** High Priority ** ** Reply Requested When Convenient ** To Whom It May Concern,
This is Jingshan Huang, a faculty in Computer Science (http://www.cis.usouthal.edu/~huang), and Dr. Ming Tan is a faculty in the Mitchell Cancer Institute (http://www.southalabama.edu/mci/tan.html). Both of us are from the University of South Alabama. We are preparing a proposal, "Knowledge Discovery and Sharing in MiRNA Target Prediction," for NSF CDI (Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation) grant (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10506/nsf10506.htm). We are looking for collaborations on cancer-related bioinformatics and medical informatics. Our main concept is: The identification and characterization of important roles miRNAs played in human cancer is an active research area, and the prediction of the relationship between miRNAs and their target genes still remains a challenging task. We propose a framework to synthesize data from source miRNA databases into a comprehensive conceptual model, which aims to provide users a single search/query engine that takes care of their needs. As a result, critical knowledge from source databases will be better yield, and complicated queries across heterogeneous data sources are enabled. Your group has carried out renowned, active investigation on the miRNA target prediction area, which closely matches our project goals. We are wondering in case our project is funded, is it possible for us to work with your group? The potential collaboration includes but not limited to: (1) your database will be made use of directly in the CDI project, which is a 4-year period starting from August 2010; (2) collaboration on paper publications; and (3) collaboration on future grant preparations. Should this be of interest to you, let's keep in touch and we will inform you of the status of our effort. In the mean time, it will be just terrific if you could kindly provide with us a support letter for our proposal. The proposal submission deadline is Feb. 5, and we are eagerly awaiting for your positive response. Should further information be needed, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you very much in advance! Best, Jingshan Huang (and Ming Tan) Jingshan Huang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor | Tel: (251) 460-7612 School of Computer and Information Sciences | Fax: (251) 460-7274 University of South Alabama | Email: [email protected] Mail: School of CIS - FCW 20, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688 Academic Homepage: http://www.cis.usouthal.edu/~huang _______________________________________________ Genome maillist - [email protected] https://lists.soe.ucsc.edu/mailman/listinfo/genome
