diXa: a data infrastructure for chemical safety assessment

Motivation: The field of toxicogenomics (the application of ‘-omics' technologies to risk assessment of compound toxicities) has expanded in the last decade, partly driven by new legislation, aimed at reducing animal testing in chemical risk assessment but mainly as a result of a paradigm change in toxicology towards the use and integration of genome wide data. Many research groups worldwide have generated large amounts of such toxicogenomics data. However, there is no centralized repository for archiving and making these data and associated tools for their analysis easily available. Results: The Data Infrastructure for Chemical Safety Assessment (diXa) is a robust and sustainable infrastructure storing toxicogenomics data. A central data warehouse is connected to a portal with links to chemical information and molecular and phenotype data. diXa is publicly available through a user-friendly web interface. New data can be readily deposited into diXa using guidelines and templates available online. Analysis descriptions and tools for interrogating the data are available via the diXa portal. Availability and implementation: http://www.dixa-fp7.eu Contact: [email protected]; [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics onlin

Toxicogenomics and Toxicoinformatics: Supporting Systems Biology in the Big Data Era

Within Toxicology, Toxicogenomics stands out as a unique research field aiming at the investigation of molecular alterations induced by chemical exposure. Toxicogenomics comprises a wide range of technologies developed to measure and quantify the '-omes (transcriptome, (epi)genome, proteome and metalobome), offering a human-based approach in contrast to traditional animal-based toxicity testing. With the growing acceptance and continuous improvements in high-throughput technologies, we observed a fast increase in the generation of 'omics outputs. As a result, Toxicogenomics entered a new, challenging era facing the characteristic 4 Vs of Big Data: volume, velocity, variety and veracity. This chapter addresses these challenges by focusing on computational methods and Toxicoinformatics in the scope of Big 'omics Data. First, we provide an overview of current technologies and the steps involved in storage, pre-processing and integration of high-throughput datasets, describing databases, standard pipelines and routinely used tools. We show how data mining, pattern recognition and mechanistic/pathway analyses contribute to elucidate mechanisms of adverse effects to build knowledge in Systems Toxicology. Finally, we present the recent progress in tackling current computational and biological limitations. Throughout the chapter, we also provide relevant examples of successful applications of Toxicoinformatics in predicting toxicity in the Big Data era

diXa: a Data Infrastructure for Chemical Safety Assessment

Motivation: The field of toxicogenomics (the application of ‘-omics’ technologies to risk assessment of compound toxicities) has expanded in the last decade, partly driven by new legislation, aimed at reducing animal testing in chemical risk assessment but mainly as a result of a paradigm change in toxicology towards the use and integration of genome wide data. Many research groups worldwide have generated large amounts of such toxicogenomics data. However, there is no centralized repository for archiving and making these data and associated tools for their analysis easily available. Results: The Data Infrastructure for Chemical Safety Assessment (diXa) is a robust and sustainable infrastructure storing toxicogenomics data. A central data warehouse is connected to a portal with links to chemical information and molecular and phenotype data. diXa is publicly available through a user-friendly web interface. New data can be readily deposited into diXa using guidelines and templates available online. Analysis descriptions and tools for interrogating the data are available via the diXa portal.JRC.I.5-Systems Toxicolog

diXa: a data infrastructure for chemical safety assessment

Motivation: The field of toxicogenomics (the application of ‘-omics’ technologies to risk assessment of compound toxicities) has expanded in the last decade, partly driven by new legislation, aimed at reducing animal testing in chemical risk assessment but mainly as a result of a paradigm change in toxicology towards the use and integration of genome wide data. Many research groups worldwide have generated large amounts of such toxicogenomics data. However, there is no centralized repository for archiving and making these data and associated tools for their analysis easily available. Results: The Data Infrastructure for Chemical Safety Assessment (diXa) is a robust and sustainable infrastructure storing toxicogenomics data. A central data warehouse is connected to a portal with links to chemical information and molecular and phenotype data. diXa is publicly available through a user-friendly web interface. New data can be readily deposited into diXa using guidelines and templates available online. Analysis descriptions and tools for interrogating the data are available via the diXa portal. Availability and implementation: http://www.dixa-fp7.eu Contact: [email protected]; [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online