BioCoRE: A Biological Collaborative Research Environment
Kirby L. Vandivort, Robert Brunner, Gila Budescu, Laxmikant V. Kale, Klaus J. Schulten
Theoretical Biophysics, NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Abstract:

BioCoRE is a freely available web-based collaborative environment designed to enhance the biomedical research process and promote training. By using a standard web-browser (on a desktop machine or handheld device) scientists create projects and invite collaborators to join. All project data is secure and can be shared only by the specific project team. Researchers use BioCoRE to submit jobs to supercomputers or other remote sites, view molecules together across distances and easily create input files for supercomputer runs. BioCoRE features a synchronous and asynchronous chat, a project-wide "bookmarks" file that enables the sharing of weblinks as well as a web-based filesystem that is accessible to the BioCoRE project members. This filesystem is used to share files of interest and to simplify publication preparations via a seamless transport of document files among project members.

Summary pages within BioCoRE regularly inform the project team of the project status, including individual tasks of each team member. BioCoRE sessions are automatically recorded and can be reviewed later by the project leader and the other team members.