The Project

The REAMS (Radiological Electronic Atlas of Malformation Syndromes and Skeletal Dysplasias) collection has proven a valuable resource for teaching and diagnosis related to skeletal dysplasias. It captures radiological findings and relates them to a large reference set of images indexed to patients with a skeletal dysplasia diagnosis.

The goal of the dREAMS project has been to recover the valuable information in the REAMS information system, to ensure its long term preservation and accessability, and to encourage its ongoing enhancement.  To do this, we have made it available in a web-enabled, open standard format. dREAMS is also associated with a larger initiative which includes the European FP6 project Eurogrow. One of the objectives of Eurogrow was to develop a knowledge base of the cartilage growth plate in health and disease. The Eurogrowbase model includes genotypic information tied to experimental data on models of skeletal dysplasia, acting as a reference collection behind the model.

One longer term objective is to address challenges in interlinking dREAMS with an extended Eurogrowbase. Currently there is no consistent terminology to describe growth plate pathobiology and previous work to model the growth plate is both outdated and not currently in use. It will allow the capture of domain-specific relationships between the existing radiological data and the scientific data collected during laboratory experiments. The ultimate aim is to integrate large amounts of phenotypic (radiological and morphological) and scientific information (gene expression) related to skeletal dysplasias to form a significant and dynamic resource for translational research on skeletal dysplasias.

dREAMS is funded by a grant from the Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children.