Facing a
formidable challenge
Turning data into
scientific insight is not a straightforward matter, writes
Sophia Ktori T
he lack of data standards is a long- standing challenge across many scientific disciplines and industries, and as organisations attempt to turn
their data into scientific insight, the proliferation of both current and legacy file formats poses a formidable challenge, comments Trish Meek, senior manager for product marketing at Termo Fisher Scientific: ‘Without standardisation, system integration has to be effected at the project level, or by vendors on a case-by-case level.’ ‘Historically there have always been a lot of
data formats out there, but in the life science R&D space, particularly, there is a broad range of analytical and experimental workflows,’ comments Paul Denny-Gouldson, VP of strategic solutions at IDBS. ‘Analytical testing of synthetic and biological samples, imaging and modelling tools, high throughput and high content screening and next generation sequencing are just some of the techniques that are creating data in formats that can’t be easily interrogated alongside – or integrated directly with – data from other platforms.’ When information is scattered across the
company in individual workstations and multiple, disparate formats, data sharing and collaboration – even within the same organisation – becomes difficult, if not impossible, stresses Darren Barrington-Light, soſtware marketing specialist, informatics and chromatography soſtware at Termo Fisher Scientific. ‘Also, when data systems are retired or replaced by a different vendor solution, the existing data can pose something of an issue – what should happen to that data?
18 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
It needs to be retained and made accessible aſter an old system is retired, oſten for technical reasons such as unsupported operating systems or hardware issues. When this happens, then sometimes the only options are either a laborious import to the new system, or the maintenance of a cut down legacy system.’ Collaboration and externalisation also
necessitate moving experimental and analytical data across firewalls into the informatics infrastructures of partners, collaborators and service providers, including CROs. ‘Each organisation will have its own informatics infrastructure and soſtware,’ Denny-Gouldson adds. Tey will quite possibly all use instrumentation from different vendors, and their data formats may not be compatible with those used by collaborators’ hardware and soſtware.’ How much easier it would be, Meek adds, if
true standards existed. ‘Integration would become much easier if open standards were universally adopted across the scientific community, enabling free flow of data throughout organisations from start to end, without transformations or customised interfaces.’ And yet, although many end-users do want
to see widespread adoption of open, standard data formats, there is still some resistance by a few hardware manufacturers, Denny-Gouldson continues. ‘If you have developed an analytical instrument with soſtware that does something completely new, then you have a unique selling point for that instrument. As soon as you start publishing that instrument’s data in an open standard format, you lose that USP.’ Tis is a point reiterated by Burkhard Schaefer,
president of BSSN Soſtware. Te benefits of a common data format may not be viewed quite the same from the instrument vendor side, he concurs. ‘If you are a manufacturer of, say, a commodity HPLC instrument, and you have a base of end users who are all set up to work with your soſtware and data formats, then they are
more likely to stay with you when they upgrade or need new machines. But if all the HPLC instruments from all the vendors use the same standard data formats, then you lose that vendor lock-in. If another vendor comes along with a cheaper, equivalent instrument, then it could put your business at risk.’ Even some of the pharma companies can be a
bit reluctant to take the concept of standardisation on board, because they are comfortable using their existing, proven processes and soſtware admits Gene Tetreault, senior director of products andmarketing at Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA. ‘We need to get across the idea that adopting standard data formats will improve laboratory efficiency, give end users much more freedom to choose a wider range of instrumentation, and ultimately allow all their instruments and soſtware systems to work together without the need for integration tools. And this will allow us to focus more on building capabilities that provide real scientific value.’ Companies like IDBS that specialise in data
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