SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Alliance for Cellular Signaling (AfCS) “Scaling up” academic science

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Collaboratory types Distributed research center –Large-scale, high-throughput academic/ industry hybrid Community data system –Unique model for motivating and coordinating community contributions

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN History Success of human genome project NIH budget increase led to “Glue Grant” idea- scaling up science AfCS was the first glue grant, several others have followed

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN History Al Gilman organized two meetings of signalling community at UTSW –Meeting #1: ~12 people from UTSW –Meeting #2 ~ 30 people Funded started in 2000

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Scientific problem AfCS is an attempt to account for all signalling activity in a few model cells

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Scientific problem There are ~3,000 molecules that are potential ‘signals’ in a cell Interactions are complex and poorly understood “How do cells hear and interpret one voice when 50 are shouting (or mumbling)?”

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Distribution of funded participants Molecular Biology Lab Microscopy Lab Bioinformatics Lab Signaling Assays Lab Protein Lab Cellular Preparation Antibody Lab Systems Committee Lymphocyte Alliance Labs Systems Committee Myocyte UT Southwestern University of Washington UCSD Cal Tech Stanford Berkeley UCSF JHU BC Harvard Barbraham, UK Steering Committee Salk Nashville

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Organization from Gilman, 2003 Technology Dev. Committee Labs/Resources Administration Bioinformatics, data dissemination Cell prep & analysis Assay development Molecular biology Proteins Antibodies Microscopy Signaling research community System Committees Membership & Editorial Committee Editorial board Alliance members Signaling database Steering Committee Bridging Projects 80% 5-10% 40% 100% 10%

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Resource diagram

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Products- Alliance Labs High quality data repository for the field- produced by labs IP policy dictates that data is open to everyone – AfCS labs (informally) excluded! Alliance members expected to do publishable analysis of this data

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Products- outside Alliance members Signalling Gateway –Co-published with Nature Publishing Group –Molecule pages-- 3,000 article reference on every relevant molecule in the virtual cell –Outside researchers recruited to write Molecule pages- equivalent to a journal review article

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Technology used lists Custom bioinformatics databases –Developed at UCSD Polycom –Use application sharing –Supported by UTSW Reports Annual meeting Newsletters Website Web boards

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Use of Polycom All PI’s have Viewstations in their offices Gilman uses as a replacement for the phone Used for all multi-site meetings, along with shared slides

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Motivations of participants Dis-incentives to be overcome : –No ownership of data- IP policy dictated immediate publication –Little publication opportunity –Little distribution of individual credit

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Motivations of participants Professional bench staff –Experience useful in industry or med school –“Best of both worlds” academic and corporate Research staff - Lab directors, committee members –Chance to be involved in an innovative project –Lab improvement –Idiosyncratic motivations

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Motivations- community data system contributors Molecule pages are equivalent to a review article, but more structured and need to be updated yearly Co-published by Nature Publishing Group (Will these ‘count’ as academic publications?)

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Alliance successes to date IP policy Recruitment of participants, members Signalling gateway and ‘mini’ molecule pages Standardizing protocols Bioinformatics infrastructure Public antibody database, reagents, protocols

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Protocols Improvements in protocols due to need for replication

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Challenges Specific target molecules being changed both to avoid problems and take advantage of new technology Aggregation of data yet to be attempted Relationship with outside authors still untested

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Outstanding questions: Will academic/ industry hybrid model be successful? Will CDS model (Molecule pages) be successful? Will other Glue grant projects succeed in similar projects with radically different organizational structures?