Editorial
Welcome to this first edition of the ACGT Newsletter!
ACGT is an EC co-funded project of the 6th Framework Program focusing on the development of open-source computer grid-based infrastructure and services that will support clinico-genomic trials in the area of cancer research.
We are just about completing our 2nd year of existence and getting at a point where many of the ideas of the project are taking shape and being implemented in actual systems. At the same time a lot of interesting developments are taking place in the wider areas of clinical trials, IT infrastructures and semantic technologies to merit a newsletter that is dedicated to keeping practitioners in these fields up to date and in touch with each other.
We have designed this newsletter with the broader community in mind, not just the members of the ACGT consortium, and so we cover work that takes place within the project itself as well as developments that are broadly relevant to computer grid research, clinical trials, semantic technologies, IT services for life science research and eHealth in general. The newsletter will always host a feature article and for this first edition we have chosen to introduce ACGT itself in a bit more detail. We will also be hosting the views of prominent members of the community on interesting and important issues and for this edition Prof. Gordon McVie discusses the clinical possibilities arising from ACGT.
Our Clinical Trials and Grid News sections will be covering developments in both of these fields while the Products and Services section will be updating you on software or other tools that are available to the community for use.
We hope that you will find this newsletter interesting and look forward to welcoming you as a member of the growing ACGT community!