ProfBirtwistle

Going forward, I think our particular data could be useful for a few things. One is to generate hypotheses for detailed follow up with mechanistic studies, for various labs in the research area. Second, is to generate predictive signatures for pharmaceutical drug development, to have some idea of whether a putative drug might have some toxicity earlier in the development pipeline. I'm sure there will be many more unforeseen uses.

More generally, LINCS seems to be serving as a general vehicle for making biomedical research more transparent and reproducible, by defining metadata and sharing standards. Also, the availability of cellular response to so many perturbations (across all six centers) will surely lead to new unanticipated learning.

Yes, I would also add that we widely advertise our courses to all our colleagues, industry and academia alike. As our particular sequence becomes better known, in addition to other MOOC sequences, I think the quality of the education one can receive from such vehicles will become more and more accepted and appreciated.

Most definitely. There are all sorts of MOOCs in literature and music as well, I believe, already on Coursera. Their breadth at this early stage is really quite amazing. I only see it growing.

Two examples, there are probably many more:

1. Quantitative relationships between scales of organization. For example we do not know what the minimum number of any type of ion channels in a heart cell is needed for a normal ECG which is characteristic of a whole heart response.

2. Even on the level of a single cell in isolation, we have quite incomplete knowledge of how proteins within cells interact to give rise to some phenotypic behavior, such as movement, division, etc, in response to a perturbation (such as a drug).

Not completely. I envision MOOCs fixing the content access problem, and in a major way that gives access to the best content the world can put out. But there remains a strong need for a teacher to answer questions and facilitate discussion to enhance learning in smaller groups. And also to verify identity and administer quality exams.