NIH Office of the Director 2P40OD011062-26

Curation and Informatics

This NIH-funded project supports the Rat Resource and Research Center by enhancing its website, online ordering system, and data management to improve resource sharing and research reproducibility.

Description

The mission of the Rat Resource and Research Center (RRRC) is to provide biomedical investigators with rat models, embryonic stem cells, related reagents, protocols, information, support and services that will facilitate their research. The RRRC is a unique repository for importing, storing and distributing rat strains/stocks. It assures that valuable models are preserved and made available to interested investigators, allows researchers to satisfy NIH requirements for resource sharing, relieves individual investigators from the burden of animal distribution, and ensures that models are maintained with rigorous genetic quality control and health monitoring to promote experimental rigor and reproducibility. As the outward-facing presence of the RRRC to the biomedical community, the RRRC website plays a critical role as does the online ordering system. Curation of the existing data for all RRRC holdings is a major and important task. To facilitate RRRC internal operations, numerous custom data management systems are in place. The RRRC Curation and Informatics Section was newly funded in 2024 and a team of qualified individuals who will be dedicated to overseeing and improving the website, the online ordering system, and the internal data management systems as well as providing high-quality data curation is being assembled. This new component of the RRRC will expand our abilities to provide additional information to users, continually upgrade and improve our website and online ordering system and in general, provide an enhanced experience for our users. Importantly, it will allow prioritization of important tasks such as website upgrades, prompt data curation of incoming strains/stocks, and collaboration to share and link data with other Resources. Overall, the addition of the Curation and Informatics Section to the RRRC will improve operations and allow the RRRC to be more impactful to the research community.

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