Knowledge sharing and collaboration in translational research, and the DC-THERA Directory

Abstract

Biomedical research relies increasingly on large collections of data sets and knowledge whose generation, representation and analysis often require large collaborative and interdisciplinary efforts. This dimension of ‘big data’ research calls for the development of computational tools to manage such a vast amount of data, as well as tools that can improve communication and access to information from collaborating researchers and from the wider community. Whenever research projects have a defined temporal scope, an additional issue of data management arises, namely how the knowledge generated within the project can be made available beyond its boundaries and life-time. DC-THERA is a European ‘Network of Excellence’ (NoE) that spawned a very large collaborative and interdisciplinary research community, focusing on the development of novel immunotherapies derived from fundamental research in dendritic cell immunobiology. In this article we introduce the DC-THERA Directory, which is an information system designed to support knowledge management for this research community and beyond. We present how the use of metadata and Semantic Web technologies can effectively help to organize the knowledge generated by modern collaborative research, how these technologies can enable effective data management solutions during and beyond the project lifecycle, and how resources such as the DC-THERA Directory fit into the larger context of e-science.

Orchestrating differential data access for translational research: a pilot implementation

“…Biological material repositories similar to BioSD exist, varying in scope [82, 83], geographical reference area [84] and scale [85, 86]. BioSD is mainly a European reference resource for public biosample data and metadata.…”

Perspectives of Translational Medicine

“…Translational medicine is a two way process [16] which requires a multidisciplinary team with very close collaborations among scientists, clinicians, policy makers, funding agencies, patent attorneys, technology transfer experts, entrepreneurs, and various industry partners to expedite the translation from bench to bedside and from bedside to bench in order to ultimately provide improved health care to patients with optimal outcome [17][18][19][20].…”

Big Data E Gestão Do Conhecimento: Definições E Direcionamentos De Pesquisa

“…De acordo com Splendiani (2011), as pesquisas nessa área dependem cada vez mais de grandes coleções de conjuntos de dados e conhecimento, cuja geração, representação e análise muitas vezes exigem grandes esforços colaborativos e interdisciplinares. Com isso surge uma nova dimensão de pesquisa, pesquisa em Big Data, que visa ao desenvolvimento de ferramentas computacionais para gerenciar uma grande quantidade de dados, bem como melhorar a colaboração e a comunicação da comunidade em geral, tendo que por vezes iniciar um movimento de mudança na cultura da empresa.…”