Better use of data is needed to get more cures for diseases

 

Most research today is done on data, rather than on patients. The problems that are being tackled are large and complex, as is the medical research data used to tackle these problems. This means careful analysis of the data is paramount, supported by the right tools and the right approach to the analysis.

Undoubtedly, better use of data is needed to get more cures for diseases. Not only because datasets that are generated today are often very large, but also they because they involve many different types of data requiring multiple types of expertise to decipher them.

Datasets that are generated today are complex, and involve many different types of data. This means that multiple types of expertise are needed and there is a need for more awareness of how to maximize the value of data throughout the research environment.

To meet this need, BioTransR 2017 is getting Bioinformatics and Translational Researchers together to learn how to get to the analysis and interpretation of data faster. An initial meeting will take place in Barcelona on 15 – 16 May 2017.

Making sense of today’s translational research data also requires a team approach. At BioTransR data scientists and translational researchers will work together to build a common understanding of today’s research data challenges. The aim is to find ways to help fulfil the promise of better health through the optimal use of data.

eTRIKS has served 41 large scale research projects with their data management needs and is perfectly placed to host this initial BioTransR meeting. BioTransR builds on the eTRIKS work around the value of medical research data, and getting the right balance between sharing data and protecting people’s privacy. This includes our European Parliament session in October 2016. eTRIKS made news through this event with a survey showing that 56% of people in the UK do not trust the NHS with personal data.

At BioTransR 2017 key opinion leaders in the field from multiple international infrastructure projects will present with the main objective to have an highly interactive discussion allowing a deeper and common understanding of today’s research data challenges.

The aim is to find ways to help fulfil the promise of better health through the optimal use of data via understanding the landscape of Bioinformatics infrastructure and how to reduce fragmentation. On the other hand the meeting should give Translational Researchers the knowledge and the tools they need to collaborate on making sense of Translational Research data faster.

The tentative list of speakers

The following key opinion leaders in the field will be presenting about their project and the tools/products the consortium has created:

Niklas Blomberg (ELIXIR/CORBEL)
Alvar Agusti (Hospital Clinica Barcelona)
Keith Elliston (TranSMART Foundation)
Mats Sundgren (EHR4CR)
Andreas Kremer (ITTM)
Benjamin Guillon (cc.in2p3)
Paul Houston (CDISC)
Francisco Bonachela Capdevila (J&J)
Yi-Ke Guo (ICL-DSI)
Ibrahim Emam (ICL-DSI)
Stellios Pavlidis (ICL-DSI)
Adriano Barbosa-Silva (LCSB)
Bertrand De Meulder (EISBM)
Alexander Mazein (EISBM)
Jay Bergeron (Pfizer)
Mike Barnes (RA-MAP)
Petr Holub (BBMRI-ERIC)
Bryn Williams-Jones (OPEN-Phacts)
Jan-Willem Boiten (TRaIT)
Anastassis Perrakis (INSTRUCT)
Chris Marshall (BioSci Consulting)
David Henderson (Bayer)
Paul Peeters (BioSci Consulting)
Wei Gu (UL/ELIXIR NODE)
Ferran Sanz (GRIB)
Scott Wagers (BioSci Consulting)
Reinhard Schneider (UL/ELIXIR NODE)
Fabien Richard (KMTransSolutions)

These speakers will be able to increase awareness to the community about the fragmented landscape and drive the discussion forward to help understanding the landscape for Translational researchers and Data scientists.

Together we can make data more valuable

BioTransR will help build data scientists and translational researchers strategic knowledge, including understanding of how infrastructure projects help to coordinate the field and how to enhance their working environment with individual data tools.

By looking at the opportunities of applying tools, attendees will see how to enhance disease stratification and to help identify targets and how to apply bioinformatics within the translational research environment.

BioTransR will help move forward the deep structural alignment needed to share data and understanding of essential data privacy and security knowledge, how to preserve data beyond the lifetime of a project, how to apply a standards based study design and how to get analysis done faster and more easily.

BioTransR aims to get more out of data, ensuring value is extracted over the life course of data

In eTRIKS we want to see a “new culture of greater willingness” to support medical scientists. This should help make the sharing of data much easier, opening up more opportunities to pursue medical advances. But this cultural change has to be responded to by researchers, to commit to extracting value from data.

eTRIKS is supporting researchers to make the most out of the medical research data they generate by making it easier to combine and use data collected from different studies with new ones. This is being done through the provision of open source software, services and guidelines. The eTRIKS team is also working to preserve data that has been generated. At BioTransR we aim to bring this learning together with that of the translational research community to help bring about this cultural shift.

A venue to demonstrate value

Stand holders are invited to give presentations and open sessions which will provide them with a chance to speak directly with providers and project leads, as well as present and demonstrate the applicable tools they have developed.

You can read more at www.etriks.org/bioinformatics-meeting-2017 (BitlY?)

Participants can submit abstracts by 28 April 2017. More information can be found at www.etriks.org/bioinformatics-meeting-2017

The eTRIKS project

eTRIKS is supporting researchers to make the most out of the medical research data they generate by making it easier to combine and use data collected from different studies with new ones.

This is being done through the provision of open source software, services and guidelines. The eTRIKS team is also working to preserve data that has been generated.

Funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative and the EU, eTRIKS stands for the European Translational Information and Knowledge Management Services.

Pierre Meulien, Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Executive Director, said: “Medical researchers rely on data from patients to advance our understanding of diseases and develop new treatments. By bringing together different stakeholders in research, projects like eTRIKS are well placed to facilitate the use of this data to advance research while respecting patients’ wishes and addressing wider ethical and legal issues.”

Notes to editors

  • For further details, for pictures or to arrange an interview, email paulpeeters@biosciconsulting.com or call 0032 89 25 4009.
  • Related press releases can be found at https://www.etriks.org/press-releases/
  • eTRIKS is a project that is funded to support research projects in their efforts to make the most out of the medical research data they generate. eTRIKS operates under the principle that ‘integrated and explorable data are valuable data’. The aim is to reduce the effort needed to combine different types of data and making collected data from one project usable in other research projects. There are also ongoing efforts to preserve the data that has been generated. All this is being achieved through the provision of open source software, services, and guidelines.
  • For more information on eTRIKS, visit: https://www.etriks.org.