Visualized Experimental Biology

Visualized Experimental Biology refers to the attempt to create and online database of molecular biology laboratory techniques and protocols using a visual medium such as videos and movies.

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Introduction

As biology becomes a more integrated discipline, the myriad of experiments that biologist needs to know to join the trade becomes increasingly complex and difficult to master. As every practicing molecular biologist knows, it takes up to months or years to learn and master new experimental techniques. The range of experiments that a researcher needs to know increases both in breadth and width as the field becomes more advanced (e.g. genomics and proteomics). To keep up with cutting edge research, it is not trivial to reproduce newly published studies which require mastery of the most advanced state-of-the-art techniques. Thus, a major part of the graduate and post-doctoral training in biomedical sciences is devoted to learning laboratory techniques and skills.

Even after the initial immersion in a set of basic experimental techniques during their official training, experimental scientists are not liberated from learning new methodologies as this rapidly growing field undergo significant changes every few years. Unfortunately, the time- and resource-consuming process of training and retraining scientists in techniques and procedures represents a “bottleneck” for scientific research and drug discovery, both in academia and biopharmaceutical industry.

Advancement in technology to expedite the advancement in science

Over the last decade, the use of Internet to disseminate information has increased speedily. More recently, the sharing of videos over the internet has gain increasing popularity. Video-based visualization of biological techniques and procedures can provide a solution to the problem described. Naturally, the nature of equipment and biological samples employed becomes more obvious in visualized demonstrations. Visual instructions are also less prone to misinterpretations of the actual step-by-steps of an experiment, as compared to written “protocols”. An online database with a comprehensive set of visualized biological experiments which provides open-access (link) to (1) step-by-step instructions of experiments, (2) a demonstration of equipment and reagents, and (3) a short discussion by experts describing possible technical problems and modifications aims to alleviate this problem which is faced by experimental biologists. The high effectiveness of visualized instructions, as compared to currently used written protocols, will decrease failure rates for biological experiments, and, thus, increase the efficiency of experimentalists and hence expedite discoveries in basic and applied science. It will also increase reproducibility and transparency of published experiments, one of the main problems in the current life science research.