A data sharing agreement policy has been established for the public disclosure of data and assay details for the screening projects performed at the BSF. A data sharing platform through a web-based application ‘the ACCESS web portal or ACCESS-Gate’ has been designed and constructed for fulfilling the specific requirements.
Transfer and storage of analysed data. At its most basic level, the portal provides a mean for the ACCESS platform to make multidimensional analyzed data available to the researcher in a format that can be more easily handled. At any time the data are linked to the relevant compounds and their associated information.
Querying over multiple assays. The ability to query information from multiple assays within a project and across multiple projects is of primary importance. Therefore, at the core of the design lies a complex query system coupled with an interactive presentation layer. For advanced users, a web-programmable workflow manager will also be available.
Interactive annotation. In the interest of extracting the maximum amount of knowledge from assays, the platform is intended as a repository for information derived not only from primary and secondary screens but also from subsequent steps, irrespective of whether they were performed at the screening facility. A tagging and annotation system is therefore part of the design.
Multilayered access to information. Mirroring the data sharing agreement, the system is designed to grant access to information to a diverse range of communities on a case by case basis (e.g. Original Researcher, Subgroup of NCCR, Whole NCCR, Public). This access right approach is present at various levels (e.g. assay information, compound annotations).
Access to publicly available information. On a longer term, the platform is intended to evolve into an even richer source of information, leveraging publicly accessible resources such as PubMed and ChEMBL to provide additional querying dimensions and present the data to the researchers in a seamless manner.
The web-portal is currently available to NCCR Chemical Biology lab members and ACCESS users.
Contact
For any enquiry concerning the ACCESS web portal use and access rights please contact Dr. Damiano Banfi, ACCESS web-portal officer or Dr. Gerardo Turcatti, ACCESS Director.