EWAS Open Platform: integrated data, knowledge and toolkit for epigenome-wide association study.

Epigenome-Wide Association Study (EWAS) has become a standard strategy to discover DNA methylation variation of different phenotypes. Since 2018, we have developed EWAS Atlas and EWAS Data Hub to integrate a growing volume of EWAS knowledge and data, respectively. Here, we present EWAS Open Platform (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/ewas) that includes EWAS Atlas, EWAS Data Hub and the newly developed EWAS Toolkit. In the current implementation, EWAS Open Platform integrates 617 018 high-quality EWAS associations from 910 publications, covering 51 phenotypes, 275 diseases and 104 environmental factors. It also provides well-normalized DNA methylation array data and the corresponding metadata from 115 852 samples, which involve 707 tissues, 218 cell lines and 528 diseases. Taking advantage of integrated knowledge and data in EWAS Atlas and EWAS Data Hub, EWAS Open Platform equips with EWAS Toolkit, a powerful one-stop site for EWAS enrichment, annotation, and knowledge network construction and visualization. Collectively, EWAS Open Platform provides open access to EWAS knowledge, data and toolkit and thus bears great utility for a broader range of relevant research.

GenBase: A Nucleotide Sequence Database.

The rapid advancement of sequencing technologies poses challenges in managing the large volume and exponential growth of sequence data efficiently and on time. To address this issue, we present GenBase (https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/genbase), an open-access data repository that follows the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) data standards and structures, for efficient nucleotide sequence archiving, searching, and sharing. As a core resource within the National Genomics Data Center (NGDC), of the China National Center for Bioinformation (CNCB; https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn), GenBase offers bilingual submission pipeline and services, as well as local submission assistance in China. GenBase also provides a unique Excel format for metadata description and feature annotation of nucleotide sequences, along with a real-time data validation system to streamline sequence submissions. As of April 23, 2024, GenBase received 68,251 nucleotide sequences and 689,574 annotated protein sequences across 414 species from 2319 submissions. Out of these, 63,614 (93%) nucleotide sequences and 620,640 (90%) annotated protein sequences have been released and are publicly accessible through GenBase's web search system, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Application Programming Interface (API). Additionally, in collaboration with INSDC, GenBase has constructed an effective data exchange mechanism with GenBank and started sharing released nucleotide sequences. Furthermore, GenBase integrates all sequences from GenBank with daily updates, demonstrating its commitment to actively contributing to global sequence data management and sharing.