Network P2P for exploring and visualization of proteomic data: possibility of handling data and analysing them under different perspectives

Our group has started a project aiming at thedevelopment of analysis algorithms devoted to imagesproduced by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE)for general applications in the field of proteomics.General analysis problems have been addressed, withthe ultimate goal of the maximization of the“automation level” of the analysis procedure, withoutreducing the accuracy now reachable only withmanual intervention. For this, the group is analyzing2-DE images that are already stored or that will beproduced by means of the instrumentation and theknow-how of the biologists participating to the project.It’s obvious that the “key” for the project success isprimarily the availability of many images produced bydifferent groups, but especially their “comparability”,and their significant “clinical contextualization”. Forthese reasons, the group has started theimplementation of federation of heterogeneousbiobanks of images founded on openRegistry/Repository for P2P architecture (ebXML RR)[1], on images stored with standard metadata for theircomparability (EFMI MIP) [2], and on standardelectronic documents for their clinicalcontextualization (HL7 CDA) [3]. This papersummarizes the concepts of the initiative and describespossibility of handling data and analysing them underdifferent perspectives.