A National Human Neuroimaging Collaboratory Enabled by the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN)

Abstract

The aggregation of imaging, clinical, and behavioral data from multiple independent institutions and researchers presents both a great opportunity for biomedical research as well as a formidable challenge. Many research groups have well-established data collection and analysis procedures, as well as data and metadata format requirements that are particular to that group. Moreover, the types of data and metadata collected are quite diverse, including image, physiological, and behavioral data, as well as descriptions of experimental design, and preprocessing and analysis methods. Each of these types of data utilizes a variety of software tools for collection, storage, and processing. Furthermore sites are reluctant to release control over the distribution and access to the data and the tools. To address these needs, the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) has developed a federated and distributed infrastructure for the storage, retrieval, analysis, and documentation of biomedical imaging data. The infrastructure consists of distributed data collections hosted on dedicated storage and computational resources located at each participating site, a federated data management system and data integration environment, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema for data exchange, and analysis pipelines, designed to leverage both the distributed data management environment and the available grid computing resources.

The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA): Maintaining and Operating a Public Information Repository

“…More recently, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) [4,5] is accumulating vast amounts of image data in order to accelerate our understanding of brain function. This and predecessor programs such as the Bioinformatics Research Network (BIRN) [6,7] have established medical imaging firmly in the realm of big-data-based science.…”

Data-driven forward model inference for EEG brain imaging

“…BayesOpt [62] or Metropolis search combined with BMA [48] would become necessary. The database can be further extended by adding head geometries for more subjects using large anatomical scan databases such as the Biomedical Informatics Research Network [63]. The applied database contains healthy subjects of similar age and the generated forward model representation is therefore not expected to generalize directly to very dissimilar subject groups.…”

An Extensible Biomarker Curation Approach and Software Infrastructure for the Early Detection of Cancer

“…The Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) is a comparable initiative being undertaken by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the purpose of sharing neuroscience and brain imaging data between collaborating scientists (Keator et al, 2008). Like the EDRN, BIRN participants conduct research at their own facilities and retain control over the data they generate.…”