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Data
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SenseLab: Integration of multidisciplinary sensory data
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The SenseLab Project is a 10-year effort by an international network of researchers to develop a comprehensive approach to building integrated, multidisciplinary models of neurons and neural systems, using the olfactory pathway as a model.
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Neuroinformatics research at Yale University as part of the national Human Brain Project is exploring the integration of multidisciplinary sensory data, and focuses specifically on the olfactory system as a model domain. The overall name for the project is SenseLab. SenseLab's neuroinformatics activities fall into three main areas.
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1. Building databases and related informatics tools to support olfactory research, with a particular focus on databases that can support our experimental work at Yale and also serve as resources for the field as a whole.These currently include databases containing: a) information about olfactory receptors and odor molecules, b) properties of neurons and of neuronal compartments, and c) computer models of neurons and of neuronal compartments.
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2. Using computer models to help understand data being collected experimentally in the laboratory and to help guide further experimentation.Two main types of computer models are being used: a) molecular models of olfactory receptors and of their binding to odor molecules, and b) models of neurons and of neuronal compartments.
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3. Informatics research which uses these activities as a context to develop new informatics technologies. For example, we have developed a flexible data model (which we have named EAV/CR - Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes and Relationships) designed to facilitate the storage and integration of diverse heterogeneous data within a single unifying framework. The EAV/CR approach uses metadata to describe new types of data in the database without requiring changes to the database schema or to the routines which access it.
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