How open science is accelerating cancer research | The Agenda

" ... Five years ago, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) began collaborating with other companies and research universities by opening access to its research on diseases with lower profit potential. Among the largest of the open science initiatives to launch from the GSK data release was the Open Source Malaria project, headed by Mat Todd at the University of Sydney. The project is currently working on its fourth series of tests evaluating a compounds set that originated with Pfizer.   In 2014, an even larger open science initiative launched in the United States—Project Data Sphere. A big data project that makes pharmaceutical research from clinical trials freely accessible among doctors and universities through a shared database, Project Data Sphere quickly pushed to the forefront of the open science movement. In February, it will launch the Prostrate Cancer Dream Challenge, a collaboration with universities and big pharma that aims to find new models for predicting survival for prostate cancer patients. The project’s potential is vast. Can it prove the power of open science?"