Evolution of grid-based services for Diffusion Tensor Image analysis

Analyzing Diffusion Tensor Image data of the human brain of large study groups is complex and demands new, sophisticated and computationally intensive pipelines that can efficiently be executed. We present our progress over the past five years in the development and porting of the DTI analysis pipeline to a grid infrastructure. Starting with simple jobs submitted from the command-line, we moved towards a workflow-based implementation and finally into the e-BioInfra Gateway, which offers a web interface for the execution of selected biomedical data analysis software on the Dutch Grid. This gateway is currently being actively used by neuroscientists and for educational purposes.

► Analyzing Diffusion Tensor Images of the human brain requires complex algorithms. ► Over the past five years we ported the DTI analysis pipeline to the grid. ► Command-line jobs evolved into the e-BioInfra Gateway, a web interface to the grid. ► Neuroscientists and students currently actively use this gateway.