Presentation

The iCONICS platform provides access to software solutions and methodological expertise for a variety of biomedical data management and analysis processes.

THE CONTEXT

Neuroscience encompasses a huge diversity of strategies for the exploration of the central nervous system, in studies ranging from basic biology to clinical research, which include the production of omics, cell imaging, electrophysiology, neuroimaging, behavioral, cognitive and clinical data.

Developing data management and analytics solutions for neurological data thus represents an important challenge given the heterogeneity, the dimensionality and the complexity of such data, for each modality alone, and for their combination.

OUR MISSIONS AND ACTIVITIES

The DAC core facility develops, maintains and makes available methods and software tools for data management and analytics in the biomedical field.

It runs its own R&D, and assists scientists and clinicians in their research projects by providing both technological solutions and methodological expertise, from the experimental design of studies to data management, processing, integration and analysis, up to the interpretation of results.

These activities include:

• Data management support (curation, standardization, structuration, integration and visualization);
• Development and deployment of bioinformatics pipelines to process genetics and (epi)genomics data;
• Support in statistical analysis, including the development and application of advanced methods for the integrative analysis of multimodal data;
• Development and deployment of web software for the management and interpretation of complex data.

The platform serves the research community at the Paris Brain Institute, but also offers assistance to any biomedical research project aimed at better understanding the mechanisms underlying human pathologies.

OUR ACCESS MODALITIES

DAC provides support ranging from mere consulting to basic bioinformatics and biostatistics services, up to full-scale scientific projects.

The platform operates primarily on a collaborative basis, through scientific partnerships with the requesting teams (i.e. co-application for grants, co-supervision of dedicated staff), leading to co-authorship when the contribution of DAC experts warrants it.

Services are also invoiced for standardized or customized analyses.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any enquiry on DAC@icm-institute.org

THE ENVIRONMENT

DAC activities and strategy are regularly reviewed by a users’ committee and an experts’ committee. Each year, all users of the platform meet and this is an opportunity to present the latest developments and services, and collect some feedback. The experts’ committee’s role is to discuss strategic orientations (including scientific priorities, interactions with other platforms, future needs, etc.).

DAC is a core component of the Centre for Neuroinformatics of the Paris Brain Institute, whose main objective is to promote the harmonization and sharing of best practices in data management and analytics across the Institute. In this framework, DAC works side-by-side with the IT department to define the operational conditions for the use of high-performance storage and cluster systems, and to set up procedures for the development and deployment of scientific applications.

DAC is affiliated to the Sorbonne Université network of core facilities (“Réseau Omique”) and is a member of the « Institut Français de Bioinformatique” (IFB), the French national bioinformatics infrastructure, and participates to the coordination of several of its missions and to its executive committee.