Research Environment news: May-July 2022

NHS Genomic Medicine Service data release

On 15th June, we released the first batch of data from the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS), consisting of 324 genomes. This is the first step towards the regular release of all appropriately consented closed NHS GMS cases into Genomics England Trusted Research Environments.

We will be incorporating NHS GMS data into our data release structure and you should expect the next release in autumn with significantly more genomes than in this initial release. We encourage you to explore the data tables in this pilot release since there are differences from the 100,000 Genomes Project data and start preparing for analysis with larger numbers. You can find more details on the NHS GMS data release here.

We would love your feedback to help us improve the research experience for future releases; please do submit your comments to the Service Desk, using the subject line "GMS Data Release feedback”.

Upcoming Research Environment training sessions

We have now held three Research Environment training sessions to help familiarise you with the tools and data available. You can find the recordings for each of these sessions here. These are the perfect resource for whether you’re just starting to use the Research Environment and need a primer going over all the basics, or if you’re more advanced and want to learn more about performing particular kinds of analyses.

Registration is open for our upcoming training sessions where you can pose your questions live to our bioinformatics support team.

• 20th September 2022 – Getting medical history for participants
• 22nd November 2022 – Using the HPC to run jobs
  

Participant Explorer and Data Discovery data uplift

This month, we updated both the Participant Explorer and Data Discovery applications to align to the latest main programme data release v15. These are powerful tools available in the Research Environment that enable you to explore the genomic and clinical data with easy point-and-click functionality. If you are new to the Research Environment, these applications are a great starting point for browsing our clinical datasets and understanding the available cohorts of participants.

Software request policy and licensing

Going forwards, Genomics England will no longer be able to install software that is not covered by a defined license, including software released solely with a copyright statement. If you would like to request installation of such software within the RE, we will need you to reach out to the developer and request that a license be applied to their project. When doing so, please make clear Genomics England's status as a government owned company.

Please note that we will consider licenses in light of their specific terms and your specific use-case when reviewing all software requests. As always, if you have any questions or run into any problems please do let us know via the Service Desk.

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