An in integrated platform for multiomic analyses of pathogen and host data using scalable public infrastructure

Project Summary Data is the primary currency for all domains of today's biomedical research. However, data does not have some of the properties of a good currency: durability, portability, uniformity, convertibility, and acceptability. It is vast, heterogeneous, geographically distributed, and often protected by access control mechanisms. It requires hardware and software complex machinery to process. Skills needed for data interpretation are sparse across the entire biomedical domain. How does one make such a currency universally beneficial to all infectious disease researchers who study different organisms with disparate goals, motivations, and expertise? This brings us directly to the main point of this proposal: to implement a common data analysis medium—BRC.analytics—that would connect infectious disease researchers to data, tools, and workflows. The transformative tenets of the proposed system are: (1) giving access to an ensemble of data resources via a single workspace where data can be stored, combined, and analyzed; (2) enabling access to the majority of high quality open source tools and allow creation of complex workflows in the workspace; (3) ensuring that workspace in powered by powerful hardware capable of sustaining thousands of users analyzing large datasets; (4) providing several modes of access including a graphical user interface (GUI) as well as an Application Programming Interface (API). BRC.analytics is a unique knowledgebase that provides data, tools, and infrastructure as well as the know-how” on how to apply this power effectively.