2023-10-04 NHLBI BioData Catalyst Ecosystem Release Notes

Introduction

The 2023-10-04 release marks the 15th release for the NHLBI BioData Catalyst® (BDC) ecosystem. This release includes several new features (e.g., the ability to view cohort variables prior to access, and the ability to export selected data into an analysis workspace). Please find more detail on the new features in the section below.

The 2023-10-04 data releases include the addition of TOPMed studies spanning early-onset COPD, heart studies from various geographies, diabetes heart studies, and more. CRAMs and unharmonized clinical files were updated for six TOPMed studies already in BDC. BioLINCC Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis studies were also added. Please refer to the Data Releases section below for more information as well as the Data page on the BDC website.

Significant new features

BDC Powered by PIC-SURE (BDC-PIC-SURE): Open Access Variable Distributions Tool: Researchers can now view the variable distributions for their selected cohort with BDC-PIC-SURE Open Access to further their data discovery and exploration prior to access. Once variable filters have been applied, the Variable Distributions Tool displays bar charts for categorical variables and histograms for continuous variables. Note that the visualizations are obfuscated to protect participant-level data.

BDC Powered by Seven Bridges (BDC-Seven Bridges): Data Export from the BDC-PIC-SURE UI Public Project: This public project enables users to use a CWL tool to export selected data from BDC-PIC-SURE into a BDC-Seven Bridges project using a query from the BDC-PIC-SURE UI and the BDC-PIC-SURE API. This project is a continuation of our original BDC-PIC-SURE API Public Project. Combined, these public projects give savvy and novice users the ability to transfer and make cohorts on BDC-PIC-SURE and bring data frames over to BDC-Seven Bridges for analysis.

Known issues and workarounds

BDC Powered by Terra (BDC-Terra) workspace data security: When users import data from NIH data repositories such as BDC, they are only allowed to import into existing BDC-Terra workspaces that have an authorization domain and/or protected data setting. Import of these datasets into unprotected workspaces will not succeed. This ensures that the data access is appropriately logged by BDC-Terra.

Data Releases

The table below highlights which studies were included in the 2023-10-04 data release. This release includes a significant representation from the NHLBI TOPMed program with studies spanning areas such as early-onset COPD, heart studies from various geographies, diabetes heart studies, and more. Notably, CRAMs and unharmonized clinical files have been updated for 6 TOPMed studies that were already a part of BDC. Additionally, new studies pertaining to the BioLINCC Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis have been introduced. The data is now available for access across the entire ecosystem.

Planned Upcoming Data Releases

For detailed platform release notes please consult the following resources:

BDC-Gen3 release notes BDC-Terra release notes BDC-Seven Bridges release notes BDC-PIC-SURE release notes

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Last updated 10 months ago

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New to BioData Catalyst

New study version