UCLA receives $11M NIH grant to create center for big data computing
By amanda schallert
Oct. 10, 2014 2:13 a.m.
UCLA has received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to make a center that would study biomedical data analysis, or big data computing, UCLA announced Thursday.
The award is part of NIH’s $656 million Big Data to Knowledge initiative. As part of the project, the new UCLA Center of Excellence for Big Data Computing will try to find new ways to analyze and understand complicated biomedical data collections. UCLA is one of 11 centers in the country that will be part of the initiative, according to a UCLA press release.
Because of the complexity of big data, researchers often face problems accessing or comparing data. Initiative participants will also work with and train new researchers to analyze and understand biomedical data, which could help lead to scientific discoveries.
“Most medical journals and hospitals have entered the digital age, resulting in an explosion of scientific studies and mountains of electronic health records,” said Peipei Ping, a professor of physiology, medicine and bioinformatics at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, in the press release.
Ping, who will be the lead investigator at the UCLA center, said data is sometimes hard to compare and draw conclusions from because it is archived in different formats.
“Researchers need a way to easily access and make sense of these gold mines of information to benefit patients,” Ping said in the press release.
One goal for the center is to standardize data collection so that information can be accessed easily through just one computer program.
Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.
