From Molecules to Brains:  Navigating through Multi-Resolution Data using Knowledge-Based Mediation

In recent years, much progress has been made in assembling brain data sources in the form of databases and web resources.  These data sources range from molecules to cellular information to functional brain imaging and represent an invaluable resource to the neuroscientist.  However, assembling these data collections is only a part of the battle;  they must also be integrated into a body of cross-accessible knowledge, where results  from disparate data sets can be related and navigated across based upon a common functional understanding of the biological reality. The solution is to either create very large databases, encompassing every possible attribute of nervous systems, or to find ways of navigating between and linking distinct data sources.  We have taken the latter approach in a collaboration between the National Center for Microscopy (NCMIR) and Imaging Research and the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Intrastructure (NPACI).  This talk will discuss some of the difficulties in designing systems to deal with multi-resolution data and the knowledge-based mediation prototype developed to address the issue.

Maryann Martone, Ph. D.
Ass. Adj. Professor
Dept of Neurosciences
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA  92092-0608

858-534-8332(T)
858-534-7497 (F)