Bioinformatics: Data Integration for Biomonitoring Applications

Aret Associates and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) propose an interdisciplinary effort to further develop and validate a robust, operational biomonitoring application that can process soil microbiome data to reliably detect episodic and low-level chronic contamination while maintaining low false alarm rate.The Phase II SBIR work will build upon the successful Phase I proof-of-concept demonstration by significantly expanding the amount and diversity of soil microbiome data investigated. Our approach combines Arets expertise in decision theory and bioinformatics with ORNLs subject matter expertise in microbial ecology and contaminant signatures.We will package the validated detector into a user-friendly software application with graphical user interface.