Senselab: Integration of Multidisciplinary Sensory Data

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The main aim of this grant is to develop databases and database tools in support of experimental neuroscience. We use as a model system the olfactory pathway, for which we have constructed a set of linked databases that is called SenseLab. Our project draws on expertise in three constituent projects. Project 1 will develop and apply the databases to experimental studies of successive stages in the olfactory pathway. These databases include Olfactory Receptor Database (ORDB) with an archive of over 5,000 chemical sensory receptors, and NeuronDB, which archives membrane properties that subserve dendritic integration. New initiatives include ORarrayDB to support genechip analysis of olfactory receptor gene expression, and OdorMapDB to support analysis of fMRI odor maps and correlation with maps generated by a variety of activity mapping methods. Project 2 is under the Yale Center for Medical Informatics, which provides the expertise needed for basic research in neuroinformatics and applications to the experiments and databases of Projects 1 and 3. It will expand a highly flexible database structure termed EAWCR not only to enhance our projects but also to launch new initiatives to provide for interoperability between Human Brain Project databases (HBPDB) and neuroscience databases more broadly (DBofNDB). Project 3 is responsible for development and maintenance of a database of neuronal models (ModelDB), primarily based on the software tool NEURON, a leading program for computational modeling of neuronal integration. Project 3 will collaborate with Project 1 on studies to model olfactory neurons and microcircuits, and will continue to develop ModelDB beyond the 100 models currently archived. The results of this program project should provide a model for how interlinked databases can be essential for experimental analysis of a model system, and should provide tools of general applicability to promote the use of databases throughout neuroscience.