generatR: expert genomic analysis at the click of a button

generatR是贝尔法斯特女王大学（Queen's University of Belfast， QUB）的衍生产品，开发易于使用的应用程序，用于分析基因组学数据，消除实验室基因组学工作流程中的瓶颈。该项目的技术是由QUB Patrick G Johnston癌症研究中心（PGJCCR）的Simon McDade博士领导的功能基因组学小组的研究开发的，该中心是英国领先的癌症研究中心，在基因组学和精准医学方面拥有深厚的专业知识。基因组分析和下一代测序（NGS）的快速发展正在给生物技术和医学带来革命性的变化。数据生成正在以指数级的速度升级，学术、生物技术、生物制药和医学研究人员的一个关键目标是挖掘这些不断增加的数据集，以获得有价值的治疗见解。例如，开发伴随诊断测试，以帮助确定哪些患者可能受益于正在开发的用于个性化医疗方法的新药。现有的计算工具通常不适合对这些数据集进行快速分析，无论是发现还是决策，目前每个新的应用程序都需要从头开始设计新的分析协议。为了应对这些挑战，我们开发了generatR工具包；在开源环境中开发的一套软件应用程序，可以在新客户需求出现时进行快速、可定制的数据分析。这些generatR应用程序专注于使数据分析工作流程更快、更高效——消除了对计算机编程技能的需求，并为生物学家、医务人员和研究人员等最终用户提供了支持。用户浏览直观的界面，上传数据集进行快速分析，并可以快速轻松地解释或分享应用程序内或通过云发布报告的结果。这使我们能够更快、更有效地将最新的工具结合在一起，以响应最新的科学进展，使科学家能够在没有生物信息学家支持的情况下进行分析和解释，加快基因组学创新的交付。减少熟练数据科学家的瓶颈，有可能彻底改变企业处理数据的方式；加快新的基因组学创新的创造，并通过更好、更可靠、更可用的数据加速英国生命科学产业的发展。

generatR is a spin-out from the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) which develops easy to use applications for the analysis of genomics data that remove bottlenecks in laboratory genomics workflows. The technology for this project was developed from research in the Functional Genomics Group, led by Dr Simon McDade at the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research (PGJCCR) at QUB, a leading UK Cancer Research Centre with deep expertise in genomics and precision medicine.The rapid progress of genomic analysis and next generation sequencing (NGS) is revolutionising biotechnology and medicine. Data generation is escalating at exponential rates and a key aim of academic, biotech, biopharma and medical researchers is to mine these ever increasing datasets for valuable therapeutic insights. For example, developing companion diagnostic tests to help identify which patients are likely to benefit from novel drugs under development for personalised medicine approaches. The available computational tools are often ill suited for rapid analysis of such datasets, both for discovery and decision making, with each new application currently requiring new analysis protocols to be designed from the ground up.To address these challenges, we have developed the generatR toolkit; a suite of software apps developed in an open source environment which enables rapid, customisable, data analysis as new customer requirements arise. These generatR apps are focused on making the data analysis workflow quicker and more efficient - removing the need for computer programming skills and empowering end-users such as biologists, medics, and researchers. Users navigate the intuitive interface, upload datasets for rapid analyses, and can quickly and easily interpret or share the results in-app or via a cloud-publishable report. This allows us to stitch together the latest tools more quickly and efficiently in response to the latest scientific advances, empowering scientists to carry out analysis and interpretation without support of a bioinformatician, expediting delivery of genomics-informed innovations. Reducing the bottleneck of skilled data scientists has the potential to revolutionise how companies engage with data; expediting the creation of new genomics-informed innovations, and accelerating the growth of the UK's life sciences industry with better, more robust, more usable data.