Improving the repeatability of scientific research results
The research of life sciences is a long process. The scientists’ efforts are concentrated in individual experiments. The achievements of scientists are embodied in a paper, every exciting science. The discovery is “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
However, the information between the labs is not shared and transparent. Compared with the interconnected Internet, the scientific research community is a relatively closed circle. This kind of information is opaque, so that researchers spend a lot of time to repeatedly explore the experiments that others have already explored. The low reproducibility of experimental results is a field of life science research, especially in preclinical studies. In 2015, Nature reported that the United States has a low level of reproducibility due to medical research, resulting in a waste of up to $28 billion annually.
Of course, the inherent complexity of life science research is a major factor that makes research results, especially preclinical research results, difficult to reproduce and difficult to transform. However, many surveys have also shown that another important factor is that in the papers published by scientists, the description of the experimental scheme is too simple, the source of the key experimental specimens is not clear, and the content is not accurate.
Based on this background, “Bio-protocol” was born in Silicon Valley, USA in 2011. Introduce the idea of open Internet sharing into the field of life science research, and build an open platform for researchers to share, review, publish, discuss and update high-quality life science experimental programs online free of charge. GitHub” helps experiment information flow and enhance the efficiency of life science research.
The establishment of the biological field “GitHub”, while improving the efficiency of information circulation, also increases the difficulty of guaranteeing the quality of information, how to ensure the quality of experimental programs on the platform, Bio-protocol has chosen the criteria for the use of academic journals, from Formally, Bio-protocol is not only a “GitHub”, but also a peer-reviewed online academic journal. Through the peer review mechanism of academic journals, the quality of the experimental programs published on the platform is guaranteed, and scientists are more motivated to contribute. .
Bio-protocol officerParty website
As of now, Bio-protocol has attracted tens of thousands of outstanding life science researchers from around the world, including Nobel Prize in Medicine and Chemistry, Randy Schekman, Kurt Wüthrich, and has published more than 3,000 experimental programs on the platform, with an average of Published 40-50 articles in the month.
Exclusively, Bio-protocol has established strategic cooperation with AAAS of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The two sides will jointly promote the process of transparency in the field of life science research and enhance the repeatability of scientific research results.
After July 9, 2019, AAAS signed a contract with Bio-protocol. Photo taken at AAAS Headquarters Photo: Science Journal A. Lee
Left: Publisher of the journal Science, Bill Moran
Right: Bio-protocol founder and chairman He Fanglian
Thesis in academic journals usually focuses on the importance of experimental results and scientific findings, and less details on the experimental scheme used. In recent years, academic journal publishers and magazines have become increasingly aware of the importance of demonstrating experimental protocols because of the need to ensure that the experiments in the paper can be repeated. Bio-protocol is a great complement to academic journals. With the platform’s unique and professional peer review mechanism, Bio-protocol has been with eLife, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal since 2016. Eight international authoritative scientific journals and publishers, including Biological Chemistry, have established long-term cooperative relationships to encourage more researchers to share experimental protocols.
Curiously, is Bio-protocol’s collaboration with AAAS different from Bio-protocol’s previous collaborations with other scientific journals and publishers?
AAAS and Bio-protocol announce cooperation
On the one hand, the editors of both parties will jointly invite the authors of the “Science” series of journals to publish experimental protocols on the Bio-protocol platform. The readers can directly access the relevant content of the Bio-protocol platform through the links in the paper. Based on the authority of AAAS in academia, this cooperation will greatly enhance the scientific researcher’s understanding of the importance of sharing experimental programs, and encourage more people to join the ranks of experimental programs.
On the other hand, Bio-protocol will work with the “Science” series of journals to provide readers with “solution request” services. If there is no relevant method article on Bio-protocol, the link to “solution request” in the paper directly guides readers to visit. Bio-protocol “Method Request” page, the reader’s needs will be passed to the author of the article, inviting them to share a detailed experimental program. Compared with the previous model, the editor only sent a sharing method invitation to the author. After cooperating with AAAS, Bio-protocol will become the experimental program sharing platform dominated by “user demand drive”, and the user demand will drive the sharing scale of the experimental program to increase rapidly. In the future, every method used in each research paper, no matter how basic or cutting-edge it is, will be published in a detailed version on Bio-protocol or other platforms and directly linked, which will allow for the repetition of a published protocol. It’s an easier thing to do, and this is the vision of Bio-protocol.
Bio-protocol is recognized and supported by a grassroots publishing platform to the world’s top scientists and international academic publishers. It is behind the founding team’s passion for science and commitment to the project. This project is mainly supported by the founder’s own savings. Dr. He Fanglian, founder and chairman of Bio-protocol, said, “Bio-protocol has been determined from the outset to establish a platform for sharing the world’s largest and most authoritative experimental solutions, fundamentally improving the repeatability and efficiency of research. So with their own funds, mainly worried that foreign funds (such as VC) will not guarantee the academic, professional, and even change the original intention and mission of the Bio-protocol platform.”
Dr. He Fanglian is a Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania and a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He has over 15 years of experience in molecular biology research. Founding team members include, co-founder and CEO Liu Wei is a Ph.D. at Columbia University, USAHe is a registered pathologist with the National Association of Clinical Pathologists and has over 15 years of medical and medical informatics research experience. Lin Yuanqing, co-founder and senior consultant of AI, is a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder and CEO of Aibee, an enterprise solution provider for artificial intelligence. He was the dean of Baidu Research. According to reports, Bio-protocol was founded in the early days, the founding team members and the founder and CEO of the horizon Yu Kai, invested a lot of energy and support for the establishment and growth of Bio-protocol. From the founding team structure, it is not difficult to see that Bio-protocol has both the rigorous attitude of life science research and the open sharing spirit of the Internet since its birth.
In order to make the platform go further, Bio-protocol needs to gain revenue while taking into account the public good. In 2018, Bio-protocol received an angel round investment from Huachuang Capital, mainly for its commercialization. The profit point that Bio-protocol aims at is the reagent consumables market. One of the main strategies of commercialization is to make the experimental program and the use information of experimental reagents online, data, and intelligent, and help scientists easily obtain the required experimental methods and materials. To realize information and find people, and make scientific experiments easier, it also creates great commercial value for test materials manufacturers and distributors.
The biological test materials have an objective room for growth. According to statistics, the annual compound growth rate of the global reagent market is expected to reach 10% in the next five years, which is expected to increase from US$23.9 billion in 2019 to US$42.4 billion in 2024. . According to Technavio, by 2021, the global laboratory consumables market is expected to exceed $12.5 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 5%. In the reagents and consumables market, laboratory demand data is difficult to obtain, and Bio-protocol has the advantage of obtaining experimental protocols and experimental reagent data.
Bio-protocol co-founder and CEO Dr. Liu Wei said, “Bio-protocol is aimed at the global market and will focus on China in the next 2-3 years, because China has formed a volume after continuous government investment over the years. A huge and steady growth in the basic research market. In addition, China is undergoing medical reforms, and the sharp decline in generic drug profits will directly lead to a substantial increase in R&D investment in the biopharmaceutical industry in the next stage. Therefore, China’s pharmaceutical innovation is experiencing rapid growth, and we expect it to have Many small and medium-sized research and development biopharmaceutical companies have emerged, which is the opportunity period for the development of life sciences in China. Bio-protocol serves as a bridge between international academic standards and needs and domestic research institutions and enterprises, and hopes to help domestic scientific research institutions and enterprises. Grasp this rare opportunity.”