BioGrid Texas (BiGTX)
Virtual Research Park
for Life Sciences & Health Care
What is BioGrid Texas (BiGTX)?
• Collaborative research, development and informationsharing system for Life Sciences and Health Care
– Virtual Research Park (VRP)
– Healthcare Collaborative Network (HCN)
• Universal Web interface & open development platform
created by IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences
• Very large scale computing network
– Utilizes high-performance grid computing technology
infrastructure at The University of Texas at Arlington
• Allows geographically dispersed R&D teams and health
care organizations to collaborate like never before
What is BioGrid Texas (BiGTX)?
• BioGrid horsepower provided by IBM hardware connected
to UTA Distributed & Parallel Computing Cluster (DPCC)
node1
node2
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Campus
Campus
Linksys 3512
Linksys 3512
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master.dpcc.uta.edu
grid.dpcc.uta.edu
raid3
node6
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raid6
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Foundry FastIron 800
raid8
node10
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raid9
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node42
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Node15
Open
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Open
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Open
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Open
IDE
node52
raid10
raid1
6TB
raid2
IDE
Linksys 3512
Linksys 3512
Linksys 3512
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6TB
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100 Mbs switch
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lockserver
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gfsnode1
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gfsnode2
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Brocade 3200
gfsnode3
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raid4
ArcusII
5.2 TB
IDE
6TB
raid5
IDE
6TB
raid7
IDE
6TB
Healthcare Collaborative Network
• HCN National Demonstration Project
– Feasibility and value of interconnected, electronic
health information infrastructure
• Initial HCN pilot project included:
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New York Presbyterian Hospital
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Wishard Memorial Hospital
Three Federal agencies
• CDC
• CMS
• FDA
Healthcare Collaborative Network
BiGTX Pilot User Groups
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Cancerous Lesion Change Detection
– UT-Southwestern Medical Center Department of Dermatology and
UT-Arlington Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
– Use - establish a framework for change detection in cancerous
lesions through medical image sharing.
UTA Smart Hospital and Health System
– UTA Institute of Research and Technology in Health, School of
Nursing, College of Science and Department of Computer Science
and Engineering.
– Use - connect Smart Hospital/Emergency Room administrators,
users and students with, a state of the science health facility for
simulated patients (SMART manikins).
Rapid Response Bioterrorism Database
– UT-Southwestern Medical Center Garner Laboratory in applied
computational biology and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
– Use - develop a collaborative environment for data sharing of
Bioterrorism agents to allow for rapid response
BiGTX Pilot User Groups
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UTA Pseudogene Identification
– UTA Evolutionary Genomics Group in the Department of Biology
and the Bioinformatics Group in the Department of Computer
Science and Engineering.
– Use - create a distributed working group of researchers working on
identification of pseudogenes (inactive sequences of genomic DNA
which have a similar sequence to known functional genes).
Wireless Network for Disabled Persons
– UTA Department of Computer Science and Engineering Program as
part of Project Connect.
– Use - improve the network capabilities of the disabled persons group
that receive electronic devices (PDAs) designed to assist in daily
tasks.
Pain Management
– M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Department of Symptom
Management and the UT-Arlington Department of Psychology.
– Use - help facilitate a Phase III Clinical Study for Cancer Patient
Pain Management.
BioGrid Texas WWW Interface
What Can BioGrid Texas Do?
• Advance bioscience in Texas making this region
attractive to biotechnology entrepreneurs,
venture capital investors, and superlative
research scientists
• Eliminate redundancies and gaps in research
efforts among different organizations
• Achieve synergy of efforts while facilitating
serendipitous discovery
What Can BioGrid Texas Do?
• Maximize research ROI for the community by
pooling resources and leveraging economies of
varying scope and scale
• Reduce development costs across the
biotechnology Value Chain
• Accelerate time to market of new
biotechnologies
BiGTX Features/Capabilities
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Rapid (instant), economical, crossorganizational, object-level collaboration on
multiple R&D projects facilitated through the
universal VRP program Web interface.
On-demand access to collaboration tools, R&D
tools, project-specific or common applications
and program code, databases, knowledge bases,
expert systems, user forums and general
resources.
BiGTX Features/Capabilities
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Expertise Locator – Using Lotus Discovery Server allows
for registration of participants area of expertise. Can infer
expertise and can be partially passive
Learning Center - Conduct theme-driven multi-media
trade shows, distance education courses, "Virtual
Symposia" or "Webinars" featuring expert speakers, panel
discussions, moderated sessions, etc.
Higher grant throughput, fast-track technology transfer
and IP management
Up-to-date information related to patents, grants, public
policy, ethics, legal issues, legislative matters and
standards.
BiGTX Features/Capabilities
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Publish, market, and sell copyrighted materials
such as articles, presentations, electronic books,
compendia, and other intellectual property.
Application hosting of key "Best Practice"
industry applications and commonly-used R&D
and Tech Transfer tools.
BiGTX Features/Capabilities
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Buying and selling of commercial products and
services
Health care institutions can be linked through
BioGrid Texas and IBM’s Healthcare
Collaboration Network (HCN)
Access to unprecedented high performance and
grid computing capabilities as well as grid
application development potential
The Virtual Collaboratory
• IBM Life Sciences Virtual Research Park
incorporates a sweeping new concept called the
“Collaboratory”
– Allows users to solve problems using community
resources and knowledge distributed across a grid
computing infrastructure
The Virtual Collaboratory
• Collaboratory interface:
– Customizable and user platform independent
• Only needs Web browser
– Multiple tabs and windows
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Instant messaging, Calendaring, Scheduling
User forums, News, Contact lists
Experiment Desk
Recipes and Agents
Embedded Tech Support
Embedded Project Management Solutions
Application Sharing
Databases and Data Sharing
Learning Centers
Funding Resources
Vendors
The Virtual Collaboratory
Experiment Desk
Experiment Details
Experiment Details
•Protocol
•Context
•Team
•Resources
•Quality of Service
(QOS)
•Status
Experiment Details
Completed and
planned projects in
various stages of
development
Intelligent Agents
Agent Name
& Description
Agent Details
Recipes
Project Results
Project Management
Project Management
Project Management
Application Sharing
Customizable
Application
Windows with
embedded, project
–specific
applications
Data Sharing, Searching, Submissions
Data Sharing, Searching, Submissions
Distance Learning
BioGrid - Not a Novel Idea
Poland
Singapore
Netherlands
Korea
Japan
North Carolina
VRP - Not Limited to Life Sciences
• Any computationally-based “e-Science” is fair game
– Atmospheric modeling
– Biocomplexity in the environment (Ecoinformatics)
– Cryptography
– Geophysical and astrophysical turbulence modeling
– High energy and nuclear physics
– Molecular diversity analysis
– Nanobiology
– Quantum chemistry
– Supernova science
– Geospatial and topographical modeling
Thank you for your time…