The Multiple Myeloma Genomics Portal

Current integrative genomics projects are enabling new discoveries in cancer research through the ability to combine multiple modalities of data, e.g. gene expression, copy number, RNAi, exon resequencing, and epigenetics. However, the tools to access and analyze this data have traditionally been out of the reach of clinicians and research biologists, due to the widely distributed nature of the available data and the significant learning curve required to use the analytical tools. This problem is particularly relevant to the multiple myeloma research community because of the heterogeneity of genomic aberrations underlying this disease and lack of a central repository of multi-modal multiple myeloma data. To address these problems, the Broad Institute has created a pilot Multiple Myeloma Genomics Portal, http://www.broad.mit.edu/mmgp, which serves as an interface between biologists (and clinical investigators), analytical tools, and multiple myeloma datasets. The Portal provides access to a number of advanced gene expression, gene set enrichment, and copy number analyses and visualizations within an easy to use Web interface. These analyses can be performed on the datasets hosted on the Portal, which include previously published curated, high quality genomic multiple myeloma datasets as well as a new reference collection of multiple myeloma samples. The Portal is continuously updated with new datasets, data types, and analytical capabilities as they become available. The Portal’s accessibility allows it to serve as a significant venue for investigators from other fields, engaging a broader range of investigators in exploring these data, and its design is readily adaptable to integrative genomics studies of other cancer types.