In March 2017, Raja Mazumder, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and his team, including research associate Charles Hadley King, hosted a public workshop for more than 300 participants at the National Institutes of Health to get feedback on “biocompute objects.”
Biocompute objects, or records with various data, such as validation kits, the associated metadata of executable programs, and software arguments and version information, could allow for consistent and accurate computation evaluations for studies submitted to the FDA. To jump-start the development process, however, Mazumder’s team looked to the scientific community for input.
“The goal of the workshop was to develop a community and engage it in getting together to set these standards. We did a good job accomplishing that,” King says, adding that the “biggest win” from the workshop was outside agencies agreeing to develop biocompute objects on their platforms.
The team is already planning another workshop for 2018. “[The March workshop] was well received, and we’re [continuing] to work with the community because things like this require lots of collaboration and input,” Mazumder says.
