Advancing Microbiome Research with the National Microbiome Data Collaborative

Authors:

Lee Ann McCue¹* ([email protected]), Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh²(PI)

Institutions:

¹Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; ²Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

URLs:

https://microbiomedata.org/

Abstract

The volume and variety of microbiome data being generated continues to grow substantially, creating a significant data resource for researchers addressing critical challenges in environmental science. The National Microbiome Data Collaborative’s (NMDC) guiding principles are to make microbiome data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), to embrace open science, and to democratize data access through community engagement.

The three core infrastructure elements of the NMDC framework are: (1) the Submission Portal to support collection of standardized study and biosample information; (2) NMDC Empowering the Development of Genomics Expertise (EDGE), an intuitive user interface to access standardized bioinformatics workflows; and (3) the Data Portal, a resource for consistently processed and integrated multiomics data enabling search, access, and download. These tools are built on a foundation of community standards and a robust data model designed to advance the creation, use, and reuse of microbiome data. This open-access framework lowers the barrier for capture of contextual information about data and facilitates the effective use of microbiome data for applications in energy, environment, and agriculture.

Image

Three figures of scientists represent field work, laboratory work, and data access.

National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) Products. These three NMDC products provide microbiome data standards, a robust data sharing infrastructure, and community building opportunities. [Courtesy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]