Re: Creating a database of FCS files

Hi Adrian -

The need of a management system for flow cytometry (as well as 
microscope image) data has been apparent for quite some time. Not 
only would it help in the research aspects you mentioned, it could 
also provide many other functions, such as secured sharing of data, 
easy availability from any networked site,  etc.

For several years I have been fortunate to be involved with Bill Hyun 
of UCSF through an SBIR with a local software company in SF (Biotrue, 
Inc.) to develop such a system. We are in beta test now.

The product, (which doesn't have a formal name yet, but is informally 
called RDMS - Research Data Management System), will be announced at 
the ISAC meeting at the end of May. Biotrue will have a booth there 
to give demos of the product, and I will be giving a workshop talk on 
some of the ideas behind its design.

I do have a (small) financial interest in Biotrue, but even if I 
didn't I would recommend that you look at the product as a possible 
solution to your needs. You can contact Jenny Liu (JLiu@Biotrue.Net) 
for more information.

Marty
Marty Bigos
Director, Flow Core
Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology
Building 3 SFGH Rm 509
415-695-3832

>Hi all,
>
>Some of the users here have raised the desirability of having a 
>database of all the FCS headers from all their data files. They 
>could then, for example, search for all the files/experiments in 
>which they used a particular stain etc.
>
>Is anybody doing this? Would this be something that other people 
>would find useful?
>
>I would love to set something up but I don't have the requisite 
>skills or time at the moment.
>
>As a temporary measure I suggested they export the FCS header info 
>from FlowJo using using a table and then compile them all in another 
>program like excel. This works for a few experiments but it needs to 
>be automated (and easy) if it is going to be generally applicable.
>
>Any comments or suggestions?
>
>Adrian Smith
>Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology
>Sydney, Australia


--