Edinburgh Core Database Group (GUDMAP2)
The central hub of the GUDMAP project is a database and its associated website. The Core Database group is responsible for design, construction, maintenance and development of the database, its interfaces and associated website information. It is also responsible for curation and editing of data and for assisting submitters and users of GUDMAP's resources. The Core Database group, working with Melissa Little’s lab, continues to extend the standard ontology by which the genituourinary system is described. The Little lab also helps to provide the expertise to improve the accessibility and utility of the database. Bruce Aronow and his group provide bioinformatics expertise, undertake the primary analysis of array data and deliver the interoperability with ToppGene for functional analysis.
The GUDMAP database is designed to store and organize comprehensive gene expression data sets with the overarching goal of facilitating research into mechanisms of genitourinary development and disease. Primary data types include mRNA microarrays, low- and high-resolution in situ hybridisations and immunohistochemical analyses across time and space and a variety of organs. These data types are now being extended to include next-gen sequencing such as RNA-Seq and full 3D image data mapped onto reference models. All data are annotated against the standardized high-resolution anatomical ontology, which is being developed continuously.
The data can be explored and analyzed via GUDMAP tools on this website, and also downloaded for analysis by other means. Our goal in this project is to extend the utility of this high-quality online resource and to increase its value for the GU research community. Our guiding principles are data access, integration, end-user utility, quality control, and the use and propagation of standards. In our current work, we focus on maintaining, developing and extending this resource for the community as well as supporting the integration of entirely new types of data.
Grant number: 5U01DK092983
