, since vital connections between patient samples and analytical data will almost certainly prove the crux of both effective patient treatment and any potential breakthroughs tied to the disease, according to researchers.
Not only is data on multiple myeloma and other diseases often far-flung and fiercely guarded, it is also incredibly complex, says Joseph White, a senior research scientist at Dana-Farber. "A single gene may be represented by several different name sequences," he explains. "To gather all of the information on any one particular gene, a researcher must look at many sources and different expressions for the gene."
"You can't engineer serendipity," says White. "You want to be able to ask questions such as 'How do I cure cancer?' and not be limited to questions that are too specific, such as 'Does eating beets have a correlation to curing cancer?'"
posted by gwg at 12:29 PM
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