jueves, 3 de octubre de 2013

NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots — CBIIT: Welcome to the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology

NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots — CBIIT: Welcome to the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology

National Cancer Institute
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NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots

Current Needs in Cancer Research

The challenges posed by the need to disseminate, manage, and interpret large, multi-scale data pervade efforts to advance understanding of cancer biology and apply that knowledge in the clinic. For several years, the volume of data routinely generated by high-throughput research technologies has grown exponentially. The storage, transmission, and analysis of these data have become too costly for individual laboratories and most small to medium research organizations to support. For optimal progress to occur, access to large, valuable data collections and advanced computational capacity must be readily available to the widest possible audience.
On April 7, 2013, Dr. Harold Varmus and other members of the Institute's senior leadership issued a letter to NCI grantees seeking input on these and other computational challenges they encounter on an almost daily basis. Dr. Varmus stated that the NCI, as part of its ongoing investigations into next-generation computational capabilities to serve the research community, has begun exploring the possibility of creating one or more public "cancer knowledge clouds" in which data repositories would be co-located with advanced computing resources, thereby enabling researchers to bring their analytical tools and methods to the data. Reactions to this informal request for information were generally positive, with respondents focusing on six general themes: data access; computing capacity and infrastructure; data interoperability; training; usability; and governance.
Based in part on this information, Dr. George Komatsoulis, interim director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT), which administers the National Cancer Informatics Program (NCIP), led the creation of a concept document describing a project to develop up to three cancer genomics cloud pilots for review by the cancer-research community. Dr. Komatsoulis presented the concept (time reference 05:58:00) at a joint meeting of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA) and the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) on June 24, 2013, where it received unanimous approval.

The NCI Is Seeking Community Input

Soon after the concept was approved, NCI issued a Research and Development Sources Sought Notice providing a synopsis of requirements and asking respondents to submit capability statements. The deadline for submissions was July 24, 2013.
Simultaneously with beginning the procurement process, the NCIP established an IdeaScale site Site Exit Disclaimer to allow the community to contribute critical use cases that the cloud pilots will need to support.

The Contracting and Award Process

The NCI will be issuing a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), the specific contract mechanism that will support development of the cancer genomics cloud pilots. The project will go through three phases:
  • Design
  • Implementation
  • Evaluation
The organizations selected to develop the clouds will be expected to collaborate with each other and with the groups managing the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics (CCG) Data Coordinating Center. NCIP activities are being conducted in concert with the CCG Data Coordinating Center, which will provide an authoritative public data set for use in the cloud pilots. Interchange among the organizations involved will help ensure adherence to a common set of data elements and vocabularies among the cloud pilots in support of operations that may span cloud implementations.

News Articles and Press Releases

J. Marks, How Computer Clouds Could Help Cure Cancer. NextGov Newsletter, August 5, 2013 Site Exit Disclaimer
J. Foley, 10 Game-Changing Developments in Government Clouds. Forbes, July 29, 2013 Site Exit Disclaimer
U.G. Thomas, NCI Board Approves Proposed Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots. BioInform, July 12, 2013

Related Information Resources

G. Komatsoulis, Computational Needs for Large-scale Data Analysis: Towards a Cancer Knowledge Cloud (NCI Biomedical Informatics Blog)
Dr. Harold Varmus Requests Input on NCI Cloud Initiative: Letter to All NCI Grantees, April 2013
J. Klemm, Input on Cancer Knowledge Clouds: Key Themes from the Community (NCI Biomedical Informatics Blog)
Summary of Input Request: Computational Needs to Support Large-scale Genomics Investigations
NIH Videocast Archive: Joint Meeting of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and the National Cancer Advisory Board, June 24, 2013 (time reference 05:58:00)
G. Komatsoulis, NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots Concept (PDF)
Research and Development Sources Sought Notice for Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots (Solicitation Number: HHS-NIH-NCI-RDSS-MOSB-2402-80)
G. Komatsoulis, NCI Board of Scientific Advisors Approves NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Concept (NCI Biomedical Informatics Blog)
Share Your Priorities for the NCI Cancer Genomics Cloud Pilots Site Exit Disclaimer (IdeaScale)

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