IDAWG IHIW PROJECT: Immunogenomic Data Management Methods

The was project was originally part of the 16th International Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Workshop (IHIW) that was held in Liverpool on May 28-30, 2012. It continues as part of the 17th IHIW, which will be held in Northern California in 2016.

The 16th IHIW Immunogenomic Data-Management Methods project met on May 30th 2012 in Hall 4a of the BT Convention Centre. A morning session was held from 0830-1230, and an afternoon session was held from 1600-1800.

The report for this 16th IHIW project was published in the February 2013 issue of the International Journal of Immunogenetics.

Citation: 16th IHIW: Immunogenomic Data-Management Methods. Report from the Immunogenomic Data Analysis Working Group (IDAWG) Hollenbach JA, Holcomb C, Hurley CK, Mabdouly A, Maiers M, Noble JA, Robinson J, Schmidt AH, Shi L, Turner V, Yao Y, Mack SJ. Int J Immunogenet. 2013: 40(1):46-53.

16 IHIW Project Phase One: Surveys of current HLA and KIR data-management practices
From 2011 through January 2013, we surveyed the immunogenetics and immunogenomics community to determine current practices in:

• HLA and KIR data-managemnt and transmission,
• HLA ambiguity management and resolution, and
• primary data-analysis approaches.

February 2013: PROJECT STATUS
By the time the survey was closed in January 2013, we recieved ~200 responses to the survey. Fifty respondents indicated their desire to participate in the development of standards as part of this project, and twenty-five respondents indicated their willingness to demonstrate their ambiguity resolution approaches on test-datasets that we provided.

These datasets consist of ambigous HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 genotyping results for 400 individuals, 200 African Americans, and 200 European Americans. Within each group, 100 samples have been typed using SSOP methods, and 100 using SBT methods.

Outcomes of this exercise in comparative ambiguity resolution are summarized in the 16th IHIW Project Report.

The IDAWG 16th IHIW Survey of Immunogenetic Data management and Analysis Methods has been developed and made available with the generous support of the as American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), and we thank ASHI for their support of this project.

Please send questions or comments about the survey to survey[at sign]immunogenomics[dot]org.

16th IHIWS Project Phase Two: Recommendations for immunogenomic data management, analysis and reporting
We are applying the information provided by the community to determine the effects of the various practices in use on common applications for these data, including:

• Registry Searches,
• Disease-Association Studies, and
• Population Studies.

Workshop Meeting
At the 16th Workshop meeting of this project, we presented the data collected in the survey, along with preliminary conclusions on the effects of current practices on common applications of immunogenomic data, and initial recommendations for data management and analysis based on those outcomes. We continued to collect surveys at the workshop. Project participants made presentations about their own experiences with immunogenomic data-management and analysis, including challenges that they have encountered and solutions (both developed and desired) for overcoming them. Qorkshop attendees are invited to participate in the discussion of data management and analysis recommendations and the development of the STREIS statement.

This project will continue as part of the 17th Workshop, with the aim of developing:

• Community Data-Sharing Standards
• Ambiguity Resolution Documentation Formats
• Tools for Data Management and Exchange, and
• Novel Data-Analysis Methods/Applications.