A new set of Answer ALS project data is now available through the Answer ALS Data Portal! The release is a milestone not only for the program but for the field of ALS research in general. This is the first time that data from multiple biological assessments (so-called “multi-omics”) have been combined with clinical data and publicly released. The datasets, which include clinical, transcriptomic, and epigenomic sequence data, are all derived from individual Answer ALS study participants. The release also incorporates data portal updates to help with downstream analysis.
The newly released epigenomic & transcriptomic data complement the whole-genome sequencing and clinical data that was previously released from the same study participants. Together, the datasets will help researchers compare the genetic backgrounds between case and control populations. Having these comparisons is important to understand the differences in those with and without ALS and notably, will also help researchers identify potential differences between sub-groups of ALS patients.
To learn more about Answer ALS, please visit, answerals.org. To search the data, please visit the Answer ALS Data Portal, data.answerals.org. Our next release will include transcriptomic, epigenomic, and proteomic data produced from stem cell-derived motor neurons or “virtual biopsies” of individual study participants. This release is planned for Summer 2020.
