HLI Researchers Awarded Funding for Canada-Wide Rollout of Revolutionary Biomedical IT Resources
Biomedical researchers face many problems as they try to understand and develop new interventions and treatments for disease. One of the major challenges is the length of time it takes to find the right data and the right way to analyze it. But researchers across Canada got a boost last week when Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) awarded $927,000 for the C-BRASS (Canadian Bioinformatics Resources As Semantic Services) project.
C-BRASS is a multi-center initiative, led by the Providence Heart + Lung Institute at St. Paul’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia, in collaboration with researchers at Carleton University and the University of New Brunswick. The grant funds the deployment of two novel Internet platforms - CardioSHARE and SADI - nationwide, and establishes courses to train highly qualified Canadian personnel in these new Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies.
CardioSHARE and SADI were developed by Providence Heart + Lung Institute researchers in collaboration with regional and international partners. CardioSHARE was created three years ago with funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon. Its aim is to make the discovery, integration, and analysis of biomedical data on the Web as straightforward as simply asking a question, in a very natural way. In parallel Microsoft Research funded the invention of a new data-integration technology - SADI - that enables data and analytical tools on the Web to be self-explanatory. This allows machines to make many of the complex decisions about where and how to retrieve and analyze data, leaving the researcher free to focus on what the results mean and how this new knowledge can be used to improve the health of Canadians. To read more click here.