Systematically linking tranSMART, Galaxy and EGA for reusing human translational research data

Chao Zhang*, Jochem Bijlard, Christine Staiger, Serena Scollen, David van Enckevort, Youri Hoogstrate, Alexander Senf, Saskia Hiltemann, Susanna Repo, Wibo Pipping, Mariska Bierkens, Stefan Payralbe, Bas Stringer, Jaap Heringa, Andrew Stubbs, Luiz Olavo Bonino Da Silva Santos, Jeroen Belien, Ward Weistra, Rita Azevedo, Kees van BochoveGerrit Meijer, Jan Willem Boiten, Jordi Rambla, Remond Fijneman, J. Dylan Spalding, Sanne Abeln

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The availability of high-throughput molecular profiling techniques has provided more accurate and informative data for regular clinical studies. Nevertheless, complex computational workflows are required to interpret these data. Over the past years, the data volume has been growing explosively, requiring robust human data management to organise and integrate the data efficiently. For this reason, we set up an ELIXIR implementation study, together with the Translational research IT (TraIT) programme, to design a data ecosystem that is able to link raw and interpreted data. In this project, the data from the TraIT Cell Line Use Case (TraIT-CLUC) are used as a test case for this system. Within this ecosystem, we use the European Genome-phenome Archive (EGA) to store raw molecular profiling data; tranSMART to collect interpreted molecular profiling data and clinical data for corresponding samples; and Galaxy to store, run and manage the computational workflows. We can integrate these data by linking their repositories systematically. To showcase our design, we have structured the TraIT-CLUC data, which contain a variety of molecular profiling data types, for storage in both tranSMART and EGA. The metadata provided allows referencing between tranSMART and EGA, fulfilling the cycle of data submission and discovery; we have also designed a data flow from EGA to Galaxy, enabling reanalysis of the raw data in Galaxy. In this way, users can select patient cohorts in tranSMART, trace them back to the raw data and perform (re)analysis in Galaxy. Our conclusion is that the majority of metadata does not necessarily need to be stored (redundantly) in both databases, but that instead FAIR persistent identifiers should be available for well-defined data ontology levels: study, data access committee, physical sample, data sample and raw data file. This approach will pave the way for the stable linkage and reuse of data.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1488
JournalF1000Research
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • Data management
  • EGA
  • FAIR
  • Galaxy
  • Reproducibility
  • Translational research
  • TranSMART
  • Workflows

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Systematically linking tranSMART, Galaxy and EGA for reusing human translational research data'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this