The ISB Cancer Genomics Cloud: A Flexible Cloud-Based Platform for Cancer Genomics Research

TLDR

The ISB Cancer Genomics Cloud (ISB‑CGC) is a National Cancer Institute pilot project exploring cloud‑based computing for large cancer datasets. The platform provides Data‑as‑a‑Service access to TCGA, TARGET, GENCODE, COSMIC, and other reference datasets on Google Cloud. It offers an open, flexible environment where users can run large‑scale workflows, develop methods in Python, R, or SQL, or use an interactive web app to generate synthetic cohorts and explore genomic data. Resources and documentation are available at www.isb‑cgc.org, and the platform is cited in Cancer Research 77(21):e7–10, ©2017 AACR.

Abstract

Abstract The ISB Cancer Genomics Cloud (ISB-CGC) is one of three pilot projects funded by the National Cancer Institute to explore new approaches to computing on large cancer datasets in a cloud environment. With a focus on Data as a Service, the ISB-CGC offers multiple avenues for accessing and analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas, TARGET, and other important references such as GENCODE and COSMIC using the Google Cloud Platform. The open approach allows researchers to choose approaches best suited to the task at hand: from analyzing terabytes of data using complex workflows to developing new analysis methods in common languages such as Python, R, and SQL; to using an interactive web application to create synthetic patient cohorts and to explore the wealth of available genomic data. Links to resources and documentation can be found at www.isb-cgc.org. Cancer Res; 77(21); e7–10. ©2017 AACR.