1. The FaceBase Consortium
A Reminder of Why We’re Here
Steve Scholnick, PhD,
Translational Genomics Research Branch
NIDCR/NIH
National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research

2. What is FaceBase?
NIDCR-funded consortium of scientific teams collaboratively investigating craniofacial development and the disruption of those processes that result in craniofacial birth defects.
Name of the database that will make the consortium’s data available to the wider scientific community.

3. Why create FaceBase? Two broad goals:
Develop a comprehensive, systems-wide, understanding of the developmental processes that create the face during embryogenesis and how those processes go awry.
High throughput genetic, molecular biological, imaging, and computational techniques
Data integration from the above approaches
Multidisciplinary approach
Make large integrated datasets available to the wider scientific community to facilitate the design of new studies
For example, 4D atlases of gene expression data
Individual labs can mine these data for the background they need to pursue their own targeted work without doing the preliminaries themselves

4. FaceBase objectives (Now Future)
Data Collection and Technology Development: “-omics” datasets on midface development at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organism levels deposited into FaceBase database
Data Coordination, Integration and Sharing: Comparative analysis, gene regulatory networks, modeling
Expansion of FaceBase organization to other craniofacial diseases and disorders: other craniofacial processes, cancer, Sjögren’s Syndrome, periodontal diseases, etc
Translational and clinical applications for prevention & intervention