BALDER and the reuses of data

Only the really smart ones know when to cut corners. Therefore, Peter - head of the BALDER project - has not reinvented the wheel. Instead, he has reinvented diabetes research – by bringing it to his computer.

Reduce, reuse, recycle - also when it comes o data

Peter's strategy was to use his computer skills to reduce, reuse, and recycle (the 3R’s):

REDUCE: Peter reduced his time in the wet-lab. Actually, he only went to the wet-lab to talk to his close collaborator Mads. Instead, Peter spent most of his days at his computer. And with a background in statistics and interest in bioinformatics, this was exactly where he excelled.

REUSE: Because diabetes is a common lifestyle disease, many researchers go to the wet-lab to find out more about it. But since Peter didn’t go to the wet-lab, he brought all the knowledge from the lab experiments to his computer. Here he used this knowledge to find new insights into the biological mechanisms of diabetes.

RECYCLE: Peter and his team recycled all the knowledge from the wet-lab into new computer-based models that can help researchers:

1. Find new drug targets
2. Predict the effect of a drug

Sharing the knowledge

Peter’s team benefitted from other’s research. Therefore, they also shared their findings with everyone interested. All information regarding the models and how to use them, is now available for everyone to use, reuse or recycle.

All of this fits well with the 3R’s mind-set, but it is also a requirement in ODIN. Peter’s project was funded by ODIN, which is an OpenInnovationInScience platform. We believe that openness is the best way to drive innovation in science.