Communication & Collaboration | News

U Louisville Life Sciences Researchers Seek Wider Collaboration with Knode

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/13/12

The University of Louisville in Kentucky has signed on to use an online service currently in beta for connecting up with people in research and development. Through a university-branded portal, life sciences faculty and researchers will be able find collaborators in industry and academia, share scientific knowledge, and expose the research they're doing to companies that may be interested in funding it.

"It can really open doors for scientific collaboration," said William Pierce, the university's executive vice president for research and innovation.

The new service, Knode, was created by Enlight Biosciences, a partnership of pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Merck, that wanted to address the communication gaps that existed among academia, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. The application aggregates scientific content from publically available databases into individual researcher profiles. Tools on the site provide for customized search and enterprise collaboration.

The university anticipates its faculty, staff, and affiliates using the Knode platform for collaboration in the areas of grant proposal review, interdisciplinary team formation, decision-making, and staying up on what colleagues are doing.

"There is a significant need to automate and streamline the curation of scientific content to reduce administrative burden, while also making these experts searchable and accessible in a new and unique way. The response to the early capabilities of the system has been enthusiastic," said David Steinberg, Knode's acting chief executive officer and partner at PureTech Ventures, which founded the start-up.