Good Connections

By Gerald Lushington, KU-L, Director of the Bioinformatics Core for the K-INBRE

It is important every once in a while to step back from what we're doing and remember that the "N" in INBRE stands for Network. Strategically located between the "I" that defines what the prevailing winds made us (i.e., IDeA states), and the "BRE" (Biomedical Research Excellence) to which we aspire, is the nexus, "N."

Unlike top Research I institutions, universities in IDeA states have little chance of amassing every resource and area of expertise required to address all of their researchers diverse interests. Regional networking among IDeA institutions, however, can foster the coordination of objectives and the assembly of multi-institutional consortia of complementary resources and expertise. If pursued diligently, such coordination can build the sort of powerful research environment that IDeA states have not traditionally enjoyed, and thus support the development of highly competitive proposals for the most lucrative research opportunities in the country.

Stan Svojanovsky (KUMC, left) answers questions from Gerry Lushington (KU-L, right in screen) about recent developments in genomics microarray data analysis.

Such transformations don't happen overnight, and we in K-INBRE are well aware of how far we have yet to go, but there is a confidence within our program that Kansas is a great place to attempt such a grand experiment. A strong history of collaboration already exists between the four main research intensive campuses in Kansas, and some natural non-redundant specializations have already taken place that distinguish the services and expertise at each school. In addition, our primarily undergraduate institutions are staffed by engaged and research savvy faculty who value the enhanced opportunities their students can have by interacting with larger universities. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our cross-institutional interactions are uncommonly warm and collegial. Given this strong foundation, the K-INBRE program has sought to foster cross-campus communication in a variety of ways. For example, our annual symposium has always been very well attended (even under some very adverse weather conditions) and has initiated very productive cross-campus collaboration. Given this enthusiasm, most of us yearn for more than one meeting a year, but travel budgets are strapped and time is precious. Thus we have turned this past year, more seriously than ever before, to electronic communications.

Pioneers don’t wait for four-lane highways
Our research culture embraces new technology, but often views videoconferencing with skepticism. For every idyllic television commercial of corporate executives conversing casually across three continents, there are many real-life meetings spent mostly on the cell phone to IT specialists addressing failed connections and random hissing static. We worry that those subtle features of our confocal laser scanning graphs might not come across as clearly as those trivial tricolor pie charts that decorate the TV ads. We fret about how many times we're going to have to repeat the phrase "phylogenetic parsimony" across the poor audio link. However, in Kansas the pioneer spirit lives on; pioneers don't wait for four-lane highways.

Building a backbone
Our journey with videoconferencing began in the early K-BRIN days with four TeleResearch stations situated in the bioinformatics satellite cores in the main partner institutions.  In the past several years our backbone has become substantially more robust and widely interoperable with the purchase of high-end Polycom units courtesy of an earmark engineered by the office of U.S. Senator Pat Roberts for bioinformatics infrastructure and an NCRR supplement awarded to K-INBRE specifically for the purpose of extending an electronics collaborative system as broadly as possible across our network of institutions.  As of early summer 2007, videoconference units had been installed at KUMC, KU-L, KSU, WSU, Washburn, Pittsburg State, Emporia State, Fort Hays State, and Langston.  On July 19, the K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core held an online meeting to which campus representatives from all of the primarily undergraduate institutions were invited to attend electronically.  In the meeting, it was proposed that we hold a regular online seminar/meeting series, occurring on an approximately monthly basis, and featuring bioinformatics-oriented lectures (i.e., new or emerging core capabilities, novel approaches, etc.) that would hopefully be of interest not just to K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core personnel, but also students and faculty at the primarily undergraduate institutions.  Starting in the fall of 2007, this series became a reality.  Highlights have included Li Jia speaking (10/2007) about the capabilities of the WSU Bioinformatics Core, Jianwen Fang discussing his work on protein-protein interaction prediction (11/2007), Gerry Lushington's and Aaron Smalter's tag-team talk (1/2008) on new algorithms in chemical biology, and Stan Svojanovsky's presentation (3/2008) about KUMC Core resources.  Sanjay Chellapilla of the KSU Bioinformatics Core led a discussion in April about tools for automated EST data analysis.

As with any dynamically evolving process, there have been problems and challenges. Meetings have been interrupted by connection and transmission problems. Presenters have had to adapt their slide content, font and color schemes to cater to mediocre resolution. Conversations have encountered the occasional awkward stumble as participants adjust to the split-second delay in audio transmissions. Nonetheless, thanks in large part to the heroic troubleshooting efforts of Doug Brownyard at KUMC, the technical environment and stability are continually improving. Our participants, both from the bioinformatics cores and primarily undergraduate institutions, remain committed to making this work. Useful discussions have emerged from the meetings and been propagated down the road toward prospective future collaborations.

Looking toward the future
With the electronic environment becoming smoother, our growing confidence in the technology is leading to more ambitious plans. A couple of years ago, Jim Miller (KU Electrical Engineering Computer Science Department, and an expert in scientific visualization and electronic communication) assembled a multidisciplinary team involving aeronautical engineers, biologists (including K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core personnel), chemists, computer scientists, geographers, and geologists divided approximately equally between KU and WSU for the purpose of developing a proposal for designing an immersive, high-resolution graphics environment that would augment traditional videoconferencing with interactive visual collaboration. The first two nodes in Lawrence and Wichita would enable researchers at each site to interact with graphical models at the other site as if they were on their own computer, and would add the benefit that stereoscopic projection could render complex images in three dimensions. The resulting NSF CISE proposal wasn't funded, but it has laid the foundation for future development plans. Additional plans have emerged to work toward integration of K-INBRE electronic collaboration resources with those of the renowned KU Telehealth and Telemedicine program and the KanREN electronic network infrastructure to form a state-wide collaborative network for research collaboration, remote physician-patient consultation, clinical trial coordination and other activities related to health care.

Such goals are unquestionably ambitious, but also feasible. The path may be a long one, but a commitment has emerged to bring the geographically dispersed people and research activities in Kansas all together into one virtual room to work together for a better future.

More Information:
For more information regarding the various programs discussed herein, please contact Gerry Lushington (glushington@ku.edu; 785-864-1140). K-INBRE network members or other interested parties who would like to be notified regarding the scheduling of upcoming electronic bioinformatics meetings are urged to contact Greg Matuszek (matuszek@ku.edu; 785-864-3528). Those interested in DVD recordings of meetings should contact Doug Brownyard (dbrownyard@kumc.edu; 913-588-5356). Finally, those researchers and collaborators within the K-INBRE network who are interested in using our videoconference equipment or connecting to a given site should contact the appropriate on-site contacts:

• Emporia State University: Kay Shireman; eshirema@emporia.edu
• Fort Hays State University: Ron Hart; rhart@fhsu.edu
• Langston University: K.J. Abraham; kjabraham@lunet.edu
• Kansas State University: Robert LeHew; rlehew@ksu.edu
• Pittsburg State University: Virginia Rider; vrider@pittstate.edu
• University of Kansas: Greg Matuszek; matuszek@ku.edu
• University of Kansas Medical Center: Doug Brownyard; brownyard@kumc.edu
• Washburn University: Janice Barton; janice.barton@washburn.edu
• Wichita State University: Li Jia; li.jia@wichita.edu