caBIG™ Knowledge Center Official Launch August 11, 2008

The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid™ (caBIG™) initiative was launched in 2004 by the National Cancer Institute Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (NCICBIIT) to address the critical needs of researchers and clinicians to speed and enhance basic and clinical cancer research. By providing a comprehensive collection of interoperable software tools, data standards, and computing infrastructure, caBIG™ promotes data and knowledge exchange, simplifies collaboration, and ultimately helps realize the potential of Personalized Medicine.

As the next stage in its growth begins, caBIG™ announces the ”grand opening” of the first five caBIG™ Knowledge Centers. The Knowledge Centers each serve as the nexus for an expanding community employing caBIG™ tools, standards, and infrastructure in a specific domain. Knowledge Centers are staffed by a combination of IT specialists, bioinformaticists, and laboratory and clinical researchers who are experts in developing and/or using the caBIG™ tools relevant to their domain and applying these solutions to real-world research questions. The Knowledge Center staff can provide expert guidance to end-users, IT staff and senior decision makers implementing caBIG™ tools and infrastructure. Information about the specific caBIG™ applications managed by a particular Knowledge Center can be found on that Knowledge Center’s Wiki page.

Knowledge Centers will provide:

• Web-based knowledge related to the caBIG™ tools in their specific domain.
• Outreach, to existing caBIG™ participants and the broader cancer and biomedical research community.
• Comprehensive and up-to-date technical and end user documentation and training
• Administration of source code repository for current caBIG™ tools and foster open development by the community.
• Collection and monitoring of defect reports, feature requests, and end user requirements and communicating this information to the appropriate caBIG™ workspace.

The first five Knowledge Centers open for business August 11, 2008, are:

caBIG™ caGrid Knowledge Center: Led by The Ohio State University and The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, with University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory.

The caGrid Knowledge Center will provide assistance for organizations wishing to implement caGrid. caGrid is the underlying network architecture that provides connectivity among institutions, allowing research groups to exchange data and services while also supporting their individual investigations. The Ohio State University, in partnership with the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory, has been the lead developer of caGrid since its first release.

caBIG™ Clinical Trials Management Systems Knowledge Center: Led by Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, with Northwestern University, Cancer and Leukemia Group B – Information Systems (CALGB-IS), and SemanticBits.

The CTMS Knowledge Center will support organizations using caBIG™ tools for the development, management, conduct, and reporting of clinical trials. Knowledge Center staff includes key partners who have contributed widely to the development and implementation of caBIG™ clinical trials management systems tools.

caBIG™ Molecular Analysis Tools Knowledge Center: Led by Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

The Molecular Analysis Tools Knowledge Center will provide support to institutions and individuals using caBIG™ tools for the management and analysis of genomic and proteomic data. Knowledge Center staff from Columbia and The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have been involved in the development of these tools and have helped promote their wide use.

caBIG™ Tissue/Biospecimen Banking and Technology Tools Knowledge Center: Led by Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University at St. Louis.

The Tissue/Biospecimen Banking and Technology Tools Knowledge Center will provide support to organizations for the management, annotation, and tracking of biospecimens. The Washington University team developed and supported the caBIG™ tissue banking software and uses these tools to manage its own large biospecimen repository.

caBIG™ Vocabulary Knowledge Center: Led by Mayo Clinic, with SemanticBits.

The Vocabulary Knowledge Center will provide support to individuals and organizations using the distributed vocabulary services infrastructure to enable publication of vocabularies. Vocabularies are used throughout the caBIG™ federation to code biomedical information and to integrate information from disparate sources exchanged via caGrid. The Knowledge Center staff have deep technical knowledge with the key tools in the caBIG™ vocabulary domain.

A sixth Knowledge Center for Data Sharing and Intellectual Capital (DSIC) has been recently awarded, stay tuned for information regarding the DSIC Knowledge Center “grand opening” in September.

The Knowledge Centers are part of the broader Enterprise Support Network (ESN). The ESN represents a major expansion of the caBIG™ community. For the first time since the caBIG™ program began, significant program support resources and knowledge about caBIG™ tools, standards, and technologies are available outside the NCI, caBIG™ program staff and workspaces to meet the needs of the expanding caBIG™ community. The deployment of caBIG™ across the biomedical research community continues to grow, and the introduction of the ESN is designed to help ensure the success of this broad adoption.

A second component of the ESN is the Support Service Providers. These are third-party organizations that will deliver comprehensive technical and end-user support. Each Support Service Provider has been evaluated based on their biomedical domain expertise and technical capabilities. Service contracts are negotiated between Support Service Providers and clients. Specific services offered by Support Service Providers include:

• Help Desk Support
• Adaptation and Improvement of caBIG™-Compatible Software Applications
• Deployment Support for caBIG™ Software Applications
• Documentation and Training Materials and Services

Additional information about the Enterprise Support Network can be found on the ESN Web page.