The Genomic Data Commons for cancer research

The Genomic Data Commons (GDC) is a next-generation platform that enables unprecedented data access, analysis and sharing for cancer research. Cancer researchers can access these data for analyses and submit their own datasets to share with the research community. By making high-quality data broadly accessible, the GDC provides much-needed tools to accelerate studies of the biological mechanisms of cancer and the development of personalized treatments for individual patients.

UChicago developed and operates the Data Commons with National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding. In 2016, the GDC went live with approximately 4.1 petabytes of data from NCI-supported research programs, including some of the largest and most comprehensive cancer genomics datasets in the world. Since the launch, researchers at the GDC have built upon what they have learned to develop additional data commons for infectious diseases and disorders of the brain, heart, lungs, and blood. In this video, researchers and university administrators describe the enormous value of the GDC and look toward its future.