CANCER INFORMATICS
Users of the ONIX (Oncology Information Exchange) portal and the NCRI Informatics Initiative website are now being redirected to this page as these services are no longer available. 31st March 2012 marks the formal closure of the NCRI Informatics Initiative.
For ONIX users who wish to find biosamples for research please visit the new NCRI Cancer Biosample Directory.
On this page are details of how to access the ONIX source code and a short summary of the Aims and Achievements of the NCRI Informatics Initiative.
ONIX Software Availability
We hope that others will take forward our platform development work and to this end the source code which supports the award-winning ONIX platform (including APIs and adaptors) will be freely available to the community.
To request access to the code please email jack.towner@ncri.org.uk. The software will be available under an open source licence which will allow re-use, development and extension of the software which provides the following functionality:
The Resource Catalogue: a tool that brings together and describes a diversity of biomedical resources which include databases, analytical tools, projects, initiatives and research technologies either entered directly to ONIX or contained in one of the other catalogues searchable from the Resource Catalogue including:
- The US National Cancer Institute’s caBIG® Catalogue of resources
- BioCatalogue - A curated registry of biological Web Services
- NCRI Cancer Biosample Directory
- NCRI Cancer Clinical Trials Biosample Directory
- The NHS Information Centre’s DoCDat catalogue of clinical datasets (cancer only)
The Quick Search: (with advanced options): searches simultaneously across a range of biomedical databases from genetics to clinical trials and access a diversity of types of information from publications to biological images
The Cancer InfoMatrix (CIM): the InfoMatrix (a matrix of Biomedical domains intersecting broad areas of data management) provides information about work being conducted to support good data management in cancer research through the development of data standards.
The Aims and Achievements of the NCRI Informatics Initiative (2003-2012)
The NCRI Informatics Initiative was launched in 2003 based on a defined framework. The vision for the unit defined in this framework formed the basis for the Initiative's work throughout its existence:
"To maximise the impact of the results of research funded by the NCRI Partner organisations for the benefit of cancer patients by ensuring that data generated through research and clinical care is put to maximum use by the cancer research community."
This vision led to two confluent streams of work:
1) addressing community cultural advances required to achieve the objectives of researchers being able to share data and tools seamlessly; and
2) the technology required to enable this for the benefit of scientific advancement and ultimately patients.
We hope that the legacy of the NCRI Informatics Initiative will be taken forward by all those with whom we have had contact in the course of our work to promote the tools and attitudes necessary for the effective sharing of data.
"The NCRI Informatics Initiative has done much to raise the profile of the use of patient data for research and the fruits of the intiative will bring wide benefits, not only to researchers but to individual patient care". Professor John Williams, Director of the Health Informatics Unit, Royal College of Physicians.
Read more on the Aims and Achievements of the NCRI Informatics Initiative (2003-2012)
Read the final NCRI Informatics Newsletter
