OSU: Big data helping improve diagnoses, treatment

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Patients are now being more precisely diagnosed and treated, thanks to an Oregon State University researcher's work in translational data science. A key to that science is ontologies: systematic descriptions of knowledge that allow for integration and analysis of lots of data, in this case medical data. "Huge amounts of high-throughput data, including those obtained through genomic, proteomic and metabolomic analyses, are now being used in clinical analyses," Haendel said. "The volume and depth of data and the rate at which data are being obtained are unprecedented in human history." Haendel directs Oregon State's Translational and Integrative Sciences Laboratory, which aims to apply data science principles, techniques and technologies to large-scale problem solving on a societal level.