The Solve-RD project brings together clinicians, scientists, and patient representatives from 51 institutes spanning 15 countries to
collaborate on
genetically
diagnosing (“solving”) rare diseases (RDs). The project aims to significantly increase the diagnostic success rate by co-analyzing data from thousands of RD
cases, including phenotypes, pedigrees, exome/genome sequencing, and multiomics data. The MOLGENIS team lead the ‘analytical sandbox’ and co-lead the work to
deliver an
interconnected data infrastructure to support large-scale rare disease research.This infrastructure enables users to
store, find, connect, and analyze data and metadata in a collaborative manner. Pseudonymized phenotypic and raw experimental data are submitted to the
RD-Connect Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform and processed through standardized pipelines. Resulting files and novel produced omics data are sent to the European
Genome-Phenome Archive, which adds unique file identifiers and provides long-term storage and controlled access services. MOLGENIS “RD3” and Café Variome “
Discovery Nexus” connect data and metadata and offer discovery services, and secure cloud-based “Sandboxes” support multiparty data analysis. This successfully
deployed and useful infrastructure design provides a blueprint for other projects that need to analyze large amounts of heterogeneous data.