Mount Sinai Researchers Develop Tool that Analyzes Biomedical Data within Minutes
NEW YORK (PRWEB) November 14, 2018 -- Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a tool that speeds up the analysis and publication of biomedical data from many months or years to mere minutes, transforming the way researchers communicate results of their studies. Until now, the primary method available to share biomedical research data has been through print publication in scientific journals. The new tool, BioJupies, relies on cloud technologies to analyze and visualize large amounts of data, such as that acquired by genome sequencing, as described in the November 2018 issue of Cell Systems.
RNA sequencing is the most common experimental method used to profile cells in biomedical research. In recent years, sequencing technology has revolutionized the way scientists examine genetic data, and this advancement plays a crucial role in drug discovery and development. Traditionally, RNA sequencing analysis requires extensive computer programming skills and access to local high performance computing facilities, slowing down the speed at which biomedical data can be analyzed, shared, and published.
Through the creation of BioJupies, users can now upload and analyze their RNA sequencing data in a fraction of the time as done previously. The platform utilizes a cloud computing pipeline that reduces the cost of RNA-sequencing data processing to less than one cent per sample. BioJupies also produces a complete, open source, interactive report from the processed data allowing for 300,000 publicly available RNA sequencing datasets to be fetched, reanalyzed, and reused to bolster biomedical research.
“As the amount of biomedical data generated continues to climb exponentially, so should the tools used to analyze and share them,” said Avi Ma’ayan, PhD, Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Bioinformatics, Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, faculty of Icahn Institute for Data Science, and senior author of the publication. “BioJupies not only accelerates the manner in which we analyze and interpret data, but it also provides a completely new way to share results with the global research community.”
As new genomic technologies have allowed for the collection of massive amounts of biomedical information that can be harnessed for precision medicine efforts, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of this data has become crucial to scientific research. BioJupies paves the way for researchers with no computational background to perform RNA sequencing analysis without the need to collaborate with bioinformaticians, enabling more medical and scientific advancements to flourish in our data rich world.
BioJupies is freely available as a web-based application at: http://biojupies.cloud. The software was developed during the pilot phase of the NIH Data Commons 180-day production pilot phase.
This work was partially supported by NIH grants: OT3OD025467 and U54HL127624
Paper Cited: Denis Torre, Alexander Lachmann, Avi Ma’ayan. “BioJupies: Automated Generation of Interactive Notebooks for RNA-seq Data Analysis in the Cloud” Cell Systems.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2018.10.007
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest integrated delivery system encompassing seven hospital campuses, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai's vision is to produce the safest care, the highest quality, the highest satisfaction, the best access and the best value of any health system in the nation. The System includes approximately 6,600 primary and specialty care physicians; 11 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. The Icahn School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Medical Schools", aligned with a U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" Hospital, No. 13 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding, and among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by the journal Nature in its Nature Innovation Index. This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 18 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of top U.S. hospitals; it is one of the nation's top 20 hospitals in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Nephrology, and Neurology/Neurosurgery, and in the top 50 in six other specialties in the 2018-2019 "Best Hospitals" issue. Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital also is ranked nationally in five out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology and 44th for Ear, Nose, and Throat, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally.
Domonique Chaplin, Mount Sinai Health System, 212-241-9200, [email protected]
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