SBIR Phase II: Developing Market-Ready Cloud-Based Software for Mass Spectrometry Data Processing

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是通过开发先进的分析软件来降低成本，提高质谱学研究的质量和产量。生物医学、生物技术、农业和化工公司每年在质谱学上的花费估计为150亿美元，因为它的测量在广泛的产品和服务中提供了商业价值。该值在很大程度上取决于将实验输出转化为有用信息所需的软件质量。拟议研究的成功完成将通过更快、更低成本和更准确的数据处理在现有市场上取得进展，导致新的医疗诊断、新药和其他超出当前最先进水平的新产品。这个SBIR第二阶段项目将通过开发分析软件来解决质谱学中最紧迫的问题，该软件在两个方面进行了改进：1)它将通过易于定制的自动化、交互式假设检验和快速直观界面将用户分析时间缩短一半；2)它将通过灵活的界面回答更多实验性问题，允许用户在直观地探索数据的同时利用他们的领域专业知识。这些品质要求利用在第一阶段(开发了云架构)中获得的概念验证，并将在第二阶段开发新的界面和算法。主要项目目标是开发一种应用程序，使用户能够更快地完成重复(通过自动化)和定制(通过直观、灵活的探索性工具)分析，所需时间是目前方法所需时间的一半。与现有软件相比，节省的时间将大大降低人员成本，同时增加可以回答的实验问题的数量和类型。该奖项反映了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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to reduce the cost and increase the quality and throughput of mass spectrometry research through the development of advanced analytical software. Biomedical, biotech, agricultural, and chemical companies spend an estimated $15B per year on mass spectrometry because of the commercial value its measurements provide across a broad range of products and services. This value is highly dependent upon the quality of the software needed to render the experimental output into usable information. The successful completion of the proposed research will enable advancements in existing markets through faster, less expensive, and more accurate data processing, leading to novel medical diagnostics, new drugs, and other new products beyond the reach of the current state-of-the-art. This SBIR Phase II project will address the most pressing problems in mass spectrometry by developing analytical software that is improved in two ways: 1) it will cut user analysis time in half through readily customizable automation, interactive hypothesis testing, and fast intuitive interfaces, and 2) it will answer more experimental questions through flexible interfaces that allow users to leverage their domain expertise while intuitively exploring their data. These qualities require leveraging the proof-of-concept achieved in Phase I, where a cloud architecture was developed, onto novel interfaces and algorithms to be developed in Phase II. The principle project goals are to develop an application that allows users to more quickly complete both repetitive (through automation) and custom (through intuitive, flexible exploratory tools) analysis in half the time required by present methods. The time savings will result in much lower personnel cost while simultaneously increasing the number and type of experimental questions that can be answered compared to existing software.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.