Global Ageing Knowledge Management System
Press release of the International Aging Research Portfolio(source – Eternal Mind website)
On February 24, 2011, the world's first global knowledge management system in the field of aging, the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP), began operation.
An international team of researchers and programmers, led by Russian scientists, has developed a flexible, scalable information system for tracking projects, grants and publications in biomedicine with a focus on the physiological and psychological aspects of aging and age-dependent diseases – the International Aging Research Portfolio. The system is available on the website AgingPortfolio.Org and is an international non-profit independent project with open access. The development of the system was carried out for two and a half years.
When creating AgingPortfolio, the team gained access to information on financing projects of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the USA, the European Commission (EC), the National Research Organization (NCRC) of Canada and other organizations and combined them into one database. Within the framework of IARP, all these projects were combined with the database of scientific articles of the US National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE).
A system of classifications of projects related to aging and algorithms for automatic classification of projects with machine learning elements based on the support vector method and neural network algorithms were developed.
To administer the AgingPortfolio project, Dr. Charles Cantor created an international scientific council, which includes more than fifty major scientists from different countries and fields of science.
"Nowadays there is too much information to track, and powerful search systems are required. This project effectively integrates a huge amount of various information related to research in the field of aging," said Charles Kantor, chairman of the IARP Scientific Council, former director of the Human Genome program at the US Department of Energy.
Aging is a complex combination of many processes that lead to loss of functionality at the physical and psychological levels. The science of aging, gerontology is one of the most multidisciplinary areas of research, which includes both the study of the physiological processes of aging and age–dependent diseases, as well as psychological and socio-behavioral aspects of aging.
Aging takes more lives and causes more economic damage than all other existing global problems. To prevent the next global economic crisis, among other things, it is necessary to significantly increase the retirement age and improve the physical condition and morale of the able-bodied population of the Earth.
"The US National Institutes of Health spends more than $30 billion annually on biomedical research, distributing almost $25 billion in grants. The annual budget of the US National Institute of Aging is more than one billion dollars. According to experts, government organizations around the world spend more than $45 billion annually on biomedical research.
Most of the results of scientific research conducted with this money are publicly available in the form of articles, news, patents and conference presentations, forming a huge array of information for further research, the formation of new grants and the application of the results in clinical practice.
To date, the reporting systems for financing biomedical projects are fragmented and tied to separate sources of funding. There is no unified system for tracking scientific projects, their links to publications, patents and clinical research results.
"The main goal of the AgingPortfolio system is to provide open access to information on financing projects in the field of aging and biomedicine in general for scientists and organizations, to help organize scientific communities and unite scientists from different fields of science to combat aging," said Alexander Zhavoronkov, IARP project manager.
In the near future, based on IARP, it is planned to develop visualization of aging processes at the level of cells, organs, the body, the systemic and psychological level, as well as the development of route maps on methods of regeneration and prevention of age-dependent diseases. Negotiations are underway with the national research organizations of Australia, Japan and China to include the project databases of these countries in a single IARP system.
The system is currently in stable beta. Any comments and bug reports are welcome.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.02.2011