Mark Ellisman <mark@ncmir.ucsd.edu>

Abbas Farazdel <afarazde@us.ibm.com>

Jill Kaufman <jillkauf@us.ibm.com>,

Satoshi Matsuoka <matsu@is.titech.ac.jp>

Rick Stevens <stevens@mcs.anl.gov>

Shimojo Shinji <shimojo@cmc.osaka-u.ac.jpb>

Mailing list: currently at ggf-BioInformatics@cs.uchicago.edu to be moved to lsg-rg@gridforum.org

Home page: TBD currently at http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/~dangulo/LSG

The Life Sciences Grid (LSG) Research Group explores issues related to the integration of Information Technology with the Life Sciences on a grid infrastructure.

The interface of the life sciences with information technology is rich and offers tremendous opportunities and challenges for developing the grid. The initial charter will be broad by design, including all scales of biological processes, from atoms to populations, as well as issues of handling multiple scales of biological complexity. A breadth of grid technologies are necessary to handle the capture and initial manipulation of data from instruments and the images they produce, to the reduction of those data and deposition into databases, to the incorporation of those data into increasingly realistic simulations of biological processes, and to the integration of data from a variety of sources, separated by distance, by discipline, and by language.

In short, the LSG Research Group will be working at the interface of two revolutionary areas: biology and information technology. Included in this group will be the suite of biological informatics, including bioinformatics (genetic codes), neuroinformatics, pharmacoinformatics, medical informatics, etc.; structural genomics; and systems biology including understanding the cell itself. In addition, questions of biological diversity will be considered, which will draw upon informatics but bring in other areas such as environment and spatial information.

The interface between the life sciences and information technology is a rapidly developing branch of biology and is highly interdisciplinary, using techniques and concepts from informatics, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and linguistics. This interface derives knowledge from computer analysis of information stored in the biological processes, experimental results from various sources, patient statistics, public and private databases and scientific literature.

Specific topics of interest include:

Identifying different solution areas and classifying them
Exploring possible reference architectures for each solution area
Identify clear examples and the diverse use of the grid within the life sciences
Discuss issues of access to data within life sciences
Discuss state of standards, within subdisciplines and between subdisciplines.
Identify how the grid is being challenged by the life sciences, and where there is need for activity

The Life Sciences Grid Research Group (LSG-RG) provides a forum for the above topics until sufficient maturity is reached that result in the formation of separate Working Groups or Research Groups for further exploration.

Goals/Milestones:

GGF6 (Oct 2002): Discussion of the Research Group charter
Actively engage the community of life scientists in this activity (October 2002 – March 2003)
Plan and host an active session of the Research Group at GGF7 (March 2003).