Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News

      Teranode Aims to Ease Data Modeling

      By
      M.L. Baker
      -
      October 18, 2004
      Share
      Facebook
      Twitter
      Linkedin

        Teranode Corp., an informatics software company in Seattle, launched updated versions of software and new equipment on Monday, promising to tear down data silos and help companies turn data into information.

        Most life sciences companies use a hodgepodge of spreadsheets and other applications to store data, said Matthew Shanahan, Teranodes chief marketing officer. Typically, these arent searchable and dont let scientists build flexible models of the interactions they believe are occurring in cells or other body systems.

        Making matters worse, the pace of data collection is rapidly increasing, forcing companies to hire more people just to deal with integration. Shanahan said some companies are “hiring a bioinformaticist for every two biologists—that doesnt scale.”

        Teranodes system lets users create, reuse and tweak visual models tied to experimental data.

        “You have the data from your experiments and the model that you built of what you think is happening, and you can see them side by side,” said Jack Beusmans, principal scientist in AstraZenecas pathways group, which studies interactions between networks of cellular proteins and their effects on disease. If the data and the model dont match, he said, its very easy to look at the protocols used to collect the data to see if experimental conditions explain the disagreement. The software also lets scientists search the database for other data that might impact the model.

        “One of the main applications for the model is communication,” Beusmans said. “It has a very simple and intuitive graphical interface that you can show to biologists and they will immediately understand it, but it also has good underlying mathematical simulation technology.”

        Also, the system is set up so that the model can be easily documented, he said. For example, a scientist can flag reservations about a particular part of the model and solicit feedback from other scientists.

        Beusmans said he has been using an alpha version of the software for about eight months and that the price allowed scientists to try the system out tentatively, “Other packages are too expensive to do on a trial basis, but Teranode is priced so that you can actually do that.” Teranodes Web site also lists drug giants Amgen Inc. and Pfizer Inc. as clients.

        The new version of the design automation software, Teranode Design Suite V2, starts at $1,000; a Model Server, which provides “check-in” and “check-out” functions and enhanced search capabilities, starts at $25,000 per CPU (half that for some academic settings); and an API that can integrate laboratory equipment, domain-specific analytic tools and data repositories starts at $5,000.

        The data and model are stored in an XML model called VLX, which also works in a relational database. VLX is an open specification that other researchers can build to, said Shanahan, but the ability to integrate protocol data with the biological model is patented. The software also supports SBML (Systems Biology Markup Language) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes). This helps researchers include information from public databases in their models.

        Derek Walker, program manager of clinical research informatics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said he purchased the system as a way to share data across various labs. “I had been looking at lab notebook products, but they werent good at integrating,” he said. “Data from each lab was so inaccessible, and we didnt have the metadata that would let us compare data from one lab to another.”

        He said the Teranode interface was flexible enough that it could work across labs without a lot of tinkering. “Weve written a couple specialized plug-ins that plugged in well,” he said, but generally, “theres not really any code to write, it just sort of flows.” Sometimes, though, the system could be too flexible, allowing scientists to add searchable attributes too easily.

        Beusmans and Walker said the data collection, integration, and modeling functions are easy to learn.

        “Im advising an undergraduate student at Brandeis,” Beusmans said. “I showed her the software for an hour, and she was modeling away. Thats pretty amazing.”

        Check out eWEEK.coms Health Care Center at http://healthcare.eweek.com for the latest news, views and analysis of technologys impact on health care.

        Avatar
        M.L. Baker
        Monya Baker is co-editor of CIOInsight.com's Health Care Center. She has written for publications including the journal Nature Biotechnology, the Acumen Journal of Sciences and the American Medical Writers Association, among others, and has worked as a consultant with biotechnology companies. A former high school science teacher, Baker holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Carleton College and a master's of education from Harvard.

        MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

        Android

        Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

        Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
        Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
        Read more
        Cloud

        Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

        Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
        Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
        Read more
        Cybersecurity

        How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

        eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
        Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
        Read more
        Big Data and Analytics

        How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

        Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
        There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
        Read more
        Apple

        Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

        Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
        If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
        Read more
        eWeek


        Contact Us | About | Sitemap

        Facebook
        Linkedin
        RSS
        Twitter
        Youtube

        Property of TechnologyAdvice.
        Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

        © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

        Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

        ×