Vast compilations of life science data present logistical challenges to scientists and students in labs and in the field. A team of researchers seeks to transform the research process by developing a Mobile Life Sciences Platform (MLSP), allowing developers to build life sciences applications for smart phones. These applications will make it easier to access essential online biological resources, interface with a variety of database systems, and analyze experimental data.
New Ways to Interact with Data
Life Science data fills archives across the globe, containing within it answers to crucial questions in health, the environment, biotechnology, agriculture, and countless other areas. Advances in information technology and wireless communication now make it possible to interact with this information online and new analysis services have emerged to revolutionize the way that biologists access and use data.
In recent years, scientists have begun to employ handheld devices such as Pocket PC-based personal digital assistants (PDAs) or smart phones to facilitate their work in settings where use of a desktop or laptop computer is impractical or unsafe. Smart phones include a variety of features that can support the research process, combining cellular and Internet connectivity with a capable CPU and advanced features such as speech recognition, a camera, high resolution display, and GPS. These mobile devices allow researchers to access and record data wherever and whenever needed, in a form factor that can be easily incorporated into the research workflow.
A number of technological advancements facilitate development of these valuable tools for research, including the increasing maturity and capability of mobile operating systems such as Windows Mobile 6.0 and improvements in storage capacity in small computing devices. Because fast and effective data visualizations are crucial to conducting research in the Life Sciences, the inclusion of hardware graphics acceleration into converged mobile devices represents a key advance. Converged mobile units, unlike specialized devices that only provide a single type of function, can handle a multiplicity of functions such as phone, video and PDA, minimizing the need for researchers to carry around multiple devices.
MLSP: Revolutionizing the Way Researchers Work
The Mobile Life Sciences Platform (MLSP), a project that has been under development at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, is an attempt to address this goal. It aims to provide the foundation for an integrated system that will allow developers to build Life Sciences applications for smart phones. Greg Quinn, principal investigator on the project, says what excites him most is the potential for “revolutionizing the way researchers work.” The goal of his work is to develop a platform for personal computing devices such as smart phones that could to take the place of some laptop and desktop usage; “Life Sciences researchers are as much part of the information revolution as other members of the public, and it is our job to leverage mechanisms of data access.”
Quinn envisions the MLSP providing a benefit to education, as well. Using smart phones to access tools formerly only available on laptop or desktop computers, high school students could use mobile devices to learn about protein structures, or college students could access information “on-the-fly” to write papers. The research group solicited input from Life Sciences researchers to help shape the features of the MLSP. Top on the list were efficient navigation, fast access and the ability to annotate data. Also crucial were user authentication support and strong encryption for queries and results. Users also identified a need to access data offline and use the system with one hand.
Scenario: Using MLSP on Mobile Devices
Quinn describes a scenario in which a research team might take advantage of the Mobile Life Sciences Platform devices under development. A researcher in a molecular biology lab is conducting experiments on a particular section of DNA and wants to see the results of a previous sequence similarity search that was run using her laptop. While lab safety rules would allow her to have a laptop at her lab bench, the surface is covered with reagents and equipment and there is no space left for a traditional computer. She cannot easily leave the bench during her work session so she uses her smart phone to log in to SWAMI (see sidebar), locate her search results, and call up a graphical overview of the bacteria she is studying. Using the built-in filtering feature to narrow her query further, she finds an exciting result and uses the collaborative messaging feature built into her mobile device to notify the other members of her team. The Principal Investigator on the team, who is at a research seminar, receives the message and uses his smart phone to log in and view her data. Because of the three-dimensional capability of the application, he is able to rotate and zoom in on the molecule to view the region of interest. He is able to save the model on his phone to show his colleagues so they can discuss the new find. Another member of the team, who is out in the field at a remote location collecting bacterial samples, also calls up the data on his smart phone. He is struck by the similarity to a bacterial sequence he is working on and uses the device to conduct another search, annotate his results, and send it back to the researcher in the lab.
Enabling Data Access for Field Researchers
The preceding scenario illustrates how the use of the Mobile Life Sciences Platform on mobile devices could facilitate data access in environments where traditional computers were impractical or unavailable, speeding the process of converting data analysis into new hypotheses. Mobile devices can bring biological data and services to a research team in a timely and constructive fashion, providing tangible benefits to the research process. Quinn hopes that his work will lead to an increasingly rich set of tools and services used by Life Sciences researchers pursuing solutions to the world’s heath challenges. “The Mobile Life is Sciences Platform has the potential to break down barriers to accessing and understanding complex information from any location,” he says. In addition, the potential impact on scientific discovery increases as more researchers in the Life Sciences take advantage of this new tool.
Project Principal
Gregory Quinn, Ph.D.
San Diego Supercomputer Center of the University of California
9500 Gilman Drive, MC0505
La Jolla, CA 92093 United States
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An External Research-funded project supporting advanced technology research |
Collaboration Links
Research Focus Areas
SWAMI Web-based Workbench
SWAMI is a free, Web-based next-generation biology workbench developed for research and education in Bioinformatics, Genomics, Proteomics, and Phylogenetics. The system provides an integrated environment for scientists and students to access tools, user data, and public data resources. It is designed to respond to the needs of user communities. Learn more...
