Abstract:
The datasets involved in cancer research are huge. The National Cancer Institute's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, or caBIG, is an initiative to speed research discoveries and improve patient outcomes by linking cancer researchers, physicians, and patients. Its mission is to develop a truly collaborative information network that accelerates the discovery of new approaches for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer.
caBIG is built using caGrid, an open source grid software infrastructure aimed at enabling multi-institutional data sharing and analysis. caGrid supports a wide range of use cases in basic, translational, and clinical research, and is built using the Globus Toolkit4-an open source Grid infrastructure software project led by the Argonne National Laboratory / University of Chicago Computation Institute (CI). caBIG integrates software and services and uses Globus execution and data management services to transfer files and submit jobs on TeraGrid.
The CI is one of three groups that designed and implemented all major components of caGrid. Additional to the CI's major role in the design and implementation of the Workflow project in caGrid (TAVERNA), it leads caBIG's working groups on Architecture, Integrated Cancer Research, and Life Sciences. The CI and Ohio State University (OSU) were awarded the caGrid Knowledge Center to help the community with caGrid issues. CI also works with OSU to update the infrastructure on which caBIG is built, to a next-generation grid service runtime software stack called the Globus Crux toolkit. |
