In this pilot, the projects SiD, NMRlipids and PROVIZ are working with Simula Consulting to get advice and support on statistical experimental design and to implement good data management practices and solutions. Simula Consulting is an award-winning consultancy and is part of the Simula Research Laboratory.
About the pilot Value your Data
The aim of the DLN 'Value your Data' pilot is to unlock the full innovation potential of data collected through research projects. Research projects often collect various types of data from multiple sources and of different quality and value. In many cases, the research team may not have the capacity, resources or competence to maximize the full potential of data collected throughout the lifetime of a research project. We will test and evaluate the impact of bringing in an external consultancy to fill this gap, and particularly if this accelerates the journey of research to application in the real world.
The pilot offers three main services
- Advice on setting up statistically robust experiments.
- Support for in-depth data analysis.
- Assistance in data management and administration.
Simula: the best choice
Simula Consulting, a subsidiary of Simula Research Laboratory, was chosen for this pilot because they have excellent experience with data administration tools and platforms, with experimental design, and working with diverse data types. Since they are a consultancy based out of a research lab, they also have important experience collaborating with researchers.
What will the three projects be doing?
SiD Syngens – SiD project
This project is part of the Lale Lab at Department of Biotechnology and Food Science at NTNU. The interdisciplinary lab integrates biophysics, computational biology, and synthetic biology, and aims to understand the fundamentals of transcriptional and translational regulation in microorganisms.
In the SiD project, they have successfully identified the DNA binding sequences of 17 different sigma factors from three bacterial species: Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas putida. By using approximately 4 million DNA sequences as templates, they have derived around 2.9 million functional RNA sequences. This extensive genetic dataset serves as a foundational resource for understanding transcriptional regulation across various bacterial species and holds significant potential for biotechnological applications and synthetic biology. They want to use this data to make a model for promoter prediction.
In the Value your Data pilot, Syngens-SiD will receive assistance in developing, reviewing and improving this model.
NMRlipids
The NMRlipids Project is an open collaboration focused on understanding lipid systems at an atomistic level. This collaborative effort occurs through a blog (nmrlipids.blogspot.fi) and github (github.com/NMRlipids); it involves detailed exploration of lipid structures and interactions through all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations, using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and other high-fidelity experimental data as a benchmark. The project aims to enhance the understanding of lipid behavior in biological systems, contributing significantly to the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology.
The project wishes to make the NMRlipids Databank better known and accessible. Therefore, they want to participate in the Value your Data pilot in order to annotate datasets, add additional identifiers, increase the datasets' findability, and interconnect with other resources.
PROVIZ
PROVIZ' research aims to advance prostate cancer diagnosis using MRI and explainable AI techniques. They focus on enhancing the accuracy and reliability of MR imaging in detecting and characterizing prostate cancer lesions. By integrating advanced image processing algorithms and machine learning models, they aim to develop a robust diagnostic tool that can detect and differentiate between benign and malignant lesions with high sensitivity and specificity.
In the Value your Data pilot, PROVIZ hopes to receive a unified, queryable Data Warehouse to enhance data exploitation, improve research quality, and expedite clinical testing and implementation.
Background on Innovation Roadmap
The Centre for Digital Life Norway (DLN) is leading pilot activities that aim to accelerate innovation from academic digital biotechnology research. The pilot activities are part of the project “A roadmap for academic research-intensive innovation”, funded by the Research Council of Norway. Pilot activities will bring together partners from multiple sectors to test new innovation strategies. Successful pilots aim to contribute to transforming research and innovation in Norwegian biotechnology.