Network P2P for Exploring and Visualization of Proteomic Data Produced by Two Dimensional Electrophoresis

Our working group has started a project aiming atthe development of analysis algorithms devoted toimages produced by two-dimensional electrophoresis(2-DE) for general applications in the field ofproteomics. General analysis problems have beenaddressed, with the ultimate goal of the maximizationof the “automation level” of the analysis procedure,without reducing the accuracy now reachable onlywith manual intervention. For this purpose, theworking group is analyzing 2-DE images that arealready stored or that will be produced by means of theinstrumentation and the know-how of the biologistsparticipating to the project. It’s obvious that the “key”for the project success is primarily the availability ofmany images produced by different groups, butespecially their “comparability”, and their significant“clinical contextualization”. For these reasons, thegroup has started the implementation of federation ofheterogeneous biobanks 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, describes itscurrent state and presents an overview of related work.