The proposed project described in this grant application, combined with existing Fluorish tools, will create a robust cloud-based e-commerce marketplace for cytometry research reagents, addressing key needs in the research community. Flow Cytometry is widely used in basic and clinical research. Fluorish LLC will streamline the experimental design process and enhance the quality of scientific inquiry for flow cytometry research. Through iterative development, we will begin implementing an automated panel design system, and a comprehensive reagent and panel database. Linking these components in the cloud with Fluorish's social computing capabilities, will help users pursue greater complexity in multiparametric flow cytometry experimental design and significantly enhance their scientific exploration. Objectives: {(1) Provide an online cloud environment that allows researchers to develop valuable social networks, while integrating robust scientific experimental design tools, with core/lab management systems, and an e-commerce online marketplace.} (2) Develop and implement an experimental design schema, with integrated evaluation metrics, that will automatically characterize the interaction between reagent and instrument dependencies, to account for the complexities of fluorophore assignments in panel design. (3) Create heuristics with a common ontology for flow cytometry reagents and panels that will allow for greater transparency on use of reagents, and sharing capabilities of optimized flow cytometry panels. Methods: Building on our existing core and lab management systems, we will continue to add functionality to our site, allowing scientists to readily manage and distribute critical informatio regarding their flow cytometry experience. With our aggregated database of numerous reagent vendors'catalogs, we will create a database of designed panels from published sources to facilitate efficient reuse of panels and promote data sharing. We will base our work on nascent standards being created in the field, specifically MIFlowCyt, OMIP, ACS, and NetCDF, as well as innovation in the creation of a reagent ontology for cytometry. We will also define requirements for the development of an expert system approach to panel design, that can include metrics from technical aspects of antigen density, fluorophore brightness, spectral overlap, and spillover spreading, as well as, the social computing aspects of factoring in specific antibody conjugate use cases with titration data. {All of these components can be accessed in the cloud online, providing a dynamic, 'living'environment for the flow cytometry community.}
Flow cytometry is a research tool used widely in basic and clinical research to examine the immune system. This technology is critical in the design of new vaccines and development of therapies, which rely upon and target immune cells. {Fluorish will create an innovative cloud-based community for scientists using flow cytometry by integrating current Fluorish user networks, and the existing web-based Fluorish core and laboratory management tools, with the proposed Cytometry Panel Database, Automated Panel Design Software, and MyFluorish project described in this grant application.} The resulting Fluorish feature set will advance the starting position for scientists using flow cytometry, streamline the experimental design process, strengthen material management capabilites, and enhance the quality of scientific inquiry. {Furthermore, Fluorish's new model of an online marketplace can be applied to other areas of scientific inquiry which provides an opportunity for Fluorish to easily expand beyond flow cytometry.}
