Data science is empowering new discoveries from biomedical scientists across NIAID and the National Institutes of Health. The Data Science Dispatch highlights the impact of data science, data sharing, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and more in infectious and immune-mediated disease research.
Compiled by the Office of Data Science and Emerging Technologies, the Data Science Dispatch features stories about the data science work being conducted by a wide range of NIAID-funded scientists, research centers, and offices — with the aim of raising awareness of innovative methods and promoting connectivity between researchers across NIAID and NIH.
If you have a story to highlight in the Data Science Dispatch, please contact datascience@niaid.nih.gov.
Facilitating Data Harmonization Across an International HIV Program
The International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) collects observational data representing over 2.2 million people living with and at risk for HIV. This international research consortium collects data from 44 countries across five continents. To make it easier to harmonize data from multiple regions, NIAID-supported informatics specialists developed the Harmonist Data Toolkit.
NIAID Awards Small Business Contracts To Enhance the Utility of Infectious and Immunological Data
NIAID has awarded contracts to seven small businesses to develop new software or web services that make infectious- and immune-mediated disease (IID) data easier to find and reuse. Software developed by these projects may lay the groundwork for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI).
NIAID Program Outlines Best Practices for Reporting H5N1 Influenza Sequence Data
Gathering and sharing data has been a key part of the response to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak. HPAI is caused by the H5N1 virus. In May, NIAID released an H5N1 Influenza research agenda outlining a strategy to understand H5N1 biology and objectives to advance detection, treatment, and prevention.
NIAID Funds Development of New Software for IID Data Access and Reuse
NIAID has awarded grants to three research teams for the development of software that advances infectious and immune-mediated disease (IID) research. The three funded projects will develop software that improves the acquisition, management, analysis, visualization, and dissemination of IID data.
Funding Dispatch: Understanding the Latest Systems Modeling Notice, NOT-AI-24-060
NIAID is funding new research related to computational modeling systems of infection and immunity. Computational modeling holds tremendous potential for infectious and immune-mediated disease (IID) research. The Notice of Special Interest (NOSI), NOT-AI-24-060, is titled “Systems Modeling of Infection and Immunity Across Biological Scales” and was released on July 23.
ImmPort Repository, Home to Data From More Than 1,000 Immunological Studies, Celebrates 20th Anniversary
This year, the immunology data repository ImmPort reaches a key milestone: 20 years since the first study was added to its repository in 2004. ImmPort is funded by NIAID’s Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT) in support of the NIH mission to share scientific data with the public.
Impactful T-Cell Research Demonstrates Importance of Sharing Scientific Data
A team of researchers is making news for their groundbreaking research on T-cell therapies. The research team inserted a gene mutation into therapeutic T cells which makes them more efficient at treating solid tumors. The research team’s raw sequence reads are available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Sequence Read Archive.
Data Landscaping Project Aims to Make NIAID Data More Accessible, Promote Reuse
A new project sponsored by the NIAID Office of Data Science and Emerging Technologies (ODSET) is aiming to make NIAID data easier to find and reuse. The project examines NIAID’s data repositories and makes recommendations on how to make the data within more FAIR — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.
More Data Science News from NIAID and NIH
Register for the NIH Data Sharing Index (S-index) Challenge by March 3
Challenge.gov | February 13, 2024
The Data Sharing Index (S-index) Challenge, led by the National Eye Institute (NEI) with contributions from multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs), aims to incentivize the creation, development, and validation of a quantitative data sharing index.
NIH Releases Strategic Plan for Data Science
NIH ODSS | January 17, 2025
The plan will coordinate NIH efforts to leverage data science to accelerate our understanding of human health by utilizing the deep expertise of NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices as well as NIH’s partners with other federal agencies, academia, industry, and philanthropy.
OCICB's Michael Tartakovsky Receives Presidential Rank Award
NIH Record | January 3, 2025
Tartakovsky received the 2024 Presidential Rank Award, the highest honor the federal government can bestow upon a career civilian employee, for his innovative leadership in advancing NIAID's cyber infrastructure and pioneering initiatives that have had a lasting impact on global health research.
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