Synapse: a collaborative compute space that allows scientists to share and analyze data together

Use the link above to access Synapse. Integrating and advancing the data repository for Sage Bionetworks, Synapse is “a collaborative compute space that allows scientists to share and analyze data together.” A more detailed description of Synapse from the Sage Bionetworks website reads as follows: “Synapse is an innovation space that brings together scientific data, tools, and disease models into a Commons that enables true collaborative research. The platform consists of a web portal, web services, and integrations with data analysis tool and is organized around novel “Analysis Communities” that any scientist can create or join. The utility of these workspaces serves as an incentive for researchers to work collectively on complex medical problems. Synapse is designed to enable many layers of collaboration: within a single team, between research teams, between research teams and industry partners, and within pharmaceutical companies. A demo version of Synapse is available on line. The value proposition for researchers to use this Commons and to work collaboratively is that Synapse will facilitate: [1] Finding and using relevant data... [2] Understanding analysis workflows... [3] Genome-scale analysis... [4] Forming collaborations... [5] Patient engagement... The value of this computational space is that it provides an open source environment rich in curated and standardized data combined with analytical and support... Synapse represents a compute environment for the generation and evaluation of disease models that can drive new basic and translational research and provide the framework for new effective drug discovery. For more background and details please see Mike Kellen's Synapse Vision Statement... Synapse is different from, and complementary to, other ongoing efforts. It is distinct from the data warehouses (e.g. NCBI, EBI) in that it goes beyond the repository database model to incentivize the creation of active community-based analysis and modeling groups. Synapse will incorporate existing tools such as, GenePattern, Taverna, Galaxy, and geWorkbench.  Synapse will include integrated knowledge-based systems built on the current literature or data repositories, including tranSMART, that offer a number of genomic mining tools. Importantly, our approach does not just provide the data, code, workflows, and models, but establishes an environment that allows others to readily critique the models and then refine and build new versions. Synapse will be a: [1] Forum for development of Robust, Reproducible and Reusable analytical methods... [2] Disease Model repository ... [3] Forum for collaboration"