STORE

Sustaining access to Tissues and data frOm Radiobiological Experiments

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

The sharing of data and biomaterials from publicly funded experimental radiation science adds enormous value to the original investment. Sharing will yield substantial scientific rewards through re-analysis and new investigations. The goal of STORE is to generate a platform that will allow the storage and retrieval of both data and the corresponding biological material from past, current and future radiobiological studies. The STORE project will perform four tasks: 1) Deliver a “Data Warehouse” that will also present a single portal to radiobiological information distributed over scientific centres throughout the world. 2) Provide a foundation for the creation of a “virtual” store of biological material. 3) Establish Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on how best to evaluate, store and use the biological material to ensure that the collection, archiving and storage of these non-renewable materials are state-of-the-art. 4) Assess potential financial models for long term support of a bioresource and Data Warehouse for radiobiology. STORE will thus provide a mechanism for ensuring the future survival of these invaluable and irreplaceable resources and provide a platform for the sharing of new data across the radiobiology community

Introduzione (Teaser)

Sharing data and resources among the scientific community is beneficial as it allows for reanalysis of experiments in view of new knowledge in the field. The STORE initiative set out to provide a central database to facilitate the deposition and sharing of scientific radiobiological information.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Legacy data from radiation biology studies conducted between the 1950s and 1990s are invaluable as similar work could not be repeated due to ethical and financial restrictions. Knowing this, the radiobiology community has set up the International Radiobiological Archives for storing information on previous studies. Recent technical advancements would enable the garnering of more information from older studies to provide more insight. Additionally, it would minimise animal experimentation by preventing the repetition of experiments that have already been conducted.

Funded by the EU, the 'Sustaining access to tissues and data from radiobiological experiments' (http://www.rbstore.eu/ (STORE)) project set-up an electronic database. This would collect data from radiobiological archives and incorporate data from past, current and future radiobiological studies. This database also has the ability to act as a directory to collections of tissue samples or include whole histopathology slide scans as a virtual archive. It would be made available only to certain co-workers and not to the general public. Besides the database, the STORE consortium created standard operating protocols (SOPs) for preserving samples for future use and for storing experimental information.

Methods for extracting DNA and RNA from stored material were verified, alongside protocols for determining their quality and suitability for downstream applications. All SOPs were made available in electronic format on the project website. With its upcoming Horizon 2020 programme, the EU strongly supports collaborative efforts across scientific fields and nationalities. Such cooperation will greatly benefit from international efforts to preserve and share scientific information.

Finally, to maximise financial and scientific sustainability, it is vital to generate resources and data archives similar to the one created by the STORE initiative.