Cancer RNA-Seq Nexus: a database of phenotype-specific transcriptome profiling in cancer cells

Abstract

The genome-wide transcriptome profiling of cancerous and normal tissue samples can provide insights into the molecular mechanisms of cancer initiation and progression. RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) is a revolutionary tool that has been used extensively in cancer research. However, no existing RNA-Seq database provides all of the following features: (i) large-scale and comprehensive data archives and analyses, including coding-transcript profiling, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) profiling and coexpression networks; (ii) phenotype-oriented data organization and searching and (iii) the visualization of expression profiles, differential expression and regulatory networks. We have constructed the first public database that meets these criteria, the Cancer RNA-Seq Nexus (CRN, http://syslab4.nchu.edu.tw/CRN). CRN has a user-friendly web interface designed to facilitate cancer research and personalized medicine. It is an open resource for intuitive data exploration, providing coding-transcript/lncRNA expression profiles to support researchers generating new hypotheses in cancer research and personalized medicine.