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Each of these types of information is an image of a different scale, from a different scientific discipline. A large-scale image like an X-ray may be almost life-size. Genes, on the other hand, fit on a slide that is put under a microscope. It may be that an animal has had the same exact type of tumor the patient has. If you were the patient, wouldn't you want your medical team to benefit from an integration of all of these images?
The good news is that it is now possible to create large databases of information about images. The bad news is that each of these databases is protected by proprietary formats that do not communicate with one another. Researchers from each of the disciplines yielding these images refer to the images in a unique way, using different vocabulary. Wouldn't it be nice if a scientist could simply ask questions without regard to disciplinary boundaries and harness all of the available data about a tissue, cells, genes, proteins, and other parts of the body to prove or disprove a hypothesis?
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