Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development

Project: Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN)

Description: BIRN is developing a "virtual data grid" similar to others for particle physics, earthquake engineering simulations, etc. The grid will allow researchers affiliated with the project to share the large volume of data being developed. The data from each of the university sites involved in the Mouse BIRN Project (Duke, UCLA, Caltech, and UCSD/NCMIR) are expected to total 4 terabytes (TB) in the first year, 15 TB in the second, and 30 TB in the third year, with continuous deposition rates of 3-5 gigabytes a day and much higher burst deposition rates. The Brain Morphology BIRN Project will assemble similar amounts of data. Each partner site will retain complete autonomy over access to its data and resources, and data will be available only to authenticated users until it is placed in the public domain. Close collaboration between information engineers at the partner sites and the BIRN Coordinating Center will enable the development of fusion data models that combine inputs from the various sites and from publicly accessible databases. (From http://www.npaci.edu/enVision/v17.4/biomed.html.)

Participants: National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), SDSC, UCLA, Duke, CalTech

Sponsors: National Institutes of Health

Countries Involved: US

Tools:

Contact: Mark Ellisman