That is why some research institutes are now using advanced computer systems similar to ones you would find at top businesses to untangle all the info.

Researchers at Pennsylvania's Windber Research Institute were generating too much information on breast cancer for their computer systems to handle - and not being able to transform the data into information they needed to fight breast cancer. Molecular data, clinical data, historical data, imaging data - it was all spread across different computers and not intermingled.

So they turned to a data warehousing system similar to the ones in use for mainstream customers like Walmart and other top companies. The new system allows several scientists to have access to the same data at the same time - a single data repository that helps speed up and make research more convenient. Scientists say using tools like these is the perfect partnership between science and industry.

Courtesy: Medialink