Cruella : Developing a scalable tissue microarray data management system

Abstract

Abstract Context.—Compared with DNA microarray technology, relatively little information is available concerning the special requirements, design influences, and implementation strategies of data systems for tissue microarray technology. These issues include the requirement to accommodate new and different data elements for each new project as well as the need to interact with pre-existing models for clinical, biological, and specimen-related data. Objective.—To design and implement a flexible, scalable tissue microarray data storage and management system that could accommodate information regarding different disease types and different clinical investigators, and different clinical investigation questions, all of which could potentially contribute unforeseen data types that require dynamic integration with existing data. Design.—The unpredictability of the data elements combined with the novelty of automated analysis algorithms and controlled vocabulary standards in this area require flexible designs and...