Yet cloud analytics are desperately needed to support increasingly collaborative research – often involving teams scattered around the world. Research analytics have been slow to move to the cloud because it is difficult to obtain funding purely for software development unless it promises to reveal new insights. “We are building the foundation for other people to do research,” says Hannes Röst, an assistant professor of computational biology at the Donnelly Centre (photo by Jovana Drinjakovic)īader even adapted the software to find optimal wine and cheese combinations for a dinner party. Besides biology, it has been used in business, social studies and marketing, as well as mapping how characters in an epic science fiction novel relate to each other. Initially designed for genomics researchers, Cytoscape incorporates the basic principles of network theory and can be easily adapted for other applications. It makes it easier to see what everyone else is doing and you’re exposed to more ideas that changes the way you do things in a positive way.” “Because your document lives on the cloud, the latest version is already there, and you can access it anytime, anywhere. Just as web-based cloud computing has transformed how we listen to music and store data, Bader, whose team is developing the web-based Cytoscape Explorer, says that freedom from having to keep track of files and e-mail them back and forth will boost creativity and speed up science. ![]() “The future of data analytics should be that it is easier to do, easier to share information and it should be easier for people to collaborate,” says Bader, a professor of computational biology who is cross-appointed to the department of molecular genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and holds the Ontario Research Chair in Biomarkers of Disease. ![]() Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced it is providing U of T’s Gary Bader and Hannes Röst, both researchers at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, with US$150,000 each to create a cloud-based Cytoscape and Open MS. Co-founded by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse, Priscilla Chan, the initiative seeks to harness technology to accelerate progress in science. ![]() But like most research software, it’s currently a desktop application that has to be installed and updated, and doesn’t work on phones or tablets. Turns out, there’s an app for that – and it’s about to become far more versatile as University of Toronto researchers work to release it to a wider community with the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.Ĭalled Cytoscape, the software in question is already an essential tool for viewing networks in biology, including gene networks that hold clues about how different genes co-operate to sustain health and how these networks change in disease. Which genetic changes predispose to disease? How do characters in a novel relate to each other? Which wine and cheese go well together?
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