OF THE INFORMATICS CORE (CORE 3) The Informatics Core is responsible for clearly communicating the results from the Interaction Projects as demonstration of a comprehensive and systematic approach for investigating natural product-drug interactions (NPDIs). Creating a permanent repository with a public portal is crucial in providing access to the organized raw data, summaries of these results, and background information. Because NPDIs have diverse target audiences, encompassing researchers, health care practitioners, and the lay public, the Informatics Core must build a public portal that ensures these users can access the scientific results in a reliable and reproducible way, as well as enables them to better appreciate the clinical relevance of NPDIs. The Informatics Core brings together two teams with complementary expertise to meet these goals: the UW Drug Interaction Database (DIDB) and the WSU College of Communication. Previously successful approaches will be leveraged with existing resources to build a new repository and public portal ? collectively termed the NaPDI (pronounced ?nap-dee?) app for Natural Product-Drug Interaction application ? accessible via the Internet. First, the Informatics Core will establish a permanent and publicly accessible repository for the data resulting from the Interaction Projects. The DIDB is currently the largest manually curated repository of preclinical and clinical drug-drug interactions, with a well-vetted standard format for data submission, trained data curators for data entry, and robust quality assurance procedures. The data submission format will be modified to incorporate the unique elements of Interaction Projects, such as the NP characterization data generated by the Analytical Core. Traditional elements of the Interaction Projects, such as the pharmacokinetic data generated by the Analytical and Pharmacology Cores, also will be entered. Open source technologies will be used to build an easily maintainable infrastructure in which research data will be stored and displayed in a flexible and user- friendly format. Second, a user friendly public portal will be created for dissemination of the results from the Interaction Projects. Validated communications tools will be used to create a public portal that has interactive features tailored to researchers/practitioners and the lay public to enhance two-way communication regarding NPDIs. User experience studies, specifically focus group sessions with early versions of the public portal, will be conducted to optimize clear communication of the Interaction Projects? results. Third, the transparency and transferability of the NaPDI app will be ensured using open source technologies in a cloud-based environment. Finally, clear and consistent documentation will be provided to a future successor to the U54 Center. Leveraging the unique DIDB experience, the Informatics Core is well-equipped to meet the objective of clearly communicating results from the Interaction Projects, with the NaPDI app representing a novel means to help improve the safety of the concomitant use of NPs and medications.
