Abstract of the invited talk  

NEUROSCIENCE DATABASES: Neuroinformatics

The creation of databases for the field of neuroscience research is both a necessary and formidable challenge. We now produce vast quantities of data to understand the structural, functional and developmental aspects of the nervous system at finer and finer levels of granularity. The timing of the IT revolution is propitious for creating databases to facilitate the integration of data across analytical levels and modeling of neuronal system(s) function(s). This is a formidable challenge since the data types are diverse being derived from chemical, biophysical, genomic, structural, morphological, physiological or behavioural sources in different species, with each domain and species having its own characteristic parameters. This presentation will review the important developments that have led to this new field of neuroinformatics and the efforts that are underway to make this a true international research effort.

In 1991, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Science, USA, published its report, Mapping the Brain and Its Functions, Integrating Enabling Technologies into Neuroscience Research [1]. The IOM report reflected the need for a data management system and provided recommendations on how to proceed. In response to this report, the NIMH initiated The Human Brain Project and coordinates a multi-Institute, multi-Agency effort to establish an electronic capability for the acquisition, storage, analysis, visualization, modeling, understanding and sharing of nervous system data. The purpose of this initiative is to support investigator-initiated neuroscience informatics research leading to new databases, digital tools and computational models and simulations appropriate for all domains of brain and behavioral research. Therefore, the technological approaches of the Human Brain Project will be generalizable, scalable, extensible, interoperable, and will use sophisticated, powerful computational resources [2].

Currently there are approximately 30 funded projects under the Human Brain Project [3], ranging from small, highly focused projects to very large programs with multiple sites, involving many investigators throughout the United States and around the world. This ongoing nervous system research includes varieties of research subjects including invertebrates, fish, frogs, birds, rodents, cats, non-human primates, and humans. The tools under development are for data storage, retrieval, presentation, analysis, integration, and synthesis. In addition, there are a number of investigators working on querying, retrieval, and database tools as well as tools for electronic collaboration. Lastly, and not surprisingly, the level of analysis employed by these investigators range from the molecular up through the cellular and systems to whole brain function. Neuroinformatics, then, combines research in neuroscience and informatics and computation to develop and apply advanced tools and approaches needed to understand the brain. A survey of many of the currently on going projects will be part of the presentation.

Neuroscience research is global. The participation, therefore, of all countries that have activities in neuroscience research would maximize the success of a network with global connectivity. Since the inception of the Human Brain Project and the formation of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Human Brain project at the NIH, a number of activities and efforts have taken place with individual governments and international funding organizations to globalize neuroinformatics. A major effort was initiated in 1996. At that time the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) of the White House potentiated this global effort by establishing a working group on Biological Informatics at the Megascience Forum (MSF) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The OECD is a governmental body, comprised of many of the industrialized democracies in the world, which deals with economics and scientific issues of global importance. A working group for Neuroinformatics was established as part of the Biological Informatics Working Group and world scientists met a number of times over 36 months to consider how to best achieve the global goals of Neuroinformatics. It became clear in assessing the utility of neuroinformatics that neuroinformatics will provide the wherewithal to create an appropriate information management system for the enormous quantity, quality, and variety of neuroscience data that has been and will continue to be created at an increasing rate and at greater level of complexity. Neuroinformatics will provide the enabling capabilities to understand the nervous system in health and disease. In addition, neuroinformatics will, through the development of an understanding of molecular mechanisms of brain function, provide new approaches applicable to the information technology domain [4].

The OECD Global Science Forum formed a new second Working Group, in 2000, to focus on enhancing the linkages between neuroscience and information sciences in order to develop the necessary scientific capability and infrastructure to ensure the success of this new field. The Working Group directed its attention to initiatives in the areas of Resources, Guidelines and Sustainability that would achieve a global neuroinformatics capacity. The final recommendations from this working group are: (a) National neuroinformatics research programs should be continued or initiated. Each country should have a national node to both provide research resources nationally and to serve as the contact for national and international coordination; (b) An International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Council should be established. This Council will coordinate the implementation of a global neuroinformatics network through integration of national neuroinformatics nodes; and (c) A new international funding scheme should be established. This scheme should eliminate national and disciplinary barriers and provide a most efficient approach to global collaborative research and data sharing. In this new scheme, each country will be expected to fund the participating researchers from their country [5].

In conclusion, it is important to keep in mind that the study of the development, structure and function of the brain is extremely complex and demanding. The current challenge is to understand the connecting events, in a structural, developmental and functional sense, needed to control and regulate nervous system function. This will occur best if there is sharing of primary data. Sharing data will not diminish but rather enhance the scientific challenge and the efficiency of research [6, 7]. In addition to a detailed presentation on the Human Brain Project, Neuroinformatics, initiative in the United States, material will be presented on the results and recommendations from both the US-EU cooperative effort and the OECD Megascience and Global Science reports.

REFERENCES

[1] C.M. Pechura and J.B., Martin, Mapping the Brain and its Functions. Integrating enabling Technologies into neuroscience research. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 1991.

[2] S.H. Koslow and M.F. Huerta (Eds), Neuroinformatics: An Overview of the Human Brain Project. In: Progress in Neuroinformatics Research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Mahwah, New Jersey, 1997.

[3] Neuroinformatics. The Human Brain Project Home Page http://www.nimh.nih.gov/neuroinformatics/index.cfm

[4] Report from the Megascience Biological Working Group, 1999. http://www.oecd.org/EN/documents/0,,EN-documents-45-nodirectorate-no-4-no-18,00.html

[6} S.H. Koslow, Should the Neuroscience Community make a paradigm shift to sharing primary data? Nature Neuroscience, 3 (9): 863-865, 2000.

[7] S.H. Koslow, Sharing Primary Data: A Threat Or Asset to Discovery? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3 (4) 311-313, 2002.