In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Host Genetics Initiative (HGI) has formed to generate, share, and analyze data to identify the underlying genetic determinants of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease, including the severity in symptomatic presentation and associated outcomes, as well as the development of hypotheses for drug repurposing. To achieve the aims of the consortium, the need for a mechanism to ingest data and make it broadly available for researchers arose. With the National Human Genome Research Institute?s commitment to the same goals, the AnVIL, which is predicated on providing a cloud environment for the analysis of large genomic and clinical datasets, became the eminent choice to serve as a data repository and analysis platform for the consortium. As the technology has been developed through the parent grant, the aims proposed for this grant allows the AnVIL to provide scalable support for the Host Genetics Initiative in their utilization of the AnVIL.
The specific aims i nclude: ? Aim 1: Scale the data Ingest processes for genotypic, phenotypic, clinical report data and metadata to support the expected influx of data from the Host Genetics Initiative ? Aim 2: Utilize the Data Use Oversight System (DUOS) to facilitate expeditious data governance and access requests ? Aim 3: Dissemination of data for researchers via featured workspaces done in partnership with the Host Genetics Initiative ? Aim 4: Provide support for new data generator and user communities Through the implementation of these aims over the course of one year, we will enable the data that is generated by the members of the Host Genetics Initiative to be broadly shared and analyzed with researchers inside and outside of the consortium, which will serve to contribute to the global knowledge of the biology of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease.
With the Host Genetics Initiative's mission of learning the genetic determinants of COVID-19 susceptibility, severity and outcomes, the ability to rapidly generate, ingest, QC and broadly disseminate data via the AnVIL is critical to understanding the biology of the infection.
