Collaborative Research: ABI Development: IsoBank: A centralized repository for isotopic data

稳定同位素编码并整合了物质的起源；它们的分析为解决跨不同科学学科的问题提供了巨大的潜力。稳定同位素的广泛适用性，再加上高通量分析的进步，创造了一个正在呈指数级增长的科学领域，产生数据的速度与DNA测序和基因组学的爆炸性增长平行。集中的数据存储库，如GenBank，已经成为归档信息的中心，这些资源提供的分析正在给科学和日常生活带来革命性的变化。但到目前为止，还不存在管理同位素数据的中央数据库。这种资源的缺乏阻碍了不必要的重复劳动，阻碍了研究进展，限制了稳定同位素的近乎无限的应用，并减少了学科内和学科间科学家之间的信息交流。建立一个稳定同位素中央数据库将不仅仅是一个数据仓库；它将是一个活跃的资源，可以联合各学科领域，回答农业、动物科学、考古学、人类学、生态学、医学、营养学、生理学、古生物学、法医学、地球和行星科学方面的紧迫问题。我们相信，这样一个集中的数据库将加速和加强这种全球性和多学科的努力，从而扩大同位素科学的影响范围。该项目汇集了一个由分析专家和科学家组成的多学科团队，他们与数据库架构师和网站开发人员在一系列研讨会上制作和解释同位素数据，最终将创建IsoBank，这是一个可通过网络访问的稳定同位素数据的中央数据库，服务于跨学科的研究和教育社区。IsoBank将使一个多样化且快速增长的科学界能够利用大数据分析的优势。同时，它将提高现有的各种基于同位素的应用的效率，这些应用需要参考数据来支持解释。IsoBank的设想是促进使用共同化学语言的学科之间的互动，这将导致不同观点的融合，这一过程已经导致了科学上一些最大和最具创造性的进步。IsoBank将通过在美国的核心同位素实验室之间建立一个网络来提高数据质量保证和控制的标准，这些实验室目前每年生产近100万个新的数据点。最后，IsoBank(isobank.org)准备解决出版和资助机构在数据可访问性和透明度方面日益增长的倡议。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Stable isotopes encode and integrate the origin of matter; their analysis offers tremendous potential to address questions across diverse scientific disciplines. The broad applicability of stable isotopes, coupled with advancements in high-throughput analysis, have created a scientific field that is growing exponentially, and generating data at a rate paralleling the explosive rise of DNA sequencing and genomics. Centralized data repositories, such as GenBank, have become central in archiving information, and the analytics offered by these resources are revolutionizing science and everyday life. But to date, a centralized database for the management of isotopic data does not exist. The absence of such a resource has impeded research progress through the unnecessary duplication of effort, restricted the near-boundless application of stable isotopes, and curtailed the exchange of information among scientists within and among disciplines. The creation of a centralized database for stable isotopes would be more than a silo for data; it would be a dynamic resource to unite disciplinary fields and answer pressing questions in agriculture, animal sciences, archaeology, anthropology, ecology, medicine, nutrition, physiology, paleontology, forensics, earth and planetary sciences. We believe that such a centralized database would accelerate and enhance such global and multi-disciplinary endeavors, thus broaden the reach of isotope science.This project brings together a multidisciplinary team of analytical experts and scientists who produce and interpret isotope data with database architects and website developers in a series of workshops that will culminate in the creation of an IsoBank, a web-accessible centralized database of stable isotope data that serves an interdisciplinary research and education community. IsoBank will enable a diverse and rapidly growing scientific community to harness the advantages of big data analytics. At the same time, it will increase the efficiency of a wide range of existing isotope-based applications, which require reference data to support interpretation. IsoBank is envisioned to foster interactions across disciplines that speak a common chemical language that will result in the fusion of diverse perspectives, a process that has resulted in some of the biggest and most creative advances in science. IsoBank will enhance the standards for data quality assurance and control by creating a network among core isotope laboratories in the U.S. that are currently producing nearly a million new datapoints per year. Lastly, IsoBank (isobank.org) is poised to address growing initiatives of publication and funding agencies for data accessibility and transparency.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.