The Arkansas Research Alliance proposes to hold five annual workshops on the subject of bioinformatics. The purpose is to bring six major Arkansas institutions into closer collaboration. Those institutions are: University of Arkansas-Fayetteville; Arkansas State University; University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; University of Arkansas at Little Rock; University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; and the National Center for Toxicological Research. The workshops will focus on capabilities at each of the six in sciences related to bioinformatics including high speed computing and visualization capabilities. They will also identify ?big data? bases to be used in future research efforts, coordinate research into the development of knowledge bases and in silico toxicology research. As this work progresses, educational coordination and student encouragement will be important components. Principals from all six institutions are collaborating to accomplish the workshop goals.
The FDA ability to protect the public health is directly related to its ability to access and utilize the latest scientific data. Increased proficiency in collecting, presenting, validating, understanding, and drawing quantitative inference from the massive volume of new scientific results is necessary for success in that effort. The complexity involved requires continued development of new tools available and being developed within the realm of information technology, and the workshops proposed here will address this need.
