System and method for electronic publication of scientific data and analysis

• US 20090030620A1
• Filed: 07/24/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: De Novo Software
• Original Assignee: De Novo Software LLC (Insightful Science LLC)
• Inventors: Zimmerman, Daniel, Dixon, Allen Michael, Almara, Juan Luis, Kryvokobylsky, Vladyslav, Novo, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself

Abstract

Electronic publication systems are disclosed that enable the analysis and publication of layout files, which contain an analysis strategy and embedded raw data. The published layout files can be accessed by reader applications that are able to read the layout files and modify the analysis strategy within the layout file using the embedded raw data. In many embodiments, the reader applications are unable to access the embedded raw data. In several embodiments, the reader applications prevent the saving or printing of layout files. One embodiment of the invention includes a publication computer connected to a network, a user computer connected to the network and the publication computer is configured to generate a file including an analysis strategy based on the raw data and in which the raw data is embedded. In addition, the publication computer is configured to transfer the file to the user computer, the user computer is configured to receive the file, the user computer is configured to perform modifications of the analysis strategy using the embedded raw data and the user computer is configured to prevent access to the embedded raw data within the file.

Claims

1. A system for electronically publishing analysis of raw data generated by an instrument, comprising:

a publication computer connected to a network;

a user computer connected to the network;

wherein the publication computer is configured to generate a file including an analysis strategy based on the raw data and in which the raw data is embedded;

wherein the publication computer is configured to transfer the file to the user computer;

wherein the user computer is configured to receive the file;

.

wherein the user computer is configured to perform modifications of the analysis strategy using the embedded raw data; and

wherein the user computer is configured to prevent access to the embedded raw data within the file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the raw data comprises at least one data set of instrument measurements expressed as numerical values.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the raw data comprises at least one image,

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the raw data comprises categorical values.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis strategy includes text information.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis strategy includes graphical objects.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical objects include plots.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical objects include plot overlays.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis strategy includes gates.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis includes statistics.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a server connected to a network;

a database connected to the server;

wherein the publication computer is configured to transfer the file to the user computer by transmitting the file to the server;

wherein the server is configured to store files received from publication computers in a database;

wherein the user computer is configured to receive the file by requesting the file from the server;

wherein the server is configured to respond to the file request from the user computer by retrieving the requested file from the database and transmitting the file to the user computer.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the server is configured to transmit files the file to the user computer by streaming an encrypted copy of the file to the user computer; and

the user computer is configured to decrypt the encrypted file.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the user computer is configured to receive a URL; and

the user computer is configured to request the file from the server using the URL.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the server is configured to respond to the receipt of a file request containing a URL from a user computer by generating a launch file and transmitting the launch file to the user computer; and

the user computer is configured to use the launch file to initiate the transmission of the file by the server using the launch file.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the launch file is encrypted and includes a second URL identifying the location of the requested file.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the publication computer is configured using a software application that configures the publication computer to read the raw data, generate the file and transmit the file to the server.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the user computer is configured using a software application that configures the user computer to read the file and to perform modifications to the analysis strategy contained within the file using the embedded raw data.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the software application configures the user computer to save modifications to the file.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the software application configures the user computer to print the file.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the software application prevents the user computer from reading files unless they are received from the server.

21. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the user computer is configured to send a search request to the server; and

the server is configured to provide a list of files stored on the database that satisfy the search request.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the instrument is a scientific instrument that generates a raw data set containing numerical values.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the instrument is a flow cytometer.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the instrument captures images and the raw data includes at least one image file.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the publication computer is configured to transfer of the file to the user computer by providing the file to a server and providing the user computer with a unique identifier.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

an FTP server connected to a network;

wherein the publication computer is configured to provide the file to the FTP server;

wherein the FTP server is configured to store the file;

wherein the user computer is configured to receive the file by requesting the file from the FTP server using the unique identifier; and

wherein the FTP server is configured to respond to the file request from the user computer by transmitting a file identified by the unique identifier to the user computer.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the user computer is uniquely identifiable; and

access to the file is restricted to the uniquely identifiable user computer.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the file transfer is via electronic mail.

29. A system for electronically publishing analysis of raw data generated by an instrument, comprising:

a publication computer connected to a network; and

a user computer connected to the network;

wherein the publication computer is configured using a software application that configures the publication computer generate a file including an analysis strategy based on the raw data and in which the raw data is embedded, and upload the file to a server;

wherein the server is configured to provide the publication computer with a unique identifier enabling access to the file;

wherein the user computer is configured by a web browsing application to use the unique identifier to request the file from the server;

wherein the server is configured to stream an encrypted version of the file to the user computer; and

wherein the user computer is configured using an analysis application to receive the encrypted file from the server, decrypt at least portions of the file and perform modifications of the analysis strategy using the embedded raw data.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein:

the server is configured to transmit the file to the user computer by streaming an encrypted copy of the file to the user computer; and

the user computer is configured to decrypt the encrypted file.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the unique identifier is a URL.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein:

the server is configured to respond to the receipt of a file request containing the URL from the user computer by generating a launch file and transmitting the launch file to the user computer; and

the user computer is configured to use the launch file to initiate file transfer using the launch file

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the launch file is encrypted and includes a second URL identifying the location of the requested file.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the user computer is configured to enable access to raw data embedded in the file.

35. A method of electronically publishing analysis of raw data, comprising:

receiving raw data;

applying an analysis strategy to the raw data;

generating a layout file containing the analysis strategy and in which the raw data is embedded;

uploading the layout file to a server;

providing a URL to a user;

obtaining an encrypted URL from the server using the provided URL;

decrypting the encrypted URL; and

obtaining the layout file using the decrypted URL.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising:

opening the obtained layout file; and

modifying the analysis strategy contained within the obtained layout file.