The Lariat Networking Project

1. Gwen Jacobs Montana State University Supporting Connectivity for Biomedical Research Internet2 Spring Meeting April 24, 2006 National Center for Research Resources, NIH Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center The Lariat Networking Project

2. What is Lariat? • 10M project funded by National Center for Research Resources, NIH • Upgrade IT infrastructure for 6 institutions in the rural west • Connect each site to the closest Gigapop • IDeA Program: INBRE, COBRE, IDeANet

3. Partnerships are essential: • Montana State and University of Washington • Gwen Jacobs, Montana State University • Ron Johnson, University of Washington • Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming • INBRE PIs and CIOs from each state • National experts in networking and biomed research • Partner institutions: University of Washington, UCSD

4. Opportunities: Expand communities Research Public health, health disparities Education Grow the network Fill in gaps in connectivity Promote access to resources awareness, training, infrastructure Promote inclusion in national science initiatives

5. Challenges • Improving communication • Promoting the importance of cyberinfrastructure • Understanding bandwidth needs • Improving access to resources • Local, regional, national, international • Building regional networks • Applications driven • Research, education, health care

6. Impacts of Lariat: • Infrastructure improvement: • Leveraging Lariat to build out the network • Increased access to regional and national resources • Shared tools, data, expertise • New collaborative activities • Centers of excellence, distributed research collaborations • Regional initiatives • Clinical/Medical Education - The WWAMI Classroom project

7. New infrastructure in place:Hawaii online at 10Gbps through SX TransPORT ! Jan. 21, 2005 Honolulu, HI

8. Regional impact in Idaho: Lariat was a catalyst for this effort • Idaho University Consortium • to strengthen research across University of Idaho, Idaho State, Boise State University and Idaho National Laboratory • Goal: • connect the research universities and INL to the National Lambda Rail through a high capacity network for research and education. • Proposal for Public high-capacity fiber-optic network Development of the High Capacity Fiber Optic Network is the single most important action the Legislature could make to bring Idaho research and technology up to the national standard.

9. Leveraging Lariat in the Northern Tier • NSF funded Northern Tier Study to study advanced networking in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Idaho • State government and Universities are partnering to implement plan • Montana and North Dakota are working with Washington and Minneapolis to buy and light fiber to connect universities and state capitals • Partners: Universities, State Government, PNWGP, Northern Lights

10. New Mexico: an unfunded outcome… • New Mexico will join the Lariat Network via the National Lambda Rail • Leveraged a $300K investment in INBRE into a ~$10M investment by the state and others for advanced networking initiatives • No Lariat $$$ were invested - the project served as a catalyst for New Mexico

11. Wyoming INBRE: making resources available: remote microscopy The UW Imaging/Microscopy Core Facility is a valuable resource • Research • Teaching • Outreach TEM SEM Confocal Sample preparation Enhance Collaborations and Capabilities http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/Microscopy/ Provide remote access to university facilities for community colleges and support international research collaborations.

12. Access to remote instruments • Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry - Montana State University • Valerie Copie • Structure/function large proteins • NMR Spectroscopy - • John Peters and Robert Szilagyi • Metalloenzymes - nitrogen fixation and nitrogenase activity: • X-ray spectroscopy and computational chemistry • Bandwidth needs - 1GBps • Remote control of instrumentation • PNNL, SSRL, ALS • Movement of large data sets • Access to supercomputers

13. WWAMI Regional Center of Excellencein Biodefense Participants: Washington (UW), Wyoming, Alaska (UAF), Montana (MSU, UM, Rocky Mountain Labs), Idaho (UIdaho) Focus: microbial pathogens gram negative bacteria zootic diseases Idaho INBRE Workshop Infectious Disease Symposium April 18 - 20, 2006

14. Medical and clinical education: • Goal: Create a leading edge interoperable, distributed classroom environment • Phase I: • WWAMI sites in Seattle, Spokane, Pullman and Bozeman • Phase II: • Anchorage and Laramie • Outcomes: • Create a common experience and equivalency through a distributed expertise. • Formal and informal learning • CME and community outreach • Partners: • Microsoft Research: • Conference XP Project Seattle Pullman/Moscow Bozeman Spokane http://depts.washington.edu/wwamic

15. Building awareness: The Lariat Workshops 2006 • Regional information resources: e-journals, library resources • March 2 - 3, Seattle, WA • Accelerating research through Grid Computing • April 13 - 14, Bozeman, MT • Evolutionary Bioinformatics Network • March 16 -17, Bozeman, MT • Supporting Connectivity for Biomedical Research • NCRR - TATRC - Internet2 - April 24, Washington, DC • Imagining the Digital Healthcare Future in the Rural West • July 7- 8, Bozeman, MT • Advanced Research and Education Networks: Minority Serving Institutions in the West • July 8 - 10, Bozeman, MT.

16. Grid Computing Workshop: new partners, new projects • New partners: 10 experts in grid enabled science and IT infrastructure - spanning research/industry domains • UCLA, ANL, SDSC, Microsoft Research, Apple Computer • Two initial projects • Sharing Lariat Research Data • Make unique data sets available to the community • Lariat Computational Science Grid • Instructional resource for Lariat partners to learn how to apply • computational approaches to computing and data management • Provide a regional computing resources

17. Evolutionary Bioinformatics Network:a nationally distributed research team • Goal: Create the Retrome • Characterize/annotate sequence, expression and predict action of retroviruses in mammalian tissue • Multidisciplinary Research Team • Expertise: evolutionary molecular biology, chemistry, bioinformatics and computer science • Arizona State, Montana State, U Idaho, U Michigan, • U Washington, Yale • Develop Genome Parsing Suite for sequence identification • Microarray analysis of expression data • Predict and test host, retrovirus interaction • Make all sequence and experimental data available on the Lariat Science Server

18. Lessons learned • Talent is everywhere, infrastructure is not… • Local, regional, national expertise is required • The wide area network is the easy part… • Each campus network/community is a unique challenge • Will there ever be a level playing field? • Find creative solutions for each problem • Lasting partnerships are essential for success • Lariat has been a catalyst for change in the West

19. Contact us! Gwen Jacobs gwen@cns.montana.edu Ron Johnson ronj@cac.washington.edu Lariat Project http://www.lariat-west.org