Breaking Down Barriers

Rapid growth in many areas of the life sciences has led to a proliferation of research databases in universities and other organizations. Unfortunately, what should be useful tools to help scientists exchange information in complex projects such as genome mapping often become a hindrance. Because various databases are not based upon a common standard, it can be extremely tedious to retrieve information from them. Until recently, a researcher looking into half a dozen databases needed to have an understanding of each.

Supported by an award from the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, Dr. Zina Ben-Miled, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis set out to break down these barriers to research. The unique innovation of her system, BACIIS (Biological and Chemical Information Integration System), is that it enables users to easily access various data-bases from a single interface—without knowledge of the underlying structure of the databases being accessed.

What the user doesn’t see is how the system combines information retrieved from different databases. BACIIS doesn’t simply cut and paste; it is intelligent enough to filter and organize information. For example, a scientist may want to study a given gene. Each of a number of databases might have some of the information related to this gene, but not all of it. BACIIS is able to extract all relevant information from different sources, reorganize it and give the researcher a single complete view of the information.

Dr. Ben-Miled says the 21st Century Fund enabled her to establish credibility for the project, making it easier to get the resources and time necessary to develop the system. Using the Fund grant, she was able to get preliminary results showing feasibility of the project. Additionally, the original Fund grant was matched by Eli Lilly and Company, and early Fund-sponsored work helped her get a nearly $1 million award from the National Science Foundation. In addition to the matching grant from Lilly, Dr. Ben-Miled received advice and support from Lilly scientists through Robert Oppelt, Director of IT Discovery at Lilly.

BACIIS will be ready for a first release early in 2003. At first, Dr. Ben-Miled will distribute the software to a wide audience of academic and commercial institutions. After receiving feedback and making revisions to the system, commercial avenues will be considered.