caGrid: design and implementation of the core architecture of the cancer biomedical informatics grid.
BACKGROUND
The complexity of cancer is prompting researchers to find new ways to synthesize information from diverse data sources and to carry out coordinated research efforts that span multiple institutions. There is a need for standard applications, common data models, and software infrastructure to enable more efficient access to and sharing of distributed computational resources in cancer research. To address this need the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has initiated a national-scale effort, called the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIGtrade mark), to develop a federation of interoperable research information systems.


RESULTS
At the heart of the caBIG approach to federated interoperability effort is a Grid middleware infrastructure, called caGrid. In this paper we describe the caGrid framework and its current implementation, caGrid version 0.5. caGrid is a model-driven and service-oriented architecture that synthesizes and extends a number of technologies to provide a standardized framework for the advertising, discovery, and invocation of data and analytical resources. We expect caGrid to greatly facilitate the launch and ongoing management of coordinated cancer research studies involving multiple institutions, to provide the ability to manage and securely share information and analytic resources, and to spur a new generation of research applications that empower researchers to take a more integrative, trans-domain approach to data mining and analysis.


BACKGROUND
The caGrid version 0.5 release can be downloaded from https://cabig.nci.nih.gov/workspaces/Architecture/caGrid/. The operational test bed Grid can be accessed through the client included in the release, or through the caGrid-browser web application http://cagrid-browser.nci.nih.gov.
Saltz
Joel
J
Department of Biomedical Informatics, Ohio State University 3184 Graves Hall, 333 West 10th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. joel.saltz@osumc.edu
Oster
Scott
S
Hastings
Shannon
S
Langella
Stephen
S
Kurc
Tahsin
T
Sanchez
William
W
Kher
Manav
M
Manisundaram
Arumani
A
Shanbhag
Krishnakant
K
Covitz
Peter
P
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D003628:Database Management Systems; D030562:Databases, Protein; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D014584:User-Computer Interface
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins