BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//CERN//INDICO//EN BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The BIRN Project: Distributed Information Infrastructure and Mult i-scale Imaging of the Nervous System (BIRN = Biomedical Informatics Resea rch Network) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20040928T090000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20040928T093000Z DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20130521T005958Z UID:indico-contribution-491@cern.ch DESCRIPTION:Speakers: ELLISMAN\, M. (National Center for Microscopy and Im aging Research of the Center for Research in Biological Systems - The Depa rtment of Neurosciences\, University of California San Diego School of Med icine - La Jolla\, California - USA)\nThe grand goal in neuroscience resea rch is to understand how the interplay of \nstructural\, chemical and elec trical signals in nervous tissue gives rise to \nbehavior. Experimental a dvances of the past decades have given the individual \nneuroscientist an increasingly powerful arsenal for obtaining data\, from the level \nof mol ecules to nervous systems. Scientists have begun the arduous and challengi ng \nprocess of adapting and assembling neuroscience data at all scales of resolution and \nacross disciplines into computerized databases and other easily accessed sources. \nThese databases will complement the vast stru ctural and sequence databases created \nto catalogue\, organize and analyz e gene sequences and protein products. The general \npremise of the neuros cience goal is simple\; namely that with "complete" knowledge of \nthe gen ome and protein structures accruing rapidly we next need to assemble an \n infrastructure that will facilitate acquisition of an understanding for ho w \nfunctional complexes operate in their cell and tissue contexts. Our U .C. San Diego-\nbased group is leading several interdisciplinary projects around this grand \nchallenge. We are evolving a shared infrastructure th at allows for mapping \nmolecular and cellular brain anatomy in the contex t of a shared multi-scale mouse \nbrain atlas system\, the Cell-Centered D atabase (CCDB). Complementary to these \nneuroinformatics activities at t he National Center for Microscopy and Imaging \nResearch in San Diego (NCM IR) we have developed new molecular labeling methods \ncompatible with adv anced ultra-wide field laser-scanning light microscopy and multi-\nresolut ion 3 dimensional electron microscopy. These new labeling and imaging \nm ethods are being used to populate the CCDB\, using as a driver mouse model s of \nneurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The informatics framew ork is \nfacilitating cooperative work by distributed teams of scientists engaged in focused \ncollaborations aimed to deliver new fundamental under standing of structures on the \nscale of 1 nm3 to 10's of µm3\, a dimensi onal range that encompasses macromolecular \ncomplexes\, organelles\, and multi-component structures like synapses and the cellular \ninteractions i n the context of the complex organization of the entire nervous \nsystem. This is a unique and pioneering effort that links new neuroscience \ntechn iques and revolutionary advances in information technology. Database \nfe deration tools are critical to the scalability of these efforts and future \ndevelopment plans will be described in the context of the NIH-supported project to \ncreate a new framework for collaboration and data integratio n in the Biomedical \nInformatics Research Network (BIRN). BIRN is the le ading example of a virtual \ndatabase effort that is using the challenge o f federating multi-scale distributed \ndata about the nervous systems to h elp guide the evolution of an International \nCyberinfrastructure serving all science disciplines\, including biomedicine.\n\nhttp://indico.cern.ch/ contributionDisplay.py?contribId=491&sessionId=21&confId=0 LOCATION:Interlaken\, Switzerland Kongress-Saal URL:http://indico.cern.ch/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=491&sessionId=2 1&confId=0 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR