Informationist support for a study of the role of proteases and peptides in cancer pain

• Main Authors: Alisa Surkis, Aileen McCrillis, Richard McGowan, Jeffrey Williams, Brian L. Schmidt, Markus Hardt, Neil Rambo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library 2013-05-01
• Series: Journal of eScience Librarianship
• Subjects: Cancer; Neoplasms; Pain; Proteases; Peptides; Proteins; Informationists; Data management; Citation management; Bioinformatics
• Online Access: http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol2/iss1/9/

Two supplements were awarded to the New York University Health Sciences Libraries from the National Library of Medicine's informationist grant program. These supplements funded research support in a number of areas, including data management and bioinformatics, two fields that the library had recently begun to explore. As such, the supplements were of particular value to the library as a testing ground for these newer services.This paper will discuss a supplement received in support of a grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (PI: Brian Schmidt) on the role of proteases and peptides in cancer pain. A number of barriers were preventing the research team from maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of their work. A critical component of the research was to identify which proteins, from among hundreds identified in collected samples, to include in preclinical testing. This selection involved laborious and prohibitively time-consuming manual searching of the literature on protein function. Additionally, the research team encompassed ten investigators working in two different cities, which led to issues around the sharing and tracking of both data and citations.The supplement outlined three areas in which the informationists would assist the researchers in overcoming these barriers: 1) creating an automated literature searching system for protein function discovery, 2) introducing tools and associated workflows for sharing citations, and 3) introducing tools and workflows for sharing data and specimens.