We will be able to establish how protein levels in the blood taken at the very early stages of MS correlate with how the disease behaves ten years down the road, juxtaposing the biomarker with clinical, genetic, and
imaging data already available.»
Still, Sheehan said neuroscience
already is one of the leaders in
data sharing and management, with such resources as the NIH - funded National Database for Autism Research; an NIH - Defense Department sponsored
data base on traumatic brain injury; the NIH - funded Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC), which helps researchers to develop, share and collaborate on software tools for doing functional and structural
imaging studies of the brain; and the Neuroscience Information Framework, an NIH initiative that makes neuroscience resources -
data, materials, and tools - accessible via any computer connected to the Internet.