Real-Time eXperiment Interface - Enabling closed-loop biological experiment control

项目概要/摘要 实验学家研究生物系统的能力往往局限于预先编程的 开环协议，根据假设和预定模型探测系统。在 与此相反，实时反馈控制允许系统在参数扰动的情况下进行动态探测 计算为瞬时闭环系统测量的函数，使研究人员能够 解决开环方法无法解决的问题。虽然有许多生物学问题， 可以通过这种反馈控制使其更易于处理-例如在细胞中离子通道功能的动态探测， 神经元或使用由真实的- 时间EEG反馈-技术复杂性往往阻碍其采用。 由于计算技术已经有了几十年的进步， 实时实验控制不可能使用标准的计算机操作系统（无需昂贵的 附加组件）。它们根本不是为这种严格计时的任务而设计的。此外，商业 实时系统是昂贵的，并且需要最终用户针对实验室进行定制，使得它们通常不 可移植到更广泛的科学界。为了规避这些限制，我们开发了一种快速， 一个高度通用的实时生物实验系统-实时实验接口（RTXI）。 RTXI是免费和开源的，与广泛的实验硬件兼容， 通过标准实验室上的用户定制界面提供可再现的硬实时性能 电脑重要的是，RTXI为“高级用户”提供了广泛的多功能性和高性能， 同时提供一个丰富的-和不断增长的-实验控制模块库， 对于那些不懂计算的人来说。 RTXI已经发展到现在的地步，它是许多领先的科学计划的宝贵组成部分。 研究团体。除了为这些用户和未来的用户更新和维护RTXI之外， 重要的发展途径，将大大扩展RTXI的功能，再现性， 为更广泛的生物研究人员群体提供增强和实用性。因此，我们建议： 1. RTXI通过彻底改造其基础代码和核心模块来推动科学创新。 2.以实现几个新的实时实验范例。 3.简化和丰富实验者的用户体验和可重复性。 至关重要的是，这里提出的工作将确保RTXI仍然是一个有价值的研究工具，因为它的各种 一群杰出的生物科学家最终用户。此外，我们将大大扩展RTXI的实用性 通过建立和支持额外的实验和突破性的科学，他们将 启用.

Project Summary/Abstract The ability of experimentalists to investigate biological systems has often been limited to pre-programmed open-loop protocols whereby systems are probed based on assumptions and predetermined models. In contrast, real-time feedback control allows systems to be dynamically probed with parameter perturbations calculated as functions of instantaneous closed-loop system measurements, enabling researchers to address questions not amenable to open-loop approaches. While there are many biological problems that can be made more tractable by such feedback control – such as dynamic probing of ion-channel function in neurons or manipulation of sleep network dynamics using auditory and electrical stimuli governed by real- time EEG feedback – technical complexities often hinder its adoption. Because there has been a many-decades advance in computing technologies, it is counter-intuitive that real-time experiment control is not possible with standard computer operating systems (without expensive add-on components). They are simply not designed for such strictly timed tasks. Furthermore, commercial real-time systems are costly and require end-user customization for the lab, such that they are typically not portable to the broader scientific community. To circumvent these limitations, we developed a fast and highly versatile real-time biological experimentation system – the Real-Time eXperiment Interface (RTXI). RTXI is free and open source, compatible with an extensive range of experimentation hardware, and delivers reproducible, hard real-time performance via a user-tailorable interface on standard laboratory computers. Importantly, RTXI offers extensive versatility and high-performance to “power users,” while simultaneously providing a rich – and ever growing – library of experiment-control modules that require little effort for those who are not computationally savvy. RTXI has grown to the point where it is now an invaluable part of the scientific programs of many leading research groups. In addition to updating and maintaining RTXI for those, and future, users, there remain important avenues for development that would substantially expand RTXI’s functionality, reproducibility enhancement, and utility for an even broader group of biological researchers. Thus, we propose: 1. To keep RTXI pushing scientific innovation by overhauling its base code and core modules. 2. To enable several new real-time experiment paradigms. 3. To ease and enrich experimentalists’ user experience and reproducibility. Critically, the work proposed here will ensure that RTXI remains a valuable research tool for its varied group of outstanding biological scientist end users. Furthermore, we will expand RTXI’s utility significantly by building and supporting additional classes of experiments and the groundbreaking science they will enable.