Proteomics Informatics: Scientific Discovery or IT Development?

1. Proteomics Informatics: Scientific Discovery or IT Development? Clayton Stark GenoLogics Life Sciences Software Inc

2. In this Presentation • Who are these guys? • Who’s doing Proteomics? Where do they see it headed? • Research trend: build the “Proteomics Platform” • Component parts of the Platforms we are seeing • What parts are the bioinformatics people working on? • Options to meet the challenges

3. Who are these guys? • GenoLogics Life Sciences Software Inc • My name is Clayton, and I will be your presenter today (my role at GenoLogics is VP Business Development) • We are providers of proteomics-focused LIMS and SDMS software and integration services • Our main job is understanding the specific needs of the investigators, the bioinformaticians and the laboratory managers at proteomics facilities • Our goal is to help investigators, bioinformaticians and lab managers turn research – and the massive amounts of proteomics data – into meaningful discovery, faster and at lower cost

4. Proteomics Today (what we are seeing) • To date we have seen dozens of research proposals that include proteomics and proteomics informatics • There are 861 public universities, 1515 private universities and 80 government institutions (US and Canada) with established or new proteomics facilities that we have seen so far • About 20 pharma companies we have talked to • Commercial R&D companies looking for applications • Plus many Genomics researchers looking to augment their research

5. Proteomics Tomorrow • Drastically reducing drug target discovery and drug validation cycle time (by 66% …?) • Clinical diagnostics, as far down as doctor’s offices having diagnostic devices based on protein chip technologies • More research initiatives looking to proteomics to promise faster discovery – perhaps all major disease prevention initiatives…? “The use of proteomics technologies is the most direct way to identify and study drug targets, which is arguably the pharmaceutical industry’s most important task.” — Front Line Strategic Consulting

6. Proteomics Platform – Common Theme • Research proposals and grant applications describe each organization's desired “Proteomics Platform” • Collaboration sought from academia and industry • Recurring concerns are data management, security, ubiquity and investment magnitude – oh, and data mining algorithm development, too • What will these Proteomics Platforms look like?

8. What Part is IT? • Are there tasks in the bioinformatics realm that can be served by people with IT skills (i.e. without life sciences backgrounds)? • IT and DBA people are trained to: • Create data transformation services • Design databases for content they do not fully comprehend • Automate the operation of software components • Build websites and populate them • Create report generation systems and build out reports • Keep it all running, and tweak it as it grows • What is a bioinformatician’s job description?

10. Where do you want to be? • Some bioinformatics people really want to facilitate meaningful scientific discovery – that’s why they didn’t go into IT • Some bioinformatics groups report 50% to 90% of their time is spent on tasks that fit the description of an IT developer or DBA

11. Options • Standards, such as those proposed by HUPO, will get us part of the way if we can get buy-in from the industry gorillas • Continued community development of best practices – ground swell to force standards? • Draw some lines separating IT/DBA and Bioinformatics job functions – can we make both jobs more efficient with clarity of scope and purpose? • Take a look at your system’s plans from an IT expert’s point of view, and see what can be taken out of your way so you can proceed with science and discovery

12. Thank You Your comments are appreciated clayton.stark@genologics.com www.genologics.com