We describe the objectives of the UK CARMEN e-Science project (www.carmen.org) which is addressing the challenge of managing experimental data and methods within the context of Neuroscience research. The traditional research approach of testing a hypothesis and publishing the results is hampered in situations where others need to build on the results and need access to the data or original methods. CARMEN is addressing this issue by allowing scientists to share data and methods within a collaborative Grid environment. The CARMEN platform is a Grid-based, shared data and services repository.
Central to the data management challenge is providing the capability to data-mine large time-series data sets; the initial application of the system is to spike train data from nerve cell recordings. We are examining how data can be represented effectively for diverse experimental methods. Also central to the investigations is providing generalized methods which allow users to publish and share their software services on the CAIRN for wider collaborative research. Initial investigations have shown that MATLAB is a common programming platform. Although this is not universal, we aim to provide an interactive MATLAB environment on the CAIRN, with a library of dynamically deployable services. A sister project, DAME [1], developed a distributed signal search engine, called Signal Data Explorer (SDE) [2], which provides a platform for managing, viewing and searching time-series data. Interoperability between this and other software services is being investigated in the project. Currently, SDE invokes search services on data nodes using a technology called PMC (Pattern Match Controller), allowing data to be searched without moving it. We will generalize this function to allow any process to be run on remote data.
The CARMEN project will provide an e-Science infrastructure to support cross-modal data sharing and integration, metadata and an expandable range of services accessible to users for raw, transformed and live experimental data. These innovations will create a virtual neuroscience laboratory that ties together experimental and computational neuroscientists with an accelerated, integrating process which contrasts the current neuroscience research process.
Acknowledgments The CARMEN project is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as an e-Science Pilot project under EPSRC grant reference EP/E002331/1. The CARMEN academic and industrial collaborators are the Universities of Cambridge, Leicester, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, St Andrews, Stirling, Sheffield, Warwick, York; Imperial College, Cybula Ltd. and Lectus Therapeutics Ltd.
References
[1] Austin J., Jackson T., Fletcher M., Jessop M., Cowley P. and Lobner P. “Distributed Aircraft Engine Diagnostics”. Chapter 5: The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing. Infrastructure, 2nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2004. ISBN: 1-55860-933-4. Editors Foster & Kesselman.
