This Core has played an essential role in the research program over its 15 year history. TheBioinformatics and Data Management Core will continue to serve the overall research program and each ofthe four component projects. It will continue to build an archive of all data generated under this mechanismof support. In addition, the archive will begin to compile selected neurobiological datasets on behaviorallycharacterized young and aged Rhesus monkeys, along with records of all behavioral data on those subjects.This archive serves all members of the investigative group and constitutes a highly valuable base ofinformation in the area of neurocognitive aging. We are currently enhancing the accessibility of all datasetsand research findings both within the research program and for outside investigators by establishing asecure server as a centralized repository for all project activities, results and analyses, and publications withweb-based software on the front-end to facilitate access to the database on the back-end. Specific personnelin Core C are tasked with the database resource development and data management.The Core will further provide expertise in statistics and bioinformatics to all projects under their respectiveresearch plans. This function of the Core is critical in the design and analysis of experiments that provideincreasingly complex data and require analytical methods beyond the expertise of Project Leaders. Inparticular, our planned investigations include several microarray experiments, which generate extensivedatasets requiring specialized analytic tools to reach reliable conclusions. Further, placing the bioinformaticsand the database archive under a single management entity, will facilitate integration of the substantialinformation garnered through microarray analysis with the more focused research of individual projects.Specific activities in bioinformatics will include rigorous quality assessment of microarray data generatedthrough individual projects via the JHU microarray core facility (Affymetrix core). All analyses involving theidentification of lists of genes, or the implementation of a battery of tests on a genome-wide scale, will beaccompanied by assessments of uncertainty in the form of false discovery rates to allow fine control over thenumber of falsely identified genes. Both a priori hypothesis-driven analyses (based on prior work in theprojects) and discovery approaches will be taken to fully exploit the value of information in the microarraydatasets. In addition, beyond the project components producing microarrays, the base of information in thosedatasets will be of interest to all investigators. We position microarray datasets along with bioinformaticsexpertise within this Core to allow all participating investigators the opportunity to examine findings within theframework of their own research focus.
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