Research Center for Genomic Medicine (RCGM) within Saitama Medical University, a medical school based in Saitama Prefecture, employs over 20 Principal Investigators in 7 divisions.  While a fairly young organization they already collected over 1,000 experiments using Affymetrix and Agilent microarrays.  RCGM was looking for a system that would allow them to import historical data, to seamlessly integrate the old experiments with the newly generated data sets and, at PI’s discretion, with publicly available data.  Furthermore, they were looking for a system that supported their preferred research tools and allowed an easy communication and exchange of ideas between authorized users.

Simbiot installation addressed all their requirements.  The newly produced data sets integrated seamlessly with historical data and with experiments imported from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO).  The analysis algorithms preferred by the Investigators were either already supported or quickly integrated into the system.  The bilingual mail and forum features that support object attachments permitted easy communication between users.  An effective Unix-based security system made sure that the data were shared when and in the way preferred by the PI.

In addition to addressing all their requirements, Simbiot provided RCGM with additional capabilities.  Sharing data with reviewers became a simple task of providing the journal with an IP address and anonymous user/password information.  Publishing data became a matter of entering a URL into the publication and allowing interested parties to self-register on the Simbiot server.  The effective security system made sure that only data that PIs elected to make public was accessible.