What: The Informatics Group will develop a portal for MIDAS and non-MIDAS users. To accomplish this, the Informatics Group will develop a number of informatics, analytic, and statistical tools in a high capacity computational environment. The primary responsibilities within the MIDAS Network will be: to enhance the computational capacity of the MIDAS Research Groups (MIDAS RGs); identify, incorporate (either as federated data or as a data warehouse), develop ontologies, and document data bases to be used in the development and evaluation of MIDAS models; develop and use informatics tools to identify novel patterns and facilitate parameter estimation for models; identify, incorporate, enhance, and document relevant models from MIDAS RGs and other sources; and develop simulated data sets and analytic tools to evaluate the models. For the non-MIDAS Network community (external users), the Informatics Group will provide access through the portal to: a “public library” (with documentation and findings); interactive pre-set models with enhanced documentation; a warehouse of models and tools developed under MIDAS for user download; a beta-testing exchange site for non-MIDAS users to contribute models; and an information exchange.
The exhibit below is a schematic of the concept of operations of the MIDAS portal during initialization, implementation, and maintenance and, should the need arise, during health security situations.
Who: RTI (also known as Research Triangle Institute) has put together a team to serve as the Informatics Group. RTI’s role will be the overall responsibility for the development and contents of the portal, including the identification and access to databases, and development of: consensus ontologies, curation, and bioinformatics tools; analytic and statistical tools; simulation models and datasets; and enhanced user access to pre-set models. IBM will have responsibility for the infrastructure of the portal, including hardware, middleware software, 24-7 maintenance, and portal architecture. SAS will work with RTI to develop appropriate uses of their statistical and informatics software to enhance the utility of the databases and evaluation of models. The Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at Duke University Medical Center will assist with modeling of organisms, immune systems, and host-microbe interactions. Dr. Longini of Emory University will advise on the identification of related non-MIDAS derived models, and on user needs and documentation.
RTI Investigators:
Diane Wagener, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Philip Cooley, Co-Principal Investigator, Analysis and Modeling Support Team Leader
A. Jamie Cuticchia, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, Informatics Team Leader
Joseph Pratt, Project Manager
David Hall, Ph.D., Informatics Team Senior Investigator
Georgiy Bobashev, Ph.D., Analytic Team Senior Investigator
IBM Investigators:
Michael Koranda, Infrastructure Team Leader
Jeffrey Gruneich, Ph.D., Life Sciences Subject Matter Expert
SAS Investigators:
Russell Wolfinger, Ph.D., Modeling Software Advisor
Susan Flood, Informatics Software Advisor
Duke University:
Thomas Kepler, Ph.D., Biomathematics Advisor
Emory University:
Ira Longini, Jr., Ph.D., Modeling Consultant
