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SPARC News

Autonomic Neural Mechanisms of Cardiopulmonary Regulation Workshop

On September 2-3, 2020 the SPARC program partnered with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to host a workshop on Autonomic Neural Mechanisms of Cardiopulmonary Regulation. The workshop brought together multidisciplinary experts in neuroscience and cardiopulmonary disorders to identify research gaps and opportunities to advance this field of research. The workshop recordings are now available to view on the NHLBI website: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/events/2020/autonomic-neural-mechanisms-cardiopulmonary-regulation

SPARC International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) membership

SPARC is now a member of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF), an organization that promotes and enables open, collaborative and FAIR neuroscience. We join a community of individuals, companies and organizations that are working to spur the development, promotion and adoption of standards and best practices for neuroscience data, coordination across international infrastructures, and informatics training and education.

NIH News

NIHFunding Opportunities

RFA-DK-20-020

New funding opportunity announcement (RFA-DK-20-020) invites applications to establish research programs for qualified trainees to engage in neuroscience research using SPARC resources. Full applications are due December 22, 2020. This opportunity is provided by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in partnership with the SPARC program.

RFA-RM-21-007

The NIH Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund) is seeking applications to enhance the utility of SPARC and other selected Common Fund program data sets (RFA-RM-21-007). Applicants must propose to use at least two or more data sets, full applications are due February 19, 2021.

The SPARC Portal Report

The SPARC Portal has undergone several updates since its official launch in March 2020. Information containing new features and functionality can always be found in the Release Notes. Over the few months, there will be several major updates, including an overhaul of the search functionality to better comply with FAIR data standards, improved flatmaps and 3D scaffolds to better visualize organ innervation by the peripheral nervous system, additional high-quality datasets, support for directly analyzing data from the Portal, launching of suitable viewers and analysis services on o2S2PARC, and more!

For those new to the SPARC Portal, a video walkthrough is available on the SPARC YouTube channel.

SPARC Data and Resource Center (DRC) Dispatch

The SPARC DRC has hosted several webinars over the past few months, which are available on the brand new SPARC YouTube channel! Be sure to check out these webinars and subscribe to the channel!

Reserve your seat to participate in real-time in these upcoming webinar presentations:

• December 10: Explore the Pipeline of Image Segmentation to Scaffold Registration

• December 16: SPARC Data curation 101: Learn how to save effort and time with SODA.

We’ve launched a new data publishing workflow, that allows for better control of data publishing in compliance with FAIR standards.

Calling all tool developers! MBF Bioscience has documented their neuromorphological file format for open use. It details each element of the MBF XML data file in an effort to encourage the reuse of these rich data files for alternative analysis or reproduction of derived conclusions. We hope this is a valuable resource for you and aids in the acceleration of scientific discovery.

A new version of Neurolucida 360 was recently released that includes numerous SPARC specific features, including scaffold visualization for fiduciary registration.

Action Potential

Visit the new SPARC BioRxiv channel) to keep up with the latest SPARC research pre-prints.

Have opinions on how the SPARC Portal could be improved? We are always looking for autonomic neuroscience and bioelectronic medicine researchers (at all levels, from PhD to PI, and in all ways, from basic research to data modeling and device development) willing to provide input on how the SPARC Portal can better meet your needs. Email [email protected] to let us know if you'd be interested in upcoming opportunities.

Do you use microscopy image data in your research? We are looking to stress test our microscopy imaging data pipelines to ensure that the data on the SPARC Portal is broadly usable, and could use some help. If you’ve got an hour, we’d like your feedback. Contact [email protected].

Stay tuned as SPARC is planning a Hackathon for mid-2021! An open-to-the public hackathon is in the works, and the theme is FAIR data. Sign up for the SPARC listserv to receive SPARC updates, including more details about the Hackathon and the fantastic prizes that will be up for grabs!

As Bronze members of INCF, a standards organization for open and FAIR neuroscience, we can support 10 regular and 10 student/postdoc SPARC representatives as INCF members. This is an excellent community for anyone interested in FAIR, standards, computational models, and/or analytical tools. They offer multiple training, collaboration, and networking opportunities; especially for students and postdocs. We would love to see widespread participation by SPARC members! Please contact Jyl Boline at [email protected] for more information, or if you’re interested in being a SPARC INCF member.